How To Get Rid Of Cigarette Smell In House

• What is causing the cigarette smoke smell in your house?
• How to remove the smell
• Why you should hire professionals for cigarette odour removal
• How to prevent a cigarette odour in your home
• Get in touch

An unpleasant cigarette smoke odour is not just off-putting to residents and visitors of the property. It can even put people’s health at risk. Problem is, removing this offensive smell is very challenging and requires deep cleaning with specialist equipment.

Here at ICE Cleaning, we offer cigarette smoke odour removal services carried out by our odour neutralisation experts. Our technicians follow a six stage process to get rid of trapped smells and only use non-toxic, non-abrasive chemicals. We are available nationwide, day and night, 365 days a year.

Read on to find out how to eliminate the cigarette smoke smell in your property.

What is causing the cigarette smoke smell in your house?

When a cigarette is smoked indoors, it releases pollutants which settle on surfaces around the property. This includes harmful chemicals like nicotine, formaldehyde, and naphthalene.

Known as thirdhand smoke, it settles like dust on hard surfaces and penetrates deep into soft surfaces like upholstered furniture.

Thirdhand smoke is one of the main causes of a lingering cigarette smell in a property. The odour can also be caused by the nicotine and tar staining that tends to appear on the surfaces in a smoker’s property.

Thirdhand smoke is very dangerous to be exposed to. Touching contaminated surfaces or breathing in the harmful gases it can release is linked to a range of health problems including cancer, sudden infant death syndrome, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Children are especially vulnerable to thirdhand smoke as they are likely to touch affected surfaces and then put their hands in their mouth.

How to remove the smell

To get rid of the odour, you need to get rid of all the thirdhand smoke particles and nicotine stains in the property. Unfortunately, this is particularly difficult as the particles are hard to remove, and the stains are sticky.

You can remove the dust-like particles on hard surfaces like the walls, ceilings, flooring, and windows by deep cleaning them. This should lessen the smell a bit.

But the thirdhand smoke particles deep in porous surfaces like furniture, upholstery, and carpets are near-impossible to remove without specialist equipment. Some of your possessions may even need to disposed of, like carpets.

The wrong cleaning method can damage delicate surfaces, too. Vinegar is often recommended for odour removal, but it can be too harsh for certain types of flooring like marble or granite, for example.

Some other odour removal hacks shared online are ineffective, as well. Setting out bowls of activated charcoal or baking soda to absorb the smell, for instance, will not tackle the particles causing the odour and will instead mask it for a short time. Airing out the property will not get rid of these deep-rooted particles, either.

Why you should hire professionals for cigarette odour removal

Specialist cleaners will have the training, tools, and cleaning products required to eliminate all the particles and stains from any surface and get rid of the cigarette smell in your home.

They can work quickly across your entire property and even get into the hard-to-reach areas you could miss, like ducts or stains high up on the ceiling.

Professionals can give you peace of mind the smell is gone for good and that your home is safe to stay in. Bringing in a cleaner is especially important if you have lived in the property for a while as you may have gotten used to the smell and might not notice whether it has gone or not.

How to prevent a cigarette odour in your home

• Don’t smoke indoors: if possible, smoke outside and a distance away from your home so the smoke does not travel back into the property.
• Ventilate your home: if you do smoke inside your home, do it by an open window so the smoke goes outside. You should also make sure any fans are on and windows are open to stop thirdhand smoke settling indoors.
• Repaint your walls: odour-blocking primers can trap in the smell and thirdhand smoke residue so the walls and ceilings don’t re-emit the odour. But this is a big, time-consuming job that requires you to paint all the affected surfaces. You can find out more about painting over cigarette smells and stains in this blog.

Get in touch

Our specialist cleaners have many years of experience removing the most stubborn, trapped odours from properties. They have access to industry-leading equipment, and can quickly restore your property to a pleasant-smelling home. If it’s an emergency, they can be on site within several hours.

Contact our friendly team today on 0208 066 0360 or enquiries@icecleaning.co.uk to find out more about our cigarette smoke smell removal services. We will also provide you with a free site survey and no-obligation quote.