Re: How to remove smoke odor from house

 

way to do this. Also, cut

Vinegar is famously used to get rid of tobacco smoke -- simply
left out in three or four saucers (not heated let alone boiled.)
This is so cheap you could try it today, in case it helps.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

 

Before you pitch the microwave, take it down and clean the outside
of it and the area it was mounted to throughly.  Does your
microwave have an exhaust hood setup beneath it?  If it does, clean
or replace the filter and wipe down the rest of the hood area very
well.

If you feel up to it, take the micro outside, take the cover off
(its best to let it sit unplugged for a day or two so the charge on
the big caps goes away), and vacuum out all the dust and dirt
inside you can get at.  Then take a can of compressed air and blow
out everything you can see. If there is a greasy film over
everything get a can of TV Tuner cleaner and spray it all over.  
Act like you are washing down the insides so you work any gunk to
the outside of the unit.  By now you should be able to tell if
there is any odor left in the unit.

Do you have any porous countertops? They may have absorbed some of
the smoke and would need a very thorough cleaning as well.

Lastly, get a couple of those lava rock bags that they sell to
abosrb odors and spread them around where the odor seems to be
strongest.

If none of this works and the odor is in the kitchen, you will be
stuck with putting a clear sealer finish on the cabinets or
refinishing/refacing them.  Again, good luck
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com  **

 I lived through a fire.  Here are my thoughts:

1.  If you smell it, it's because whatever absorbed the odor is giving
it off into the air.  So eventually it'll all be gone from whatever
absorbed it.  If this were summer you could leave the windows open,
but since it's cold you probably are stuck with only maybe one window
partially open and an exhaust fan.  You are better off with air
circulation (i.e., a fan) because just leaving windows open means less
air circulation but still a lot of heat transfer (in other words, your
house gets cold with less productive removal of the smell).

2.  Some of the smell is in your nose-- you'll be 'smelling' the smoke
after it's mostly gone because you have memory of it.  So it'll smell
worse for you in a week or two than for visitors who have no memory of
it.

3.  Porous things absorb smoke-- couches, curtains, carpets, clothing,
towels.

4.  Try to keep all the room doors closed to keep the smell where it
started.

It WILL go away, so try not to drive yourself crazy.

Shaun Eli
www.BrainChampagne.com
Brain Champagne:  Clever Comedy for Smart Minds (sm)