I just recently moved into my cousins house and I am in the process of cleaning this house from top to bottom. There is 40 plus years of nicotine on the walls (using bleach and water to clean, works great, if you can handle the smell. lol). But my problem is the pet stains on the carpet! The smell is out of this world. I have tryed everything I can think of but to no avail! I do not have the money for new carpeting, I have shampooed. It looks a tiny bit better, any helpful tips would be awesome!
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I use Scrubbing bubbles for all stains, we have three dogs and it seems to work. If you haven't already painted yet, add some vanilla to your paint and it will make sure you don't have the smell of smoke anymore. You WILL still have the smell if you just use bleach and water :-( Been there, done that. Good luck!!
i'm sure that white vinegar will take out the odor and probably the stains in the carpet...good luck!
Try white vinegar. You will be amazed at the stains it removes. On small areas I have used it straight, but if you have large areas maybe dilute it a little.
You should probably put a sealer on the walls after you clean them & before you paint them again. You can buy sealer to paint on the walls at home improvement, hardware or paint stores. One example of a brand name is Kilz. It is a primer/ sealer & works to keep odors & stains from re-entering the new paint.
Here is a recipe for a home made stain & odor remover that really works. Recommended on this site & on pet sites on the net. You mix only the amount you will use at one time, it does not keep due to the fact that it works by producing oxygen, therefore is not storable ("explodes" out of spray bottle) nor would it work as well after being stored. Mix in a spray bottle & apply liberally to wet the stained / odored area. Never had a problem w/ this fading anything but check first in a hidden area to be sure.
I use the peroxide also, but don't use the baking soda. This will even take skunk smells off my pit bull when she plays with "kitties" that aren't hers. Mix the bottle perioxide with 1 tablespoon liquid joy dishwashing soap and add 1/4 cup Febreeze.
Try FEBREZE "fabric spray," a wonderful product made by Proctor and Gamble which is available at the super-market. Buy the "EXRA strength." You can buy a quart for about $8.00. If you are doing a large carpet, you may need to buy more than one bottle. You will need to spray carpet until it is "slightly damp." As the carpet dries, the odor will disappear.
Febreeze is wonderful for removiong cigarette SMOKE smells from furniture and fabrics (and stuffed animals.) A friend had a collection of stuffed animals that reeked of smoke. AFter spraying with Febreze and letting them dry in the sun, ALL the smoke smell was GONE. Amazing!
Since you said the walls were stained with "nicotine," you may want to put a little Febreze in the water you use to wash the walls to remove the smell.
Do you know what's under the carpet? There may be nice hardwood floors. In that case, you could ditch the carpet and still have a nice flooring with no extra cost except scrubbing the hardwood.
Use white vinegar in a steam cleaner and steam the carpets. Should help with both the smell and the stains.
I use white vinegar when my cat has accident on the carpet and it works,,
1. If the carpet is newly soiled, first absorb as much of the cat urine as possible using paper towels or an old towel. Place towels over the cat urine patch and tread on them so as to absorb as much wetness as possible. Repeat with dry towels until no more moisture can be absorbed.
If the cat urine has dried and you are not sure where the soiled area is you can use a black light (pictured above) to detect it. In a darkened room the black light will pick up cat urine and other stains. Hand held black lights can be purchased for between $15 to $25
2. Next, wet the area with a solution of 50% white vinegar and 50% water. Make sure you use enough of the solution to penetrate the fibres deep down. Allow it to dry. You can assist drying by blotting with paper towels as described above. A fan can also be used to assist drying. The acidity of the vinegar will neutralize the ammonia in the cat urine.
3. When it's dry, apply a liberal amount of baking soda over the affected area and drizzle it with a quarter of a cup of hydrogen peroxide mixed with a teaspoon of dishwashing detergent. Work it in with a scrubbing brush or your fingers (be sure to wear rubber gloves) to dissolve the baking soda and work it down into the carpet. Allow it to dry. Then vacuum. Please Read the caution below regarding hydrogen peroxide
The vinegar will neutralize the ammonia and the baking soda will remove the odor of the cat urine.
I sprinkle baking soda on the carpet and let it stay for a day or so allowing normal traffic to get it into the carpet, then I vaccuum. I follow with a steam cleaner with half white vinegar and half water and it seems to work....good luck
Just an FYI - If you have major pet problems in the house don't use bleach to clean where there is a heavy pet odor. It is lethal when it mixes with the ammonia in the smell of pet stains. There are stories of people that use bleach in the laundry near a cat box and the odors mixed together have caused collapsed lungs! Good luck and be careful!
Let me plug a product that I have no business association with. Anti-Icky-Poo. It is great for nasty old pet stains and nasty new pet stains alike. It contains a harmless bacterial culture that consumes the wastes. It will even follow the wastes down into the crevices of wood, plaster, and the like. I have a tom cat and a carpet that got together one day to become a stench that rivaled war gases. I shampooed normally followed by Anti-Icky-Poo, and no more tom cat smell.
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