# A smoker's house, a baby, and carpeting



## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

How would you get the residue out of the carpet/cloth furniture? Enough to where you'd feel comfortable letting a baby crawl round the place?

I'm assuming I will need a good steam cleaner, but have no experience with those. Recommendations? And I worry about the toxins in the chemicals used to shampoo carpet, so is there anything "green" out there?


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

Rent yourself a hoover steam vac. It gets hot enough to sterilize the surfaces you're cleaning. Use oxiclean if you use a regular carpet shampooer. Rinse twice. Do the same with furniture. Launder all the curtains with oxyclean as well. Then spray the carpet and the furniture with scotch guard. You'll need several cans. It will be well worth the expense the first time that baby pees on the couch!


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## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

Thank you! 
How I'm going to scrub those drapes down... they've been there thirty years if a day and are the waterproof backed kind. How d'you clean those things? They actually don't look nasty, but I don't think they've EVER been taken down and likely, once clean, will turn out to be a totally different color.

Old family home. Lived in by an overworked bachelor with occasional girlfriends for years. You can start crying for me now, lol.


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## Ninn (Oct 28, 2006)

You can actually wash those drapes in the washing machine, but it will be easier in the bathtub. Soak them in cold water with ph neutral soap-johnson's baby bath or something like it. "sozzle" the soap through the drapes, rinse and repeat until your rinse water runs clear. Roll in a towel and press down to absorb water. Work your way down the drapes with the towel. Hang them back up to dry. If there are no weights in the bottom to prevent wrinkles, put a bunch of clothespins along the bottom. The small additional weight will help pull the wrinkles out. Spray with scotchguard after they are dry. 

I feel your pain, Jen. My apartment was occupied by about 6 heavy smokers before we moved in. Every single wall had to be scrubbed down. The ceilings are a nightmare. 4 dropped ceilings with nicotine stains on them. One very slanted ceiling in the kitchen, (not to mention that horrid pink wallpaper) and the slanted ceiling in the bathroom. They are all going to have to be done over with Kilz, because washing them is just making a worse mess. If your walls don't come clean, seal them up with Kilz primer and paint them a nice fresh color. It's much easier than the ongoing fight with the nicotine, which seems to seep out of the wall while you are washing!


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## Ardie/WI (May 10, 2002)

Ninn said:


> Rent yourself a hoover steam vac. It gets hot enough to sterilize the surfaces you're cleaning. Use oxiclean if you use a regular carpet shampooer. Rinse twice. Do the same with furniture. Launder all the curtains with oxyclean as well. Then spray the carpet and the furniture with scotch guard. You'll need several cans. It will be well worth the expense the first time that baby pees on the couch!


To be candidly honest, I wouldn't want a baby on furniture or carpeting that has had Scotch Guard sprayed on it. I'd be concerned about the chemicals.


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

Are you cleaning it for a family member, or is it yours to do with as you wish??

We moved into a house that smelled of smoke and even with new carpet and paint we smelled it for 6 months. I would get rid of the 30 year old drapes if that is an option.. It will help you get the smell from the house faster...


I love the wooden 1 1/2 in miniblinds so light can flood in ...
I used a light weight side panel curtain in some places for color and accent.


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## Maura (Jun 6, 2004)

You will be able to clean the top of the carpet very nicely, and maybe the middle layer, but not the bottom. More importantly, it's not so much the stuff in the carpet, but what's under the carpet. If you can, pull out the old carpeting and carpet pad and throw them out. This will leave you with either nice flooring (fingers crossed) or a subfloor. You can then put a nice finish on the flooring or carpet it. If it is subfloor, you can either put down a new floor (laminate) or carpet.

After you wash one of the curtains you can decide if you want to wash all of them or replace them.


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## jen74145 (Oct 31, 2006)

It belongs to my grandmother: my father lives there alone, she visits every few months. Tricky... grandma is attached to everything she has ever owned, like the drapes. I may just take them down and put them in the attic or storage and hang new, shorter ones anyway, the more I think about it. Can just see my son trying to use them to help him stand and disaster resulting. *shudder*

DH may be going overseas for a year or two so I'm thinking about moving up there with the baby so we won't be all alone. 

Our potential bedroom hasn't been used in years. It's just where the laundry is done and that is it, so that's better. The living room is the only room with carpet I'm concerned about, but man. It's three years old, but between smoking and work boots I'll need to attack it. 

I am kind of concerned because they could send DH anytime... if accepted, they could tell him to be at the airport next week. Or next month. No telling. 

Did I mention it is so not babyproofed with a big brick hearth and raised brick entryway? Yeah. I know I'm going to wind up hiring people at some point, because while it isn't filthy, it is an old house with things like a suspicious popcorn ceiling, circa 1965. When was asbestos banned again?

I probably will rent a room at the Extended Stay for a couple until I get it up to par, so nobody freak about the kid in this stuff.  

If I do this and don't take before and after pics, someone come kick me.

Grandma is likely going to sell it in a couple years, so this stuff will need to be done anyway.


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## Snowdancer (Sep 23, 2002)

Don't forget painted surfaces could have lead in them so any surface the little one could chew or get chips of paint off of should probably be repainted.


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