When we clean glass that has been exposed to significant amounts of cigarette smoke we add a cup of ammonia to a gallon of our normal Dawn solution. It is very helpful and does wonders as well on vinyl frames. We need to clean 2,000+ square feet of painted walls and we did a sample area with straight ammonia and it worked ok but think some of you might help us out with a better solution.
Anyone have advice for Brian on this one?
Thanks,
Gary Mauer
How about using a stronger ammonia such as 28% aqua ammonia along dawn dish detergent. Instead of using a half cup with the aqua ammonia you will use about ½ cap full.
Whatever you choose to use, be sure to where gloves and a respirator.
Nicotine can and will be absorbed through your skin in this process and it will affect you.
I would recommend using a degreaser like Simple Green.
Staining of carpet, furniture, etc. will be an issue as well.
I have used ammonia in the past but lately have been using real TSP on smoky glass with good results – without the smell. I used a more concentrate solution of smoky blinds with great results, but I had the leisure of hanging them on the side of my van and hosing them off. I have also cleaned walls with an old strip washer on my pole with good results. I wonder if you could do the same. You might need to do a second rinse to remove all the dirt. Two things to note; change your water often and make sure to cover your area well. I did a large room like this only to come back later to see an area I had missed that really stuck out with sunlight on it.
We do this fairly regular with gloves and reparatory equipment and jump suit, heavy duty degreaser and use our carpet truck mount with a wall scrubber, 1 pre-spray degreaser, then 2 use the wall scrubber with minimum pressure and suck up the water. One house we did, the lady smoke for over 40 year, and never cleaned the walls or ceiling, it was a disaster. Make sure you use ozone machine for this when no one is around let it run (FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS) , remember the smell of nicotine gets in into every wood pore, carpet fiber and padding, wall paper, this can end up being a lot more than it looks.
I would try TSP or Soilax with a Big Natural Sponge, starting at the bottom of the wall working your way up. Keep rinsing and squeezing the sponge. It takes time to do it right.
Wear proper PPG (gloves, safety glasses, long sleeves)
I would not want to use straight ammonia indoors without respirator equipment. Visit your local janitor supply distributor and ask for something to remove cigarette smoke deposits. There are many products on the market designed to remediate fire and smoke damage so you should find something better than ammonia.
Stay away from the ammonia. Use Titan Green or Simple Green. It’s great for cutting nicotine.
