How to get rid of nicotine stains from walls?

[Cado]

Howdy all, 

I am looking for any help/suggestions for a massive project. Lounge, Kitchen and Dining walls are covered in years of nicotine stains! Luckily, there is no smell, just the lovely orange/yellow hue of horridness. Is sugar soap the best option? How is the best way to go about cleaning such a massive area? Does it need to be done with a soft cloth by hand or is there an option to use a soft flat mophead to cover more area? 

I'll upload progress etc. as soon as we have access to the property to start this mammoth task. 

[Akanksha]

Hello @Cado,

A warm welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community! We're delighted to have you join us and look forward to seeing and assisting you with your D.I.Y. projects around your home and garden.

Thanks for your question. Our resident Bunnings D.I.Y. expert @EricL will be online later today and will be happy to assist you with suggestions on how to get rid of nicotine stains from your walls. Let me also tag our ever-helpful members @Dave-1, @seannami and @TedBear to see if they have any thoughts in the meantime.  

While waiting, I recommend having a look at our Best Advice article How do you remove nicotine stains from walls?. for handy tips. 

Akanksha

[seannami]

Hi @Cado 

I did this exact project a couple of years ago (awful to say the least!). You have to do it by hand, I tried the mop and it was useless. Sugar soap, a ton of microfibre cloths and a couple of drops of water soluble teatree or eucalyptus was my magic weapon. Make the sugar soap double strength. You then need to paint over it with Dulux maximum strength stain primer and one more paint coat than you think you'll need. If you don't seal everything properly, it'll keep coming back. Ceilings especially. I made the mistake of skimping on one coat of ceiling paint in the lounge and I'm regretting it. I'll need to do another one when I get the chance to move furniture out.

Good luck! Nicotine is one of the worst things I have ever had to deal with, even when I was cleaning professionally!

Make sure you properly scrub kitchen cupboards several times. I was getting the smell every time I turned the oven on until the oven was replaced!

[Dave-1]

Good Morning @Cado 

Ugh, that is a job and a half. I havnt had to clean nicotine styains before but have had to clean kitchen ceilings before...

I tried using sugar soap to clean it and ended up with streaks and a body aches like crazy lol 

Good news is theer is a paint that is antibacterial and is designed to be painted over kitchen ceilings/ nicotine without the sugar soap first.

Ive used stain blocker paint twice over the years and nbboth worked well. I cant remember the name but something along these lines.

zinsser 3.78l oil based odourless primer There are a bunch of others aslo. This was the first one that popped up.

I know it saved me a huge amount of effort in teh second kitchen I painted for teh ceiling and walls.

Dave

[EricL]

Hello @Cado 

It's fantastic that you've received excellent advice from @seannami and @Dave-1. Just to add to the suggestions made, I also recommend Zinsser 3.78L B.I.N Primer Sealer Stain Killer. My best advice is to do it one section at a time so that it won't seem like such a huge undertaking. This will also allow you to concentrate on each room and give it a more in-depth cleaning. 

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[Cado]

Hi all, we did a mammoth job yesterday trying to clean as much of the walls as possible. 
We used sugar soap spray, wiped with damp microfibre cloth then a once over with warm water and a cloth. 
I tried a couple of other things but this was the method that worked best and quickest for a large area. 

 

 

 

[Cado]

Hi Dave, thanks for pointing me in the right direction for the primer. The walls came up better than expected and we skipped the ceiling as we can just do as you’ve suggested. You saved me a day of labour and a week of body aches! 

 

[MitchellMc]

Great work @Cado! Not sure if you read in the Best Advice article but I've been told that Methylated Spirits does a good job of chemically breaking down the tar deposits. Might be worth giving it a try.

Mitchell

[Dave-1]

 @Cado 

Wooo that would have been a hard slog I remember the kitchen ceiling way to well and the relife and also the question "Am I taking the easy road" being in my head

Nooo The effort expended is what makes a job a good job If you are on the East Coast of Aus then man you would have been sweltering in the heat!

Hats off to you.

Dave