Removing Nicotine Stains and Odors in Your Home

Years of smoking indoors will leave nicotine stains, odors and residue throughout your home.  They will settle and build up over time in places you can see, like walls and fixtures, it will absorb on soft surfaces like upholstery, carpets and drapes and it will build up in areas you cannot see like your air ducts.  

The residue left behind is typically a yellow-ish brown colour and feels sticky to the touch.  This is the tar and chemicals from the cigarette smoke reacting to the oxygen in the air and settling throughout your home.  This residue can build up over time and will remain for months even after smoking has stopped. 

Unfortunately, airing out a room with open windows, fans, or using scented candles is not enough to eliminate the residue or odors, it may only mask them for a time.  Case in point, a plastic holiday wreath from a smoker’s home, passed to a family member who keeps it stored in the garage year-round, comments that even after 8 years of no longer being in that home, the wreath still smells of nicotine each year she pulls it out for the holidays!  

Simply painting over nicotine stains before they are properly removed will only cause the stains to bleed through the new coats of paint, which is a waste of valuable time and money.    

So, how do you clean it all up?  The only effective way to totally remove this extremely thick and deeply embedded greasy stain from a home is with the use of a specialized expert technique.  Each surface has been contaminated so the home will need a thorough cleaning – walls, ceilings, fixtures, upholstery, flooring and even air ducts.  It truly is a total home cleaning.  

While there are many DIY solutions, many of those only take care of the surface issue and don’t deal with the deep down, whole home clean.  Nicotine removal should be left to the experts – like Core Cleaning.  Protective gear should also be worn to protect against the chemicals.  

Dealing with nicotine stains, odor and residue correctly the first time will save time and money long term.  A home that has been smoked in for years, is not a lost cause, it just needs the right clean to get it back to a clean fresh state, that only the experts can provide.  

Questions or concerns abound nicotine stain removal, please contact Core Cleaning today!