Removing cigarette smell from house

I'm a former smoker and I would never buy a house occupied by a smoker for the reasons you are dealing with.

Any carpet, acoustic tiles, area rugs, furniture left behind, etc. are pretty much throw items. Drapery can be cleaned to eliminate the smell, if it is worth it.

I'd start with TSP and warm water to clean out any nicotine buildup, especially on ceilings. Then paint everything first with a odor killing primer like Kilz and then topcoat.

And when doing this, keep the house open so fresh air can freely flow through it, especially if using oil based Kilz since that stuff is brutally strong when applied in enclosed areas and will have your head swimming in no time.

I've used Kilz when repainting fire damaged buildings in the past and it works great after removal of all fire damaged material, but the smoke smell is there.

Kilz

- on walls, ceilings, and sub-flooring after removing carpet/flooring.

Everything. Cover it in Kilz. And ventilate very well during and after application.

Well, that answers that. I’ve heard not to be home when running those machines in a house.

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What about using a ozone machine?

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This.
Ozone generators are great for this. A friend of mine who use to own a used car dealership had one to remove the smoke smell out of cars he obtained from smokers. Now, as for a whole house treatment; I would talk to someone more knowledgeable on these things.

Ozone for sure. I make my own.

Ozone machine OP. Don’t do anything else first. Just get the $100 ones off Amazon’s with good reviews. They work absolutely amazingly on smoke. I don’t even care about tenants smoking anymore. Do it like 2-3 hours per room. You may be able to do it for 30 mins per room but just take your time. Yes you definitely can’t be there while it runs but they all have timers.

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prime and paint and chunk everything else that was in the house.

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The voice of experience!

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And learning the hard way. My cousin and I were using oil based Kilz in a rental unit in the French Quarter many years ago that had caught on fire. We removed all material that was actually burned and replaced with new building material and painted the whole place with Kilz to help eliminate the smoke smell.

The area was a central unit with only windows in front and back, and very few of them to boot. We were in there for over 3 hours when a load of material came that we needed for more work and the truck was double parked on the street.

We had to unload it quick since it was the Quarter and once my cousin and I got out into fresh air we both began throwing up like 2 drunk fools. I've never had nausea overtake me like that in my life and a hard lesson learned.

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