Which paint for covering up smells

[etpm]

If it were me, I would find the source of the wet/damp before painting and deciding next steps. It may have a simple explanation like your tenant having a cotton rug where he let his wet boots drip dry, but it might not, and the "might not" possibilities would worry me about smells. I think pulling the floor up to look is an excellent idea.

I would put a liner under your maple to let the floor move a bit relative to the new maple as they are probably going to be in different states of water content/dryness. Just my $0.02

All the best,

Peter

We will be fixing the floor first. If we go with the maple flooring it will be nailed to the plywood subfloor. That is how this flooring is meant to be used as it is tongue and groove flooring.
Eric

 

[etpm]

I thought I should address the ozone suggestions. Though I appreciate the suggestions I don't think the smell is bad enough for ozone treatment. Because I live on an island if I wanted to use ozone it would be cheaper to buy rather than rent. Anyway, I am gonna wash with TSP, prime with KILZ, and then paint. I think that will work. The floor will be replaced or covered because of the wetness in one spot. The wet part of the flooring will need to be replaced because it is ruined. Then that spot will need to be filled with new flooring and then the whole floor will need to be covered with new floating floor. Or I will be using the maple flooring and in that case the whole existing floating floor will be removed. Thanks again everybody for the suggestions. I only visit 3 sites regularly and all these sites have in common the feature that most of the folks that post do so with the desire to help others. Even though I love getting help for problems or projects I love it even more when I can help someone. If a lot of the people posting here didn't feel the same I would not visit TBN.
Cheers,
Eric

 

[Yogi05]

When the tenant was there did you ever see a sketchy-looking woman enter but not leave?
Some people just refuse to pay.

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Using it for guests it all depends how long you want them to stay.
At the homeplace I let this 20 something live in my grandparents home rent free...assuming she would be close to my Mom, and this young woman had two children, I felt sorry for her.
Within a year home completely trashed, animals & feces everywhere. One bathtub filled with sawdust and rabbits! Cats eating young rabbits. Wallpaper ripped off the wall.
I know you didn't want ozone generator but they are fantastic. You don't want to breathe it! It's deadly, but doors/windows left open it will be fine after ozone treatment.
It takes lots of work getting smells out and wet...you'll most likely have mold (also bad).

 

[orezok]

If you use Kilz, it needs to be the oil based product. It’s what we used for fire restorations and it always covered up the smoke smell which is one of the worst.

 

[two_bit_score]

We used white pigmented shellac on smoke damaged houses. Even put it over light fire damaged wood and it sealed everything. Find it as BIN, 1.2.3 primer and SW also has a house branded line now. I used to be a fan of KILZ but it seemed to get weak and would not seal as well as the shellac based sealers.

I have been in the rent house business since 1980. I've painted over a lot of smelly stuff.

 

[ponytug]

If you use Kilz, it needs to be the oil based product. It’s what we used for fire restorations and it always covered up the smoke smell which is one of the worst.

I agree, but it is not recommended to put oil on top of latex, if that is what is already there.

All the best,

Peter

 

[sixdogs]

If this were me, and it's not, I would ask a paint chemist these questions rather than taking an expensive crap-shoot. I recall cigarette smoke smells of one of my apartment as a kid that were there long after the tenant was.

The big paint companies have chemists and tech people that have already been there and done that and can offer insights not thought of.

 

[MH8675309]

Kilz the way to go

OIL Based kilz is best

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Get Mr. Stinky Freeloader to paint it...

 

[etpm]

Get Mr. Stinky Freeloader to paint it...

Tried that. We got impatient and painted it today. Actually my wife painted it while I did other chores. The room smells like paint now. We were gonna do the floor before painting but my wife got impatient. At least it's just the primer coat.
Eric

 

[RSKY]

We had a skunk spray under our house. The only thing that worked to get rid of the smell was a commercial type ozone generator. Supposed to rid a 150,000 cu. ft. warehouse of smoke smell in 24 hours. I ran it in every room for 24 hours. It worked.

We flipped a house for a friend that her deceased dad had chain smoked in. Where he had sat at his computer the sheetrock was soaked in tar and nicotine. We used the bathroom cleaner KaBoom and a squeegee to get the most of it off. According to the Sherwin-Williams paint people the only thing that would cover the tobacco stain was shellac based primer. As of two months later when the house sold the stains had not bled thru.

Just my two cents worth.

RSKY

 

[two_bit_score]

We had a skunk spray under our house. The only thing that worked to get rid of the smell was a commercial type ozone generator. Supposed to rid a 150,000 cu. ft. warehouse of smoke smell in 24 hours. I ran it in every room for 24 hours. It worked.

We flipped a house for a friend that her deceased dad had chain smoked in. Where he had sat at his computer the sheetrock was soaked in tar and nicotine. We used the bathroom cleaner KaBoom and a squeegee to get the most of it off. According to the Sherwin-Williams paint people the only thing that would cover the tobacco stain was shellac based primer. As of two months later when the house sold the stains had not bled thru.

Just my two cents worth.

RSKY

Yep - White pigmented shellac.

 

[two_bit_score]

If this were me, and it's not, I would ask a paint chemist these questions rather than taking an expensive crap-shoot. I recall cigarette smoke smells of one of my apartment as a kid that were there long after the tenant was.

The big paint companies have chemists and tech people that have already been there and done that and can offer insights not thought of.

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