Ozone shock treatment for house
 

I purchased a house here in the villages and there is a persistent smell it. The realtor and the inspector both thought it was because the house had sat empty for a long period of time and that once I moved in the smell will go away. I have been here six months now and it hasn't gone away.

I was talking to the neighbors, and they told me the lady who lived here was a chainsmokers and she had pets but with her declining health she was not able to get the pets out to go to the bathroom

When she passed, an investment company bought the property and basically remodeled it. I heard they had to grind the concrete floor down because of pet urine.

Supposedly before I bought the place they had the ducts cleaned.

I assume the smell that's in the air is because of cigarette smoke. I am thinking about having a company do an a professional ozone shock treatment. It costs $1350.

Based on my research, it looks like this is a pretty effective route to go but I was just wondering if anybody has ever had ozone shock treatment done in their house and what the result was.

"Concerns
Critics point to a 1997 study which found exposure to high levels of ozone ineffective at mold decontamination, and to the lack of studies showing high ozone shock treatment to be effective. They also point out that killing mold inside walls does not remove the mold, and that dead mold may continue to have adverse health effects on building inhabitants.

The Federal Trade Commission ruled in 1996 against a manufacturer of an Ozone generator, ordering them to cease representing their product's ability to "eliminate, remove, clean or clear any indoor air pollutant from a user's environment" [6]

Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent which could damage rubber and other materials,[7] and ozone reactions with other material present in buildings could lead to increased levels of noxious chemicals such as formaldehyde.[8]"

High-ozone shock treatment - Wikipedia.

In the last year I had two chain smoking couples move out of apartments I own. In one case the painters had to scrub the walls, ceiling and cabinetry thoroughly before applying any paint as the tars from the cigarette smoke had coated all surfaces. I had all painted surfaces primed and then painted with two coats of paint as the drywall is no doubt saturated with smoke products and I wanted them to be sealed inside. I had the ductwork all scrubbed out with brushes and solvent. They had been there 19 years. I also removed all the carpeting and window covering fabric. The husband of the new couple smokes but he goes outside to do so.

The couple in the other apartment was there just three years but they had to have been spending upwards of $1,000 per month on cigarettes at $8/pack. I never saw them without lit cigarettes, ever. Walls scrubbed, a coat of primer followed by two coats of paint, ducts scrubbed out, pretty much the same drill. Turns out they had a pot farm in the bedroom, too.

In another case after a couple I knew passed away their house was to be sold so the executor had a crew come in to conduct an estate sale. A meth pipe was found in a dresser. One of their kids had been smoking meth in the house. The whole house was contaminated and had to be professionally cleaned.

Stench from pet waste is another matter. If urine has soaked into concrete it needs to be treated and likely sealed. Years ago a tenant was breeding small dogs in an apartment I own. It was second storey and had plywood flooring which I had to rip out and replace. Fortunately it was just one corner of a room.

3 Ways to Remove Urine Odor from Concrete - wikiHow.

There is no way I would pay $1,350 to a contractor unless they guarantee that it will remove the odor. If there is carpet, remove it. If there is left over furniture or curtains, remove them. Paint the walls and ceilings. If that doesn't work, buy another house.

Thanks for the info. That was my initial plan, just buy a 5 gallon bucket of kilz oil base primer and paint the whole house. Maybe I'll try that first. That's only a couple hundred bucks and some elbow grease. Unfortunately, they had already painted the walls so I'm not gonna be able to do any scrubbing. I'm only going to be able to spray a couple coats of primer on the walls and ceiling.

Yeah, I don't so much mind the price tag as long as it actually works. The carpets all new and I don't smell any odor in it so when they ground down the concrete, it must've worked. I assume it's on the walls in the ceiling so I think I will try the painting first.

I just wanted to see if anybody here had had it done before.

Double check the baseboards, these are typically only painted on the outside surface, and it is possible that these boards have soaked up various liquids and odors, repainting these will not work (IMHO), and I would expect these would need to be removed, the drywall behind these checked for staining and odors, and new materials installed.

I had the same situation when I purchased a "real good deal" here in the Villages. Most of the smell in the empty house was one single carpet in the living room that had not been thrown away. Before we moved in, I threw the carpet out, had a cleaning service come in and clean EVERYTHING and then set about painting everything in the house, including the garage. I even had the cement floor of the garage cleaned and painted. No problem with smell now. Opening the windows for some fresh air from time to time helps also. I also had a guy with a big machine come in and clean the laminate floors that seemed to have an accumulation of some sort.

Carpet , drapes, duct work , ac evaporator, ac blower fan.... you can't clean the tar and nicotine off everything ... very sad to hear about your problem..we knew another person that had this issue, she ended up selling her place to a " smoker" and moved away..,

If you already got rid of carpets, you probably only need to paint everything else. Kilz might not be your best option, there are other products out there.

Ozone treatments work. You can buy machines on Amazon or somewhere else, for $150-$200. Close the house up and let 'em rip for a few days. The commercial treatments are no better than you can do yourself.

Yes, I've done it numerous times.

I agree with Brian ^^^^

Ozone does work from what I hear. I believe that's what hotels use when someone smokes in the room. They charge the person for special cleaning with ozone.

Buy your own machine.

The Best Ozone Generators of 2024 - Top Picks by Bob Vila

As a REALTOR®, there was a house my customer loved that reeked of cigarette smoke. The sellers insisted they never smoked in the house, but it was apparent that wasn’t the truth.

We let them know the buyers were very interested, but not with the smell of the smoke. Apparently others also protested because they did that ozone treatment. With two different companies at two different times, because the smell did not go away.

After the second treatment, my customer had already purchased another house by that time, saw that the house was back up for sale and asked if we could see it. Maybe she could buy it for her son. We could still smell a tell tale sign of the smoke, and she decided against it.

A couple of weeks after that, I met a vendor who says he does remove all smells, mold, etc etc. He has a good reputation with the group I am in. I wish I had met him before so I could have seen what he could have done with that house. I have yet to come across another situation where I could use him, but in case you want to try him, his name is Franklyn Duporte, with AllDry, based out of Ocala. Send me a message if you need the contact information. If you do use him, I would really appreciate getting feedback on his services.

I had a couple from Peru in one of my rentals in Il. Clean as clean could be. However she cooked with a spice I thought permeated the home. I checked into a company that would put a machine in the home for a few days when they moved out but I can't remember the name of it. Anyway as time went on the smell dissipated and when I sold the property it was just fine. They were there 7 years. Good luck!

Smell
 

We had a house fire in 2005 and the restoration company wanted to use the ozone machine for $1000 a day. Instead we actually purchased our own brand new machine for $500 and it worked like a charm. Look into purchasing your own.

It works. When we moved my Father in law into an assisted living there was an awful smell in the bathroom. No amount of cleaning worked. They finally put the generator in the bathroom and closed the whole room off for several days. When we went back in the smell was gone and never came back.