Smoker Rehab: Keys to Success with Tobacco Smoke! (Before/After Pics)

[Steve M.]

This house was finished quite a while ago, and I meant to post a topic on this, but I completely forgot until I started going through some old photo's on the SD card.

Background of the House: 14 years old, original owner, heavy cigar smoker/alcoholic that would literally put cigar butts out on the carpet and left THOUSANDS of bottles (empty and half full) everywhere spilling over. I felt overwhelmed at first, but quickly changed my tune once we figured out what worked.

We were originally going to make this house a rental, but decided against that about 30 days in to the rehab. It was a bit further away than I had wanted, and the neighborhood was a bit rougher than I had originally hoped. Either way, we turned it in to a flip, and I'm happy we did.

Getting Rid of Cigar/Cigarette/Tobacco Smoke:
1) Ozone Generator: You absolutely NEED an Ozone Generator. Don't fall for the $1000+ gimmicks. We got ours on ebay, from a place that makes them. We paid $229. Good for up to 3500 sq feet or so. Warning: Ozone can be hazardous to your or your pets health. Please make sure to read warnings & allow enough time for ozone to dissipate before getting back in house.

2) B-I-N Shellac-Based Primer (Zinnser Brand) This will seal absolutely everything. As many know, tar from tobacco smoke tends to peak through after several weeks/months and your white's start to yellow. Shellac Paint absolutely seals everything up. 16 months AFTER sealing with BIN, there was still no yellowing.

3) Time: This is in regards using the Ozone Generator. To fully eliminate, we used it on/off for about a month. We moved it room to room, and eventually set it up to the HVAC intake and had it pumped through the entire house. Along with the Shellac-Based Primer & new flooring -- Smoke smell & stain's were no more.

Some Before & Afters are below. Being our first LARGE rehab, we decided to keep things relatively simple. Rehabs from here on out should be quite a bit prettier & unique :)

These first few will show what sort of damage yellow/brown cigarette smoke/tar can really do. The pictures after are simply before and afters!

Enjoy & special thanks to J Scott! Had a few q's along the way that he was more than happy to help with!

And Before & Afters :)

Any questions, please feel free to ask! I hope this helps others that may be considering heavy smoked in homes :)

[Will Barnard]

Sounds like this was a mistake turned into learning experience, then turned into small profit rather than loss.

SInce I am a numbers guy, your purchase price of $110k and rehab of $26.5k puts you all-in at $136.5k which is a whopping 87% of sold price.

Granted this was intended for a hold, but had it been a flip all along, and even with a quick in and out of 3 months, this would not be even close to a deal worth doing as your returns are well under what you could get passively withouyt any work or any risk.

Point being to any rookies, always look at the numbers before pulling the trigger. While many deals in my area go out at prices that are all-in for 80% of exit values, I usually stick to my rules of better spreads than that.

Glad to hear you got out by the hairs of your chinny chin chin, looks like the value was in the experience and sharing it with others!