Mrs. Clean's House Cleaning Forum

[Rentem]

I stumbled accross this forum while attempting to find a better way of "disinfecting" my rental properties after a smoker moves out. Recently (apx 10 days ago) one of my tenants moved out and left a terrible smoke smell for me to clean up. The carpet was replaced and the walls painted before these people moved in. In fact the house had a very pleasant smell before they moved in, as the previous family frequently left the windows open to air out the place. Currently the carpets are in great shape, not much wear and tear. I have already thoroughly vaccumed and shampooed. THE STALE SMOKE SMELL IS STILL PRESENT! I don't want to drop another $2,000 to replace the carpets. I have heard about ozone generators before, but am not sure about the effectiveness. Can anyone on this forum provide any info, or direct me to somewhere that I can learn more.

-Cheers!

[PureO3]

Rentem,
I am a landlord as well, and have ran into many of the same problem that you are describing. Many times I replaced carpet and repainted walls to rid a house of cigarette odors. This method works, but can be costly for every property that has an odor problem. For some landlords, $2K is the yearly margin on a property! Anyway, I started to use an ozone generator as a part of the post move out clean up process. Immediately I was truly amazed at the results of these machines. At first I was skeptical so I decided to rent an ozone generator. After the first application I was a believer, and purchased one before the next property went vacant.

[CleanMachine]

Keep airing out the place, even if it seems futile. Give the walls and ceiling a good cleaning as well.

Is there any furniture in the place that could be carrying the smell? Worth getting rid of?