Would you buy a house that smelled like smoke?

[WitMom]

DH and I are in the house buying process right now. Last night he toured a home (I was home with sick kids) that he liked with a great backyard. From his description, it is really a great house that could be potentially perfect for us. The only problem is that it smelled like smoke. He said it wasn't overwhelming, and it was faint enough that he couldn't quite put his finger on what the smell was at first. I am going to look at it today, but I'm a little hesitant. How hard would it be to get the smell "out" if we bought the house? Would keeping the windows open for a few days and getting the carpets cleaned fix the problem? Or is it going to be much more involved than that?

[wendmatt]

I think more involved that that. Smoke usually gets into everything, so new paint would be a must, not sure about cupboards etc. My mum got remarried and her husband smoked and there were yellow stains on the ceiling. He died a while ago and her house does not smell like smoke, so it definately does go, I'm just not sure how long it would take.

[SnuggleBuggles]

If it is a great house I wouldn't let it be a deal breaker. You just need to be prepared for a lot of work, possibly. I didn't know what a PITB it was when we bought our current house. So, if they smoke inside and you run a humidifier too high in a room, in my house that meant that you'd have yellow running down the wall! Eek! All the vinyl window frames were discolored yellow instead of white. What it mean was scrubbing the walls, repainting, a lot of elbow grease on things like the window frames. But, none of that is very expensive and perhaps you can factor in the cost of a cleaning crew to come through and tackle that for you. I just plugged away at it over time though some rooms we painted before we moved in. Oh, and we had the carpets professionally cleaned before we moved in.

It was a lot of work but I am glad that we bought the house!

Beth

[boogiemomz]

i would be hesitant too. i can NOT tolerate that smell. you might think about replacing the carpets... i wouldn't be confident that just cleaning them would get the odor out. i would hope they had been cleaned when the house was put on the market! such a bummer, especially since you otherwise love the house!!

[cvanbrunt]

Not in a million years. It gets into everything and stains walls. We had a house fire just before the renovation was finished and the contractors sealed the damaged wood and we still get a whiff everyonce in awhile.

[wellyes]

We did. The house had both smoke smell and dog smell. It was a bit more than keeping windows open. We rented a carpet cleaner TWICE, was not good enough, ended up ripped out the carpets and putting in hardwoods. Which we kind of wanted to anyway but had to do it sooner than we budgeted / planned to.

Other than that, we did wash down all the walls with vinegar and hot water and did some (planned) repainting too. That part was really no big deal. We also had the ducts cleaned but we do that annually no matter what, so not an extra expense.

I'd just see if there are carpets and anticipate having to possibly replace those. Oh, and if there are fabric drapes. Fabric / carpet is the hard part. Walls and wood are washable.

[bubbaray]

I would not, but DD#1 and I have asthma and I would be very worried about that.

[Leeannpk]

A faint smoke smell that your husband couldn't immediately put his finger on? That wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me. I would expect to have to replace the carpet if professional cleaning didn't do the trick, though. Our house smelled faintly of smoke when we first looked at it, but once the owners moved all of their possessions out, I couldn't smell it anymore. We tore the carpets out anyway (hardwood underneath) but I think the majority of the smell was in the upholstered furniture and the window treatments (which we threw out because they were hideous.)

[SnuggleBuggles]

Yeah, I forgot about window treatments. We ditched those too.
eta- I wonder if you could work some of the cleaning into the sales' deal. If the market isn't hot and heavy it could be a possible thing to ask fr. Your realtor can better advise you.
Beth

[Cam&Clay]

I would think paint and new carpet would be a must. My mother stopped smoking 3 years ago and their home still reeks of it because my dad hasn't replaced the carpet, furniture, and painted the walls. It gets into everything.

But I'm talking about a 3 pack a day smoker who lived in that house for 40 years, too.