Can non-smokers be happy in smoked-in trailer/towing vehicle - Page 2

Happycampers · 07-21-2004, 09:39 PM

Hello ..and welcome to the joy of ownership of an Airstream.. What you may have forgotten to clean are the screens.. inside the vents... and speaker covers.. MEAN GREEN from Walmart works great.

. just finished doing our Argosy.. Good luck.. Annie and Marvin

71_safari · 07-22-2004, 12:02 AM

I have the same sensitivities as you and have to be careful about my environment and air quality. Do not even consider a smoked-in trailer or vehicle. You will never get it all out and the residue is very toxic, as are any cleaning compounds strong enough to make a dent in it. And those ozone machines are damaging to lungs so that's not a solution either. There are many non-smoking and for that matter, non-pet trailers available, especially here in the West where smoking has gone way down over the past several years. I am always shocked when I travel east and see smoking in restaurants. You can't even smoke in a bar here anymore.

When you contact a seller the first three questions should be smoking, pets, and floor rot/mildew - in that order. Be clear about it being non-negotiable. Everything else is fixable for the most part. Mine, which I puchased in Wisconsin (off Ebay) had none of the above.

john

silver suz · 07-22-2004, 07:56 AM

HAH ! Someone questioning the ability of my "bionic nose"? I would smell it and many other things too, but would be too polite or too sick to say anything! good luck and don't forget the window screens. silver suz

75Airstream500 · 07-23-2004, 07:41 AM

We just bought Smokey the Excella and my suggestion is, no way. I have spent 3 full days cleaning top to bottom. Every time I step in her I find new cracks and crevices that I missed. ANNNNNDDD there are the spots that no sponge, qtip or toothpick can reach. After I was told to make sure to scrub screens, I went in and scrubbed a 12" x 12" section of my door screen and YUCKO! I thought the screen had yellowed with age (It is the original white screen) Well, a gallon bucket of water was black after 3 washes of the sponge. Okay, the screens are gonna go! What a shame too. They were the originals.

Yep, that is my 2 cents. I still love my Excella, but I would rather be working on the fixing up part as opposed to all this scrubbing for days on end. ARGHHH!

silver suz · 07-23-2004, 12:10 PM

Try steam cleaning EVERYTHING. silver suz

**Stefrobrts** · 07-23-2004, 12:17 PM

I had mustang convertible which had been smoked in by the PO, and I never got that awful smell out. We had it professionally steam cleaned, took the seats out, cleaned the carpets, the works, and on a hot day that awful stench would come back out. Same thing if it got wet inside (which convertibles frequently do). Good luck ever fully getting rid of it.

JohnG · 07-23-2004, 12:23 PM

Don't know, I guess some people have more reaction to smoke than others. I have never found it too hard to clean.

If it's so bad you could always paint over it or something, but if the price is right I am not going to let a little thing like that stop me from buying what I want.

I've bought houses, campers, and autos that have all been smoked in. I do suggest OdoBan as I stated above in this thread cause it really eliminates odors. You can also mix it with a lot of different cleaners too and the solution will not only clean and disinfect, but it will get the odor out.

I can't imagine smoking or pets taking president over floor rot or mildew......................

75Airstream500 · 07-23-2004, 03:22 PM

John, I AM going to try that too. I have cleaned everything with 409 and what I have cleaned doesn't smell too bad. It is just that this tar is THICK, did I say, "THICK!" everywhere.

Seriously, it is like a grime. Hopefully, we will get to pull the carpet and the fabrics and foams this weekend. I think that will help a lot. (Which, by the way, I need input on the whole sofa redo thing...but that will be another thread

.) Anyway, thanks for the odaban tip.
Lisa

dmac · 07-23-2004, 03:24 PM

The smoke will get into insulation, the headliner, wood, carpet behind cabinates... Once smoked in, it's only suitable for a smoker. I can tell immediately if a trailer, car, or house has been smoked in. I would never buy any of them!

My Dad was a lung doctor, and my father-in-law (former smoker) is dying from lung cancer right now, so I might be biased!

elbundi · 02-13-2008, 05:26 PM

i wasn't going to buy because it had been smoked in, but the PO dropped his price a lot. the smell kind of reminds me of my grandad. he smoked woodbines all his life then dropped dead from an aggressive throat cancer! was a great carpenter though, fond memories

the carpet, upholstry, leather door to the bedroom, captain n passengers chairs, and all screen material will eventaully be replaced.

i've used half a gallon of odoban so far and the teary eyes and splotchy face have gone away, success.

but it still has a slight odor after being closed for a while. what would you all recommend for the stained walls? scrub, sand and zolatone paint? concentrated TSP? sell to a smoker, buy another 345?

RIstream'n · 02-13-2008, 05:51 PM

As an auto dealer I can say that we sell 2-3000 cars per year and clean every one of them in our 12 bay state of the art reconditioning facility and smoke smell NEVER comes out completely and we even use an "ozone" machine. So if you're worried it's probably for good reason. It might be hard but I think you should walk away.

Jim Clark · 02-13-2008, 06:10 PM

This is what worked in my truck. I cleaned it very well then I sprayed/soaked with Febreze. I then cranked the heater as hot as it would go and let it run full blast for 2 hours. I did this twice and it worked. I have leather interior which may not soak as much odor. I had to clean every inch of the interior I could reach. The Febreze may be worse for you than the nicotine.

Excella CM · 02-13-2008, 06:52 PM

One way to remove odors is to breakdown the molecules that cause the smell. One way to do that is to generate ozone. A sunlamp works just fine. Set it up in a safe place and leave it running in the rig with the windows and vents closed to concentrate the gas. A week or so will help a lot and wont damage anything else. I've cleaned up several cars this way. It's not 100%, but it helps.

JimGolden · 02-13-2008, 07:10 PM

When I bought my last trailer, the PO (who was a piece of work) had smoked in it a bunch. He was even nice enough to have put some of them out on the carpet....but that's another story.

It took us three weeks to get the walls and upholstery cleaned up. We used the Mean Green stuff from Walmart with lots of elbow grease and got the walls cleaned up pretty well.

I then got ten of these "odor absorbers" from Lowes. I'm not sure how different they are from an old fashioned air freshener, but they claim that they actually absorb the odors, rather than just masking them. They're about the size of a Noxema jug or Citronella Candle. They come in various flavors. I got the citrus orange. Well, i closed the coach up and let these things sit in there all over the coach, all ten of them, for about a month. (according to the odor absorber can, one of them is good for like 400 square feet, so I had WAY more than what they claimed you needed) When I first went in, it was like I'd gone to the Land of Orange, but once I let it air out and the citrus smell was gone, no more smoke smell at all. We washed all the upholstery and the coach is good to go now.

The PO may not have smoked as heavily in it as in some of the rigs you guys are talking about on here. But it took some work, but we got it out.

Lots of luck,