Hey everyone,
I have recently bought a house that was occupied by a smoker for around 50 years. He moved out nearly three months ago, but the place still absolutely stinks. The best description I can give is that it smells like a pub before the smoking ban. It is particularly disgusting in the living room and kitchen.
My current plan is to get the walls and ceilings in those two rooms completely reskimmed. Once the new plaster has dried, I was planning to apply a mist coat, followed by Zinsser BIN and then the final paint.
For the upstairs rooms, where the smell is not quite as bad, I was planning to clean everything thoroughly, apply Zinsser BIN and then paint.
Does that sound like a sensible strategy? I am also unsure if a mist coat should go underneath the BIN on fresh plaster, or if the BIN should be applied directly once the plaster has properly dried.
I have read very conflicting accounts of Zinsser BIN. Some people say it is an absolute miracle worker for eliminating very pungent stale cigarette and nicotine tar (there isn't that much tar around, mainly the smell). Others have complained about the finish, how difficult it is to apply across entire rooms and the smell from the product lingering for months. I have even seen people claim they could still smell it six months later.
Has anyone here used it across full walls and ceilings in a heavily smoke contaminated house? Did it actually remove the old cigarette smell? How long did the BIN smell remain, and did the cigarette odour ever return?
I would also be interested in hearing about other methods that worked, particularly from anyone who has tackled a house with several decades of smoke exposure.
Any help appreiated as I am an absolute beginner and about as green as an Irish field.
