Hey everyone! My wife and I just bought a house that we won't be moving into until May 1st, so I have some time to tackle some projects. The garage has been used for smoking for the past 13 years, and as non-smokers with two young kids, we're worried about any lingering odors affecting our family. Although the smell doesn't reach the main house, the garage is pretty bad – the drywall is yellowed, and even the garage door has tar buildup. My plan is to use a paint sprayer and coat everything with Kilz paint after scrubbing down the doors and other surfaces that can't be painted. How confident can I be that this will eliminate the smell? Should I consider just ripping out all the drywall instead? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
4 Answers
We have new neighbors who smoke, and it seems that the smoke odor is coming through the common wall between our 2 houses. Will painting the wall with Kilz stop the smoke smell from coming into our house? The smoke odor is definitely not coming in from outside...we checked on that
I totally get it! We moved into a house that was heavily smoked in before, and the first thing we did was scrub all the walls with a mix of vinegar, water, and dish soap. After that, we used Zinsser BIN primer followed by regular paint, and it completely got rid of the smell. No need for an ozone machine either! Highly recommend giving that a shot before you decide to paint with Kilz.
I went with a similar method, but I added an ozone generator for 24 hours after the cleaning. It really seemed to help get rid of the smell completely.
I've had good luck with Kilz. I used it on some subflooring infected with pet odors years ago, and it worked wonders without leaving any lingering smells. It should do the trick for you too! Just make sure to scrub those surfaces well first for the best results.
Awesome, that gives me a boost of confidence! Thanks for sharing!
While Kilz is decent, some people recommend Zinsser BIN as it’s even better for sealing in odors. It might be worth looking into that, especially if you’re going to put in the effort to clean everything up. Just remember, it’s essential to clean all surfaces, not just the walls, to avoid any remaining smells lurking around.
Right! If you miss any spots, the smoke smell can still come back.
Great point! I’ll definitely keep that in mind to make sure I cover everything.
That sounds like a solid approach! Did you measure out the vinegar and soap, or just eyeball it?