Cigerette smoke remediation

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Looking at buying a townhome and the owner has been smoking in the garage for several years and it reeks.

Anybody know of a remediation service they recommend? Wife wants somebody to quote it and a guarantee it will eliminate the issue, We are not interested in tackling it ourselves.

Thoughts?

[delcecchi]

One of the outfits that cleans up after fires, like Service pro, is my first guess.  

How is the inside of the garage finished?

[PropsterII]

You can hire it done - they would come in and shock treat it with ozone, probably charge you a couple thousand dollars.  If i was you I would just buy a high output ozone generator for a few hundred dollars, close the garage up, set the unit up as high as possible (ozone is heavier than air and will fall), turn it up high and let it go to town for a couple days.  Should take care of it, as well as any mold or fungus you may have around.  Then you'll have the unit afterward for repeat treatment if needed, or in the house (try to close off a room when doing it), or closets or basements, or use it to deodorize your hunting clothing for next fall, or completely deodorize your vehicles.

[Moon Lake Refuge]

Depending on how bad/how its finished, could almost be cheaper to just throw some new sheetrock up....

[PropsterII]

Could, but I doubt that's all that has absorbed the smoke odors over the years...

[Cooperman]

Agree with PropsterII, buy an ozone generator.

[bobbymalone]

Put a couple coats of Killz primer down on the walls.    Helps a lot.  Otherwise, I agree with the ozone generator.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I have thought about getting an ozone generator, but I believe ozone alone would not do the job. Perhaps it would if it ran every night. I think it needs cleaning and painting first (??)

Had somebody out that does fire and smoke remediation. Bid was very high, but covers a lot of things:

Here is what they recommend:

1. Clean the walls and ceiling - Heavy

2. Clean floor - Heavy

3. Clean overhead (garage) door opener

4. Clean door (per side)

5. Clean door / opening (per side)

6. Clean door hardware

7. Clean light fixture

8. Clean overhead door & hardware

9. Cleaning - Remediation Technician per hour Caulk Openings

10. Mask and prep for paint - plastic, paper, tape (per LF)

11. Floor protection - plastic and tape, 10 mil

12. Seal the walls and ceiling w/latex based stain blocker - one coat

13. Paint the walls and ceiling - two coats

14. Seal and Paint overhead door

15. Clean shelf

16. Seal & paint shelving

17. Remove Remove shelf

18. Deodorize building - Ozone 3.00 DAYS

Thinking about having them just do the cleaning and hiring some young adults to help me do the painting. Then buying the ozone generator to run as needed.

As a side note, my boat has a gassy smell. Would the ozone generator work to remove that? I had it looked at for leaks and they found none.

 

I should ad that the garage is painted, the town home was built in 2001 and they have owned it for almost 5 years.

[delcecchi]

So, it is clean, kilz, paint, ozone.   

It is nothing you can't do yourself, especially considering it is a garage.   Whether you want to do it or how you want to get it done is, obviously, a trade off of time and aggravation vrs money.   I am more of a do it myself oriented guy, but that is not always the best idea. 

[nofishfisherman]

I'm with Del, I'd just do it myself.  I just couldn't bring myself to pay someone to clean, prime, paint, and let an ozone for a couple days.

It would all be very easy to do if you could do it before you move in while the garage is still empty.  Maybe a day to clean and prime.  Another day to put up a couple coats of paint, and then let the ozone run as needed after that.  So 2 days of work (wouldn't be 2 full days as part of that time is letting paint dry). and you'll save lots of $$$.

The one draw back is that during a move you don't always have lots of extra time to take on projects so you'll have to balance your time vs the cost.  For me its a no brainer but everyone is different.  Either way the process for fixing it is the same.

[delcecchi]

And of course if it was my garage I wouldn't be taping and masking the floor, and all over, and worrying about brush marks..... 

But folks vary.   Having money and no time changes opinions compared to time and less money. 

It also might matter if the cigarette smoke smell needs to be totally absolutely undetectable or just mostly gone.  Washing the door opener sounded like overkill, for example. 

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

Most of these guys have covered it, but I want to reiterate that the ozone machines do an absolutely incredible job.  I sold a house up in Richfield that was (what I would consider) borderline inhabitable.  Any soft surfaces (carpet, curtains, blinds, etc) need to be thrown away, all surfaces need a good wipe down, Kilz primer on walls and ceilings (probably the floor in your case), and then run the ozone machine for a few days.  It took a house that I wouldn't even go into, and made the smoke smell 100% disappear.  This was 3 years ago, and has remained odor free to this day.  

[delcecchi]

That is good to know, about the ozone generator. 

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

On March 7, 2016 at 9:58 AM, Lip_Ripper Guy said:

Most of these guys have covered it, but I want to reiterate that the ozone machines do an absolutely incredible job.  I sold a house up in Richfield that was (what I would consider) borderline inhabitable.  Any soft surfaces (carpet, curtains, blinds, etc) need to be thrown away, all surfaces need a good wipe down, Kilz primer on walls and ceilings (probably the floor in your case), and then run the ozone machine for a few days.  It took a house that I wouldn't even go into, and made the smoke smell 100% disappear.  This was 3 years ago, and has remained odor free to this day.  

What ozone generator did you use? Been looking at them online.

[Lip_Ripper Guy]

It was an OLD one I borrowed from a friend. All I remember is that it had a dark green aluminum case, and looked to be 30 years old. 

[Surface Tension]

Wash the whole place down with TSP cleaner.  Prime with Kilz and paint.

[Jim Almquist]

When I got my used 4Runner it smelled like wet dog. Put my ozone generator in there for a week and have not ever smelled the dogs since. I bought mine from a guy up on the range that was a distributor. When I would have the gang up for the weekend the dining room would be blue with smoke. Turned it on and when we went to bed and the next morning you could not smell any smoke.  In your case you might have to run it for a while but I am sure you will get rid of the smell.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

On March 12, 2016 at 9:07 AM, Surface Tension said:

Wash the whole place down with TSP cleaner.  Prime with Kilz and paint.

That is the plan. If it needs more I will get an ozone generator too.

[JeremyCampbell]

On 3/12/2016 at 9:07 AM, Surface Tension said:

Wash the whole place down with TSP cleaner.  Prime with Kilz and paint.

This is what I'd do too

[LindellProStaf]

Febreeze the heck out of it.  May be way too easy but who knows?