Cig smoke smell, which paint

Have you given the walls a good wash down with sugar soap first - and well rinsed down? And repeat as necessary?

Snag with the smell is it may be hiding in other places more difficult to get at.

Sugar soap will be used, but its pretty bad so I expect it to need more.

NT

Is the alu primer for wood easier to over-coat than the alu finish for metal? I had a garage door that was a real bugger to gloss for years, every time it dulled within a few months, eventually solved by replacing the door.

Pretty well all everything in tobacco smoke is water soluble, so a good wash should get rid of most of it from hard surfaces.

Then when you think it's all gone, you need to get something out of the loft . . .

John

Can't wash it off your fingers. ISTR that was the punchline for a government anti-smoking advert

thats good news, the carpet's been thorough;y cleaned.

NT

I recently painted a room, which literally stank of nicotine, with Wickes white exterior, oil based undercoat. This included four walls and the ceiling and all were a light to medium brown colour from the smoke. One liberal coat, applied with a four inch roller was enough to seal all surfaces. I didn't bother with sugar soap. I then painted with emulsions of my choice with no problem. I was concerned that the nicotine would bleed through the undercoat but it worked a treat! The floor was laminate so I ran a steam mop over it a couple of times to remove any tobacco smells.

True - but skin isn't a hard surface. Pretty absorbent for some things.

One of the many banned by the ASA?

I've used cheap bio clothes liquid [or powder] solution, and wash walls using a soft bristle car brush. Brown rivers of tar running down the wall... yuck, but strangely satisfying. Normal emulsion went on fine afterwards.

Interesting. So Dave is wrong about the tar being water soluble then?

Sugar soap is for washing down painted surfaces. You dissolve it in warm water. Doesn't much matter what is beneath the paint.

Err no. Sugar soap is sodium phosphate or should be but there's been much mucking about with it over the years. That's why it feels gritty but you're supposed to dissolve it in warm water.

I don't know. I'm not going to contradict him - I'm no expert by any means. Bio solution works v well tho, and with v little effort.

Whichever method... far better to wash the tar/smell off IMO, rather than covering or sealing it in.

The original tub I had contained TSP and a silicate abrasive, but that was many moons ago. The current Mangers brand contains mainly bath salts

Elfin Safety or the EU? Both of them seem determined to ban anything That Just Works.

I've just been using some of Wicks own brand stuff and it works as well as ever. I can't see why you'd use anything else for cleaning paint prior to painting.