DIY Home Smoke Odor Removal
When a homeowner decides to list their home for sale, there are many aspects in the home improvement area that they should consider doing before doing a home show to prospective buyer. The biggest factor that can turn potential buyers away from buying your home is if the home smells bad. The smell of smoke is often the reason why many people do not buy a particular house. Thus, it should be a priority of your home staging should you decide to sell your home. It may also be a good idea to make your house smell better for your own comfort.
Most people do not think of smoke odor removal as a home improvement, however, since it is a difficult task that many times will need a professional to complete it, it is included as a home improvement.
Before you hire a professional home improvement contractor to remove the smoke odor in your home, you can explore can try to get rid of the smoke odor yourself. First off, there are several ways in which a home can have smoke odors. If a fire occurred in the home, then this can make the smoke cling to the walls, if there is a smoker in the home who smokes in a particular room, the smell will still travel over the entire house. You can also get the smell of smoke in your home if the neighbor decides it is time to burn some items and the smoke travels towards your house and into your windows or vents. Therefore, even those nonsmokers still may find that they have a smoke odor in the home. So your first step is to make sure that you tackle the problem as soon as possible, the longer the odor is allowed to sit into the house, the harder it is going to be to remove.
You will need to wash all of the window treatments, bedding and basically anything that you can remove to put into the washing machine. In order to really get the odor out, add about a half cup of apple cider vinegar to the wash since it will absorb the smell better. You then need to tackle the walls while you have the room free of the material items. With a bucket of water mixed with about a cup of bleach you need to scrub the walls. The best thing to do is to get a mop for the hard to reach areas and go from there. To get rid of the bleach smell you can follow this up with a water and vinegar rinse.
The carpets will need to be shampooed, and there are many cleaners out there that promise to take away odors. Remember that on the first go around you may not notice any differences, which is why it is a long task to take on.
