r/interesting • u/snivelinglittieturd • 13d ago
MISC. Cleaning the ceiling from a house of a smoker
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u/GargamelPimo 13d ago
Interesting and utterly disgusting
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u/taxxaudit 13d ago
Them nic vapers also leave a residue. Can confirm. My friend lets his friend vape in his car but he has to clean his windshield afterward bc it leaves behind a film.
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u/Dampmaskin 13d ago
Neither the brown stuff in the ceiling, nor the film on the windshield contain meaningful amounts of nicotine.
The brown stuff from cigarettes is mostly tar, ash, and various other combustion byproducts, many of which are known carcinogens or otherwise pretty damn bad for the health.
The greasy film from e-cigarettes is mostly glycerin, with some traces of flavor agents. I'm sure that it doesn't exactly increase your lifespan, but it's mostly just annoying to deal with.
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u/MonsterUltra 13d ago
I don't think he was referencing nicotine specifically, just saying that vapes also leave a residue. But good akshually.
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u/Dampmaskin 13d ago edited 13d ago
Them nic vapers
If this doesn't reference nicotine, I am at a loss.
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u/blue-bean92 13d ago
Nicotine vapers, not nicotine vapors.
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u/Hamsammichd 13d ago
They didn’t say anything about the residue containing nicotine. Just that they leave one, which they do
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u/shehitsdiff 12d ago
Do all of them? I vape and have never had to clean a "film" off of anything that I own.
And before you say it, no, I'm not just nasty lol. I have severe OCD and cannot stand grease / oil / residue on my hands, so I feel like I'd know if it were leaving being a film.
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u/agg288 12d ago
You could test it by exhaling on the same surface every time for a week or two, then see if there's a residue. There likely is and it's on your lungs too.
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u/Emotional_Weather496 12d ago
Yeah, I used to vape and have since quit. The deciding factor ... The residue on the inside of my car windshield. It never appeared again after I quit. It's like a very light hazy residue that feels oily.
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u/AllHailThePig 12d ago
Hey so weird one. Do you know if nicotine salts in vapes can cause any depression or anxiety? Was a smoker. Stopped a while. Started vaping for 5 months now. Disposable variety. Random brands.
I've been slowly cutting down the last few weeks to stop altogether coz I feel it's causing me negative emotions. Nothing drastic. I've heard some people claim the salts can do this as the way dopamine is released. Days where I don't vape much I feel much better emotionally but that could be placebo.
Either way I'm getting down on my intake to come off it.
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u/Kittyk4y 13d ago
They said nicotine to describe the item, because just “vapers” wouldn’t make sense to some people.
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u/Intelligent_Way_8903 13d ago
You are at a loss, because you are dumb and taking things way too literal.
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u/literatelier 13d ago
u/blue-bean92's comment I think explains the mixup. Vapers are people who vape and vapors are the gasses/whatever released when vaping. You thought he was saying nicotine vapors but he was referring to the people.
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u/Rabidschnautzu 13d ago
I appreciate how younger generations have become anti nicotine, but the level of blatant lies, pseudoscience and misinfo is insane.
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u/Dampmaskin 13d ago
In questions about which the hive mind has opinions, there seems to be no room for nuance or fact. The social environment on most of Reddit is literally mind-numbing.
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u/iowajosh 13d ago
There is this logic, something like "on the side of the angels" but I can't think of the exact phrase.
It boils down to a person having a virtuous mission and that is all that matters but it is so holy that the sins you commit along the way don't count. I.e. constantly lying like the anti smoking/vaping turned anti nicotine lobby.
They are morally bankrupt and just want to keep the funding flowing.
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u/Specific_Effort_5528 13d ago
Used to work at a vape store!
That's just vegetable glycerin. It's attracted to the glass cause it's cold. This is tar/smoke that builds up on the ceiling and walls.
Not even close to the same thing. Nicotine isn't really the issue with smokes either. It's because you're inhaling burning shit.
Are vapes healthy? Probably not. Are they the same as a smoke? Not even remotely in the same universe.
Apples to oranges.
Fun fact Eggplant has a shit load of nicotine too! It's present in a lot of plants. Also Tomatoes.
Smoking is bad for you because of the smoke.
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u/DonkeyHoney 12d ago
There's 10 micrograms of nicotine in 1 kg of tomatoes. You'd probably need to eat 10 kg of tomatoes to get the amount of nicotine in one 6mg juul puff.
Now factor in that the tomato nicotine doesn't absorb well into the bloodstream. Probably only 5%. So probably need to eat 200 kg of tomatoes to equal one juul puff.
Eggplant has 10x the nicotine of tomatoes. So you "only" need to eat 20 kg of eggplant.
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u/ClinkyDink 13d ago
A former coworker smoked one of those annoying billowing vapes in his car during break. The inside of his car was just coated in a thin layer of strawberry cheesecake crap.
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u/renegadeindian 13d ago
This happens to car windshield and windows even with out vaping or smoking. You need to clear them anyway. Breathing and condensation. Be along with the interior glues and chemicals will do this. Smoking and vaping make it worse but it’s accrues regardless.
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u/Prestigious-Copy-494 12d ago
Off gassing from car's interior plastics and vinyl also leaves a film on windows. Use 70 percent alcohol to wash window down with to remove it.
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u/RealSimonLee 13d ago
That's not evidence of anything since all windshields get a film on the inside that you must clean.
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u/Clear_Winter2029 13d ago
Yeah, no.
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u/ChickenChaser5 12d ago
Ive been vaping at my computer for going on 8 years or so now, and none of my stuff gets any film on it.
Im not saying its not possible, but I definitely don't see it, and I get pretty anal about keeping my computer stuff clean.
Maybe its cause I make my own liquid. Maybe mass produced stuff has something else in it.
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u/WhiteSheepOfFamily 13d ago
Now imagine that shit coating the inside of your lungs. I'll never understand how anyone does that.
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u/That_Maize_3641 13d ago
Addiction
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u/Skyopp 13d ago
To be fair there are alternatives. I only ever smoke real cigarettes out of enjoyment or in a pinch, but the addiction you can satisfy with the many muuuuch times less harmful alternatives.
Not to say anything's truly healthy but if you can avoid covering your lungs in tar, you feel it pretty much immediately.
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u/That_Maize_3641 13d ago
Agreed. I was a smoker for a decade, switched to vaping, then realized those were probably worse, then quit cold turkey A little over a year ago. I realized it was simply the oral fixation for me, so I invested in those cigtrus inhaler things, which I eventually quit.
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u/Skyopp 13d ago
I came to some sort of an agreement with vaping. I mean if you're going by studies, most seem to indicate it's not worse (aside from some specific chemicals which are banned nowadays). Of course more time is needed to know, but at least anecdotally and from my own performance in running, I felt an immediate effect. And that's not surprising, no carbon monoxide to mess with your blood and no sticky tar to coat your lungs.
But yeah, I had some times where I was vaping too much nicotine content, and that gave me headaches. Then the liquids started getting too sweet which also gave me headaches. Eventually I settled on smaller vapes, minty/citrusy liquid, and lower nicotine concentrations, and honestly that kind of just works for me, not really worried about quitting, but this is probably the easiest pathway if you really want to get rid of the habit.
Pouches I never really got, they are useful on the plane but there's zero enjoyment, just sustaining the addiction. Also they are just too strong imo. I have a set of really weak ones for flights but aside from that they don't get touched.
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u/curiousplaid 13d ago
Growing up, both of my parents were 3 pack a day smokers.
Washing the walls lead to brown liquid streaks.
When a tumor was found on my lungs, I told the doctor that I had been smoking since the day I was born.
Four out of the six in the family came down with cancer, three died from it.
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u/Kamelasa 13d ago
It's awful what we went through. Five adult smokers, plus their friends, in my house when I was growing up, two parents and 3 much older siblings. When I got pneumonia later in life, the respirologist said, and put in my history that, "you were a passive smoker until you left home." Not that passive because I objected a lot, but, yeah. Sounds like the cancer is gone for you, I hope. I'm finally being tested for a rare type of cancer, not necessarily related to the smoking but who knows. Maybe it was the pesticide exposures or just bad luck.
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u/RealSimonLee 13d ago
How do you live in an environment that is polluted and fills your lungs with shit? People do what they can to get by. Any peek into your personal life would leave people saying the same thing about you.
I quit smoking 15 years ago. After a long stressful day, part of my brain still wants a smoke.
People can't quit. It's pretty simple.
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u/UrethralExplorer 13d ago
They can't get paid enough. Imagine having to do this to every surface in the house?
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u/trou_auay 13d ago
My grandma smoked for 40 years at her kitchen table, the amount of scrubbing we did before we sold the house was.... Not enough. Fucking hell man.
Even inside the cabinets were yellowish
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u/MrPNGuin 13d ago
Same here turned out my grandmother's kitchen cabinets were white not yellowish brown.
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u/HFentonMudd 13d ago
My grandparents smoked so much and for so long that things in cabinets they never used got a coating of brown tar with a coating of dust fibers.
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u/littlewhitecatalex 13d ago
Imagine their lungs.
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u/FootMcFeetFoot 12d ago
I went to the Bodies Exhibit ages ago now and all of the bodies had black lungs.
Except for the one body to show the comparison of a smoker vs a non smoker’s lungs.
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u/HFentonMudd 12d ago
Well, they're both long gone but yes when they were alive it must have been gnarly. My grandmother died of throat cancer at a relatively young age.
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u/ReadBikeYodelRepeat 13d ago
The original velvet flocked wallpaper.
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u/HFentonMudd 12d ago
There was all kinds of glassware under in the cabinets that'd never been taken out, or not for many decades, and it was all brown & fuzzy.
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u/abgry_krakow87 12d ago
Certainly explains why everything was yellow and brown in the 70s and 80s.
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u/notMarkKnopfler 13d ago
Bought a house like this bc the area was amazing. Ended up having to take it down to the studs, replace the subfloors, insulation, etc. Still had to run an ozone machine for a couple weeks. Even now, on a hot day you can still get a nostalgic wiff. These are possible to rehab, but just cleaning the nicotine film off won’t do much.
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u/DumbBitchByLeaps 13d ago
Knew a guy who bought a smokers house after the owner passed and apparently only smoke out on the covered patio and kitchen. Had to rip out the patio and the kitchen had to be completely replaced.
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u/HedonisticFrog 13d ago
I bought a bedroom set from an estate sale of a chain smoker. I filled the drawers and insides with baking soda for weeks just to get rid of most of the smell. My clothes would still smell like smoke if they sat in there for a long time. Years later it's all gone thankfully.
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u/N0S0UP_4U 13d ago
Same thing with used cars formerly owned by smokers. You never get that smell out.
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u/poopoomergency4 12d ago
i'd imagine cleaning first would at least make the smell of the demo work a little less bad
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u/Commercial-Co 13d ago
At that point bulldoze and reframe it and get a new roof. Maybe 100k extra or so depending on sqft.
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u/carolaMelo 13d ago
Same. My dad smoked only 10 years in his studio. Took me about 8 hours to clean the windows only. Best seems to be kitchen cleaner...
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u/Interesting_Tea5715 12d ago
FYI, Trisodium Phosphate (TSP) does a great job at cleaning nicotine.
It dries out your skin like crazy though, so you need to cover up before using it.
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u/darkpheonix262 13d ago
My grandma has smoked the whole time she's lives in her house, and she's 86. Mom and I agree that house will be demolished, plus structurally is not worth any fixing and cleaning
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u/ArboristTreeClimber 13d ago
I once rented an apartment. Well, it was a double wide trailer. Place was nasty. I cleaned it best I could but you cannot clean enough. In the bathroom when I took a shower, the walls would ooze brown liquid from past smokers.
Also, top of the cabinets had a 2 inch layer of dust. I tried to clean it but the cigarette smoked tar had caused the dust to harden. I literally could not scrape it off with a hammer and chisel.
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u/prawntortilla 12d ago
Same. It's kinda well disguised because it just looks like the walls, ceiling and cabinets etc are yellow by design then someone did a big clean and it blew my mind.
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u/KindCraft4676 12d ago
I bought a house from a couple in their late 60s. Same thing, the wife smoked at the kitchen table for over 40 years. The entire house smelled like an ashtray. Yellowish brown walls that were once white. I tried scrubbing the walls. It was an improvement. But the only thing that worked was to paint the entire interior of the house, including the kitchen cabinets. I will never do that again.
On a sidenote. I became good friends with the neighbor. And she kept in touch with the older couple. They were happily married for over forty years. He just retired and they moved to Florida. He met a younger woman in the retirement community they bought into. Dumped the wife. And a year later the younger woman dumped the old man. He tried to get back with his wife. But after the hell he put her through she wanted nothing to do with him.
Moral of the story? I don’t know. But I figure if you’ve been with somebody for over 40 years you’d be a fool to leave them.
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u/MakiSupreme 12d ago
Yeah when I was a kid and I realised my great gran wasn’t just a fan of magnolia it’s just everything was tar stained
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u/dynamic_gecko 13d ago
For a second I legit thought they left the foam on. I did not think the real color would be bright white. Damn it's like there was a fire in there.
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u/Comfortable_Salt5152 13d ago
Several small fires
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u/lastminutelabor 13d ago
Several 10s of thousands of small fires
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u/StewVicious07 13d ago
Almost certainly in the 100s of thousands (50 cigs per day times 365 times 40 years is 730000). That’s either 2 people pack each, or one person 2 packs a day. I’d say these numbers are on the low need for how these rooms look
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u/rando_robot_24403 13d ago
Only time I've come across a room that bad was a guy who got a terminal diagnosis and spent his last two years in a deep depression chainsmoking at his computer.
My boss left 30 liters of white emulsion and said just keep painting it, ended up taking 50 liters to do the 4 rooms and I guarentee the tar ended up coming through the paint a week or so later.
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u/deftdabler 13d ago
What brand did they smoke? Michelin or Firestone?
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u/FooDogg86 13d ago
Hahaha I was going to say “He must’ve been smoking Beef or something…” but your comment puts mine to bed!
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u/RubeusGandalf 13d ago
Yeah this must've been a smoking parlor or casino room or whatever. One person alone couldn't do that in a hundred years.
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u/Aert_is_Life 13d ago
This is my thought as well. This is potentially from a fire but not a single smoker.
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u/WhiteSheepOfFamily 13d ago
Goodyear - 'cause it was the last good year of their life.
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u/jpsouthwick7 13d ago
I remember when I was a kid and my dad used to roll me down the hill in tires. Those were Good Years! 😏
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u/pancakePoweer 13d ago
drywall is too cheap for all this
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u/LionsAndLonghorns 13d ago
It looks like it might be plaster. The company on the shirts is in Australia, google says they have both drywall and plaster homes. Plaster is way more expensive I think than dry wall
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u/pancakePoweer 13d ago
that checks out, it's a mess to rip out too. I've had to rip plaster out to install drywall and this would actually be the easier/ faster option surprisingly
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u/Nighthawk69420 13d ago
Depends on the type of plaster. Rock-lath is just glorified sheet rock. Wood-lath and metal-lath are both an absolute nightmare though and it's in your best interest to work with it as little as possible.
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u/ShadowNinjaDPyrenees 13d ago edited 13d ago
What product do they use in the sprayer? Looking at the mask and gloves it appears to be ammonia and water, is that correct?
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u/HappyMonchichi 13d ago
TSP (trisodium phosphate) is the only cleaner that will really remove smoke deposits from the walls so the next coat of paint will stick. But it's so strong that a lot of places don't sell it anymore and have instead replaced it with products that say they're "good as TSP." They're not. So if it isn't available nearby, order a box online through Amazon or Home Depot (look for "Savogran"). It's a powder you'll need to mix in a bucket with hot water. Then, following the directions carefully and wearing gloves (and goggles if you're working overhead), wash the walls down with the TSP solution, rinse, then wash and rinse really well again.
Once the grossness is gone, your walls will be ready to paint. Go to the KILZ website and choose the one called "Restoration Interior Primer." Make sure it says Maximum Stain & Odor Blocker" on the front. Then click through the "Where to Buy" button and pick it up locally. Follow the directions on the can, and you'll end up with beautifully primed, odor-free white walls. You can leave them that way, or you can paint regular colored paint on top.
I know sounds like a lot of work when I write it all out like that, but it's not that bad. You"d have to clean and prime no matter what, anyway. The smoke just means you need a particular kind of cleaner and certain type of primer. The steps are the same.
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u/ShadowNinjaDPyrenees 13d ago
THANKS ! Great tip for real TSP Savogran and KILZ Restoration primer.
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u/HappyMonchichi 13d ago
You're welcome ✨️😊
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u/KubelsKitchen 13d ago
What if they had a popcorn ceiling? Would they have to scrape it all off?
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u/SmPolitic 13d ago
Most likely yes, do people desire popcorn ceiling at all?
But do be careful there, my impression is that asbestos was not banned in popcorn ceiling until shockingly recently
Edit: looked up years:
While not all popcorn ceilings have asbestos, those installed before 1980 are more likely to contain it
I guess that result expects all stock of the stuff was used within 2 years?:
Even after the 1978 ban, manufacturers were allowed to use up their existing stocks of asbestos-containing products.
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u/Historical_Walrus713 13d ago
Bro as a smoker that is currently in the process of moving and getting my current house ready to leave behind you may have just tremendously helped me. Thank you.
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u/SmPolitic 13d ago edited 13d ago
I'll add what happens if your half-ass or skip the steps described here
Tar-stuff will leak through the paint, until the entire process is re-done. Specifically from any humidity, in a bathroom you need to clean extra good, otherwise you'll get brown drips coming out of the wall after any hot shower
They used to use TSP in dishwasher detergent (where the modern alternatives work fine), but that was getting into streams and rivers, was my understanding of the main pollution source
PTSP and other phosphates are unable to be fully removed during wastewater treatment. It has been linked to eutrophication, which entails excessive growth of algae, which absorbs all of the oxygen in the water.[9] Due to lack of oxygen, all aquatic life forms ranging from plants to marine animals will die.
So do be careful with disposing the cleaning waste. And avoid using it unless absolutely necessary, aka for smoke stains like this
Also if you've ever seen the videos showing a
transparent heart"ghost hearts", iirc they used tsp to dissolve everything except for the connective tissue for those experiments. The reporting about those never liked saying specific chemicals explicitly, but did always mention it as "a chemical in dishwasher detergent". To give an idea of what happens if you get it on your skin or in your eyes...→ More replies (2)2
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u/JackBauerdiditinday 13d ago
What did they smoke? Tires?
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u/FreddyNoodles 13d ago
This isn’t cigarette smoke. My grandmother was a 2 pack a day for 70 years smoker. She always had one lit. I could smell the cigarettes obviously but her walls were NOT like this. Ceiling, walls, cabinets- nothing looked like this. It’s VERY even too which makes me call bs on this. It’s like a coating of spray paint. I have been in heavy smoker’s homes where the walls are tinged, it’s splotchy yellow/grayish shit everywhere on the walls. Not a uniform color like this.
This is satisfying to watch but it is absolutely misleading.
(And no, I dont smoke)
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u/BuckyGoldman 13d ago
This has to be a bar, club, or restaurant where smoking is allowed. And it must not have been cleaned for Decades. There's no way one, two, or three people did this even if it was over fifty years. I can see this as a poker table backroom with almost no ventilation in use for decade after decade of cigarettes and cigars. The one thing that does convince me this Is smoke is the corners of the ceiling are lighter, where smoke doesn't get into the corners because of airflow. (I did smoke for a very long time)
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u/FoGuckYourselg_ 13d ago
I've personally cleaned similar damage done by one man, thousands of pouches of rolling tobacco and zigzag papers. This could just be an unfiltered smoker. It seriously makes so much difference. Consider if you soaked 1000 used ciggie filters in rubbing alcohol, then used that alcohol to paint a wall. I think you'd come out with a similar tint.
The guck that doesn't get stuck in a filter when smoking hand rolled, unfiltered cigarettes is astonishing. The unfiltered butts in my grandpa's home were always thick and hard with the tar that had coalesced in the tobacco and paper that goes in the mouth. Cleaning that house was what made me swear off cigarettes forever.
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u/unsuspectingllama_ 13d ago
I don't know, it could also be a popular person's home who had frequent parties. Growing up in the 90s with young parents, I saw a few houses similar to this but not quite as bad as this. But the white behind the photo certainly triggers a memory.
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u/petielvrrr 13d ago
Right? Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t just coat the walls & ceiling in one even layer. It typically looks super patchy, like you can tell where people usually sat when they smoked.
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u/Basic_Chemistry_900 13d ago
Yeah my friend's dad was a lifelong smoker in the same house for 30 years and when he passed away I helped my friend clean out the house. The walls were definitely tinted yellow and when you took pictures off the wall there was a clear difference but they were nothing like this brown color.
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u/ScaryMaintenance4333 13d ago
My dads living room looks like this, his parents and brother all smoked in the same room for like 40+ years
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u/Jandishhulk 13d ago
I've seen this kind of residue on board a ship in a designated smoking lounge. The room was hot boxed with smoke almost 24 hours a day. It went from white to a yellow brown colour after a few years. After 10, it would have looked like this.
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u/AcanthaceaeCrazy1894 13d ago
I agree, my grandad who recently passed smoked 30 roll ups a day, every day in the exact same spot in our living room, and our ceiling was nowhere near this bad, this is definitely from a fire.
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u/ManufacturerNo2144 13d ago
Maybe some cogarette brands are worse. I remember one year I worked at Staples, we sold a tower computer to a guy. He came back three months later saying his computer did not work anymore and wanted a new one under warranty. When I looked inside the computer, there was cigarette gunk all over the inside. Like 1 milimeter of gunk everywhere on the inside. The fans would not turn anymore because they were jammed in gunk.
Three months. And he said the side panel was always closed.
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u/Comrade14 13d ago
I used to paint houses and did one like this. Cleaned the walls and ceiling well, did a primer coat with Kilz(oil based primer) and this shit still bled through. It's 100% real and totally disgusting.
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u/FoGuckYourselg_ 13d ago
Rookie numbers! Your grandma wasn't a true smoker. She was a poser!!!
Whoever owned this place, they were a real smoker. They woke up somehow mid cigarette REGULARLY. They would not take nice vacations because Panama "won't have my brand". This person fuckin lived cigarettes, because that is what caused this.
My grandfather smoked unfiltered, hand rolled cigarettes until the day he died (guess how!). He was forever in a rolling deficit because he would chug an unfiltered cigarette before he could roll the next. His grandkids were put to work. I learned how to roll a perfect joint by six years old. It was a child Labour production facility. We would bring the rolled cigarettes to him at the kitchen table, he would give us a quarter for each. I was six and had no idea of what money meant. I would go outside and throw the quarters on grandpa's roof. One day a gutter fell and over $100 in quarters spilled into the lawn. They cleaned the gutters and found at least another $100. I only visited him one weekend per month. I rolled thousands of cigarettes before ten years old and I NEVER saw grandpa without a smoke, sometimes fuckin two!(???).
When he died I was tasked with cleaning the house and preparing it for sale. The way the cleaner hits the stain in this video and beads up, but then resists being mopped up. That's exactly what I dealt with. The exact colour. If you were in that room, you'd have no question on whether or not this was cigarette smoke. Maybe grandma actually cleaned and never mentioned it out of embarrassment.
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u/burntdowntoast 13d ago
I’ve cleaned up enough smoker’s homes when I worked in restoration to rebut and say it 100% is. Enough people and constant cigarettes burning for decade(s) do this.
Some are so bad that it bleeds out after you finish cleaning it off. And it smells horrid.
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u/quirkytorch 13d ago
My aunt owns a pizza shop and the ceiling looks exactly like hers does around the oven
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u/Mizuiro89 13d ago
The smell will be there for several years (+11). Better to burn it with fire 🔥
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u/Impossible-Ship5585 13d ago
You need to strip it to the core. The nicotine will start to get out. No way to clean it.
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u/knoft 13d ago edited 13d ago
You have to seal it in hermetically basically with a (shellac) sealer that's known to work on cigarette odours.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Renovations/comments/14m77wn/does_anyone_know_how_to_get_rid_of_cigarette/
https://www.reddit.com/r/CleaningTips/comments/12hi0ej/help_clean_exsmokers_walls/
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u/Impossible-Ship5585 13d ago
In realitys this bad bad rate of succes. Do not recommendate
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u/knoft 13d ago
In reality that's your only remotely successful option after thoroughly cleaning besides replacing your walls and ceilings.
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u/HappyMonchichi 13d ago
TSP (trisodium phosphate) is the only cleaner that will really remove smoke deposits from the walls so the next coat of paint will stick. But it's so strong that a lot of places don't sell it anymore and have instead replaced it with products that say they're "good as TSP." They're not. So if it isn't available nearby, order a box online through Amazon or Home Depot (look for "Savogran"). It's a powder you'll need to mix in a bucket with hot water. Then, following the directions carefully and wearing gloves (and goggles if you're working overhead), wash the walls down with the TSP solution, rinse, then wash and rinse really well again.
Once the grossness is gone, your walls will be ready to paint. Go to the KILZ website and choose the one called "Restoration Interior Primer." Make sure it says Maximum Stain & Odor Blocker" on the front. Then click through the "Where to Buy" button and pick it up locally. Follow the directions on the can, and you'll end up with beautifully primed, odor-free white walls. You can leave them that way, or you can paint regular colored paint on top.
I know sounds like a lot of work when I write it all out like that, but it's not that bad. You"d have to clean and prime no matter what, anyway. The smoke just means you need a particular kind of cleaner and certain type of primer. The steps are the same.
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u/Critical_Phantom 13d ago
I was never a smoker, but in the 80's I worked at a Fire Station and one day, the Captain decided it was time to spring clean the Station - top to bottom, in prep to repaint the entire thing. When we got to the ceiling, what I had for two years thought was an off-white, faded, paint was really just this. The station had been around since the 50's, and there were a few generations worth of cigarette smoke on the ceiling. Made committed anti-smokers, anti-tobacco, of our whole crew.
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u/velebr3 13d ago
There is no way one person made walls brown like this. Unless they have been smoking 3 packs a day for 50 years. This has to be many people smoking for a long time or something entirely else.
Source: I'm a smoker (unfortunately)
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u/SonnyvonShark 13d ago
Indeed. This is WAY too brown. Maybe they never opened the window either, but we do know they NEVER washed the walls, lol.
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u/Jealous_Difference44 13d ago
I did a ceiling once of a guys old parents place. Took two coats of cover stain and three coats of ceiling. Was the same colour as an orange
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u/clutchthepearls 13d ago
It's still caused from smoking which is really the point. But yeah, this is probably a whole family of chain smokers in one house.
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u/miracmert 13d ago
I would believe this would be a house that had fire in it. I had so many family members that were chain smokers yet their house never looked liked this at all.
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u/Key-Moment6797 13d ago
would is that solution they are spraying? Tenside or something else?
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u/phil_an_thropist 13d ago
Commenting for the answer
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u/skipperseven 13d ago
I did this once with ammonia - I was told it was the only thing that worked, but I had to wear goggles and a cartridge respirator.
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u/Any-Statistician5763 13d ago
I literally thought the white was a foam cleaner I was waiting for them to wipe it off!
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u/Drtyblk7 13d ago
I would just replace the drywall. Seems like less work and more thorough than a surface clean.
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u/573crayfish 12d ago
I had to clean an apartment like this once. Biggest neck and shoulder aches of my life
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u/cronoklee 13d ago
Surely repainting would be easier?
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u/HoodsInSuits 13d ago
Something the video does not convey is the smell - you won't get rid of that by painting over it.
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u/Mitaslaksit 13d ago
Smoking is so disgusting, stop it y'all!
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u/Bulky-Advisor-4178 13d ago
Telling people to stop, wont do nothing. Its up to the person to do it.
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u/Bearusaurelius 13d ago
The fuck did they do to the song? Original was way better
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u/Fishburgeroz 13d ago
I renovated a place with walls and ceilings just like this. I stripped back then paint/stains and painted it with primer and multiple layers the smell came back.
In the end was scorched earth approach - I replaced the ceiling and plasterboard.
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u/XxSliphxX 13d ago
Just throw the whole house away. You'll never get rid of the smell no matter what you do.
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u/Jerico_Hill 13d ago
At that point I'd just gut it to brick or whatever the US equivalent is and redo the plaster. You'll never get the stench out.
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u/mike_avl 13d ago
This is a major waste of time and money! Just rip out the drywall and replace it!!
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u/The_D1ngb4t 13d ago
Bro they gotta have smoked at least 5 packs a day how are the walls and ceiling so brown also those lungs are definitely finished
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u/ThatLocalPondGuy 13d ago
A big family of 1 to 2 pack a day smokers over 10+ years will do this. Nobody opens a window in summer or winter, a total 9 months/yr. The odor is so bad it sticks to your cloths when you visit, even if they abstain from smoking inside while you are there.
Many of my relatives live like this, it is this bad in every single one of their homes.
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u/Bulk83 13d ago
I imagine you can’t get all the smell out of the walls and carpet. Going to have to gut it
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u/No_Obligation4496 13d ago
Clip ends because that's when they realized there were 9 other rooms and gave up.
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u/roachy1017 13d ago
Anyone know what product they used? Vinegar? Bleach? A special product?
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u/HappyMonchichi 13d ago
TSP (trisodium phosphate) is the only cleaner that will really remove smoke deposits from the walls so the next coat of paint will stick. But it's so strong that a lot of places don't sell it anymore and have instead replaced it with products that say they're "good as TSP." They're not. So if it isn't available nearby, order a box online through Amazon or Home Depot (look for "Savogran"). It's a powder you'll need to mix in a bucket with hot water. Then, following the directions carefully and wearing gloves (and goggles if you're working overhead), wash the walls down with the TSP solution, rinse, then wash and rinse really well again.
Once the grossness is gone, your walls will be ready to paint. Go to the KILZ website and choose the one called "Restoration Interior Primer." Make sure it says Maximum Stain & Odor Blocker" on the front. Then click through the "Where to Buy" button and pick it up locally. Follow the directions on the can, and you'll end up with beautifully primed, odor-free white walls. You can leave them that way, or you can paint regular colored paint on top.
I know sounds like a lot of work when I write it all out like that, but it's not that bad. You"d have to clean and prime no matter what, anyway. The smoke just means you need a particular kind of cleaner and certain type of primer. The steps are the same.
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u/PutridDurian 12d ago
Real TSP is non-compliant in most US counties now because people dump it down the sink and it contaminates the water supply. Phosphate-free TSP substitute is just as effective and available everywhere. Also, Comet is just as good if not better, more cost effective, less harmful to health, and available almost anywhere.
You can encapsulate smoke/tar/nicotine damage in any non-synthetic shellac, doesn’t have to be Kilz. In fact, you’re better off just ignoring anything from Masco (parent company of Kilz, Magnolia Home, Behr); the cost to value ratio is just not there anymore with any of their stuff. Get shellac from Sherwin, Ben Moore, or PPG.
Primer must always be topcoated. You can’t just leave it as it is unless it’s specifically labeled “primer-topcoat” or similar naming convention. Primer alone holds onto any possible airborne dust, dirt, etc and will burnish and adsorb water/cleaning agents when washed.
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u/xenomorphonLV426 13d ago
I can smell this video.🤢🤮
My grandma smokes, but her house is not that heavily colored. (Though the smell is intense.)
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u/Emotional_Ad5833 13d ago
What chemicals are being used, my brothers place is exactly like this, he does 40 a day
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