Home Buying Tip: How to Tell if Smokers Are Hiding Tobacco Smell

• If windows and doors are open and/or there's plug-in deodorizers in every room, that's a warning sign.
  
• Ditto if there's scented candles burning and/or the smell of fresh-baked anything.

If you tour the home when the seller's out, it's easier to tell.

• Sniff drapes, carpets, upholstered furniture. Especially sniff closets and clothes. It's hard to hide cigarette smell on clothes.
  
• Scoot furniture or tilt pictures. There's often a lighter area underneath or behind things, with a faint yellow or brown stain around it. See this photo of nicotene stains for an example of what to look for (Click for closeup).
  
• Run your finger along the curtain rod in an area where clothes haven't been moved in a while. They probably didn't take all the clothes out of their closets to wipe down curtain rods.
  
• If there's a computer tower, game console, or other major piece of electronics, look behind it if you can. Fans and anything that generates static electricity will attract smoke particles which leave a dark stain on the desk/carpet.

You shouldn't feel shy about shifting pictures or furniture if the seller's present...you're about to spend a lot of money, after all! But here's more tips.

• Cigarette butts in patio, on sidewalk, in garden, especially empty flower pots. They clean out all traces inside the house, but they tend to forget outside.
  
• Yellow or brown stain or soot inside light fixtures and lamps.
  
• It's standard for sellers to paint the walls, so a fresh coat of paint isn't a giveaway. But a smoker has to paint to cover up the stains! Otherwise it'll look like this (well, maybe not that bad).
  
• The fresh coat of paint helps, but not forever. Nicotene sweats through even tough latex paint. And THAT is your secret weapon.

Smokers can take many steps to scrub walls, ceilings, floors; replace stinky carpets and curtains; and repaint every surface to cover up stains and mask odors. If they live in a warm area, they may take to leaving the windows open all the time to keep air circulating and odors moving out.

But there's one place that gives away the home's history: the master bathroom. Unless the owners have really and truly gotten all the nicotene stains out (and they often just paint over them), sticky yellow-brown drips will sweat through the paint on the walls. There may only be a few of these spots around doorframes, in corners where they scrubbed less vigorously. But within a few months of repainting, they'll start to come through.

They can be wiped off with a wet towel, but they'll keep coming back for a few years.

Below is the underside of an open doorway into a master bathroom. Yuck!

The good news is that you can remove the stench. After all, homes damaged by fire can often be rebuilt and saved, and they get a lot of smoke damage!

But depending on the amount of time people smoked in the house, it may be an expensive restoration: several thousand dollars, at least. Keep this in mind when negotiating the price.

Here's how to get out the smoking smell for good:

1. Remove all furniture and fabric: carpets, drapes, even cloth wallpaper. You're probably not going to be able to wash them well enough to get the smoke out.
   
2. Have all ductwork thoroughly cleaned. Or, better, just get the A/C, furnace, and ducts replaced and upgraded to a more energy-efficient system. Again, negotiate down the price for the repairs you'll have to do.
   
3. Clean walls/ceilings/floors/insides of cabinets THOROUGHLY. Many sites recommend a vinegar or lemon juice scrub -- apparently acidic cleansers are good at attacking tar. But you'll want a professional cleaning service. Or, better, go straight to a fire/smoke damage restoration service.
   
4. Put activated charcoal odor absorbers in all closets, cabinets, garage.
   
5. Make sure to clean all the the light fixtures and other recessed, slightly inaccessible areas.
   
6. Remove any popcorn ceilings. Replaster as needed. It's your new home... make it nice!
   
7. OZONE THE HOUSE. This is the biggest step. Note that no people, pets or plants can be in the house during the ozone process.
   
8. Prime. Maybe twice. Then repaint everything.

In all but the most extreme cases, this should -- I hope -- be enough to kill all traces of cigarette odor. You should still consult a professional, not just a random webpage, for expert advice. I can't make any guarantees.

Search the yellow pages or Google for: Ozone shock treatment, odor removal ozone services, ozone generator rental, smoke/fire damage restoration.

While many companies let you rent an ozone generator, you may wish to try a smoke/fire damage restoration company. They deal with extreme cases of smoke damage, so mere cigarette smoke shouldn't be as bad. Just watch out for scammy companies; there are many contractor-type companies who make a career of exploiting people in desperate situations. If anything they say smells "off" to you, trust your nose.