Painting over nicotine/tar stains on wall.

[Gem99ultra]

I'm in the hotel business, and have spent a lot of time and money either converting smoking rooms to non-smoking rooms, or cleaning up non-smoking rooms from people that decided to smoke in it anyways. We found Simple Green to work quite well,and it is easier on our crews to use. The ozone machines will only work for a while, and you should not be in the room while it is in operation.

Sounds like you are done with your project, but just posting for others.

I think you hit the nail on the head! Everyone in this house smokes. Sure - we're well aware that it's a bad habit and is sometimes painful to non-smokers and/or previous smokers. It is what it is... We're in a remote area out in the country, and most everyone either smokes, chews, or complains. That's why we have a very large porch with lots of rocking chairs for non-smoking visitors. It all works out.

But to compound the problem, the old farm house that we bought a few years ago had been built with apparently green lumber. Spots are appearing where limb knots, etc. are bleeding through. To cap that off, the fine soot from propane heater and fireplace has gradually turned all white surfaces grey. Painting is definitely in order. Prior cleanup is now being done.

So, this thread has been most valuable. We began the cleanup with just about every suggestion that has popped up. Our last effort has been with Simple Green. Major improvement, and at a fraction of the cost of many of the other products. Now - Simple Green does not dissipate the pine rosin bleed through, but it does clean off the excess from the surface. And soot and tar/nicotine residue just wipes off after a light spray of Simple Green solution.

Hopefully someone will suggest and easy way to wash the ceiling though. We haven't tackled that yet. Next step will be a coat of Kilz, then a coat or two of Sherwin Williams final coat. Geez - I love washing walls so much more than just a boring time playing on my tractor. (NOT!)

 

[RSKY]

After experimenting with several different cleaners we ended up spraying the walls with Kaboom bathroom cleaner. It comes in a spray can and you spray it on purple, when it turns white it's time to take it off. Wife would rub the worst spots with a rag and then I would use a sponge mop to take the cleaner off. Once up the wall from bottom to top. Rinse in bucket. Then a total of three times from bottom to top and we would have to dump the water and get clean. It was disgusting. But it got nearly all the tar and nicoteen off the walls. Then two, yes two, coats of SHELLAC based primer, then two coats of wall paint. Two coats of primer on the kitchen, bedrooms, and living/dining ceilings, then two coats of ceiling paint. Nothing shows thru. Used a sponge mop and TSP on the paneling and wallpaper in the bedrooms. Murphy's Oil Soap on the kitchen cabinets, Floor Shine on the linoleum in the kitchen and utility room.

Laminate flooring is down in the kitchen/dining area. Stuff she got from her mother free was seven years old and stored in a storage unit. It came to pieces on us and I tore it out and bought new. Rugs shampooed in the bedrooms and hall. New commode seats and insides to one commode. New mini-blinds on every window and door.

The house had four foot long four tube florescent lights in the dining room, kitchen, and the bedrooms. Plastic covers were so smoke stained I don't know how light got thru. We replaced them with two bulb covered light fixtures. Also replaced the bathroom and hall fixtures with the same two bulb fixtures.

Power washed the front of the house, front porch, carport, and carport ceiling/walls.

Installed three new outside door locks with identical keys.

Two weeks solid of 10-14 hour days. Got out of my truck Thursday at 7:57 PM.

We made several mistakes doing this project. For example I tore out the four foot lights and put up the new fixtures before painting the ceilings. Of course I had to take them down to paint. That was one of several stupid moves we made. If we ever do this again we know to start at the ceiling and work our way down.

Wife told her on phone that we would do this for any of our three girls and she bawled. Has not had a good home life ever and her own mother told us that in high school she was more comfortable staying with us than her own family. She is soon to be 29 and still comes into our house and plops down and starts talking. Completely at home to the point she will go and get me a Coke, put ice in the glass and pour it for me. Just like one of my 'real' daughters would do. Nobody to give her advice, nobody to discuss problems with, nobody to help her with anything. So we have.

Oh well, I'm retired. Gotta have something to do.

RSKY

 

[tcartwri]

Amazing amount of work.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like you did a very thorough job. Congratulations, there is nothing more satisfying they finishing a project!!!!

 

[Otto Syracuse]

Wife told her on phone that we would do this for any of our three girls and she bawled. Has not had a good home life ever and her own mother told us that in high school she was more comfortable staying with us than her own family. She is soon to be 29 and still comes into our house and plops down and starts talking. Completely at home to the point she will go and get me a Coke, put ice in the glass and pour it for me. Just like one of my 'real' daughters would do. Nobody to give her advice, nobody to discuss problems with, nobody to help her with anything. So we have.

Oh well, I'm retired. Gotta have something to do.

RSKY

God Bless you RSKY!

 

[TheMan419]

If you are going the Sherwin Williams Route.... join the United States Equestrian Federation. I forget what the membership cost is, but we get a 40% discount if you go the actual Sherwin-Williams Store. So do the math to see if that is a good deal for you. When the guy that painted our house found that out he joined. He has no interest in horses, he is a professional painter. I assume he buys at the discounted price and charges the client the full price.

 

[HillStreet]

My cousin would walk in my house with a cigarette, and light up in the car I drove. Did not give it a thought, he just didn't even think about it. I would urge him to put it out, and he did. He died of lung cancer last year. A regular guy that smoked.

 

[k0ua]

Yep , many smokers do not understand. It is so much a part of their lives, they do not see the big deal. The only way they can understand is to become a nonsmoker.

 

[RSKY]

A family in our town built a nice restaurant a few years ago. They smoked and allowed smoking in their place. We liked the food but after eating there we would have to go home and shower to get the cigarette smoke off. After about the third time we just quit going. After about five years they had no business and lost the building, couldn't understand why their business didn't survive. I was talking to somebody else in a store and they said something about the place closing and I said what I put above. That allowing smoking was what ruined the business. Another guy there told me I was wrong and argued with me. Turned out it was the owner. He got highly ticked at me and I told him I wasn't trying to be insulting but that was why nobody in my family would eat there. He still didn't believe it.

I was raised on a tobacco farm. Worked in it all my teens. Smoked for nearly twenty years. Stupidest thing I have ever done.

RSKY

 

[ray66v]

I could be wrong but not Kilz, B.I.N. is though. S/W sells their own brand that is what I've used. Gave up on Kilz a long time ago for most stuff. Had a rent house where the tenant wrote on the wall with red lipstick. Kilz would not cover it, keep bleeding through. S/W white pigmented shellac, one coat. No problem.

.

There is no difference between SW pigmented shellac, Kilz, and B.I.N. They are all pigmented shellac, primer, sealers. I have used them all.

If the kilz you tried to cover lipstick with, did not work, my guess is, you had water based Kilz. And yes, that does not work much of the time.

All this job needed, was a coat of pigmented shellac, and it would be ready for paint.

Doing things the had way, seems to be a TBN tradition. :confused3: