Smoke Odor Removal- Manchester, NH

Selling a home always comes with challenges. Challenges can be multiplied when dealing with issues such as structural failures, out of code utilities, mold, or odor. To some, odor may pale in comparison to the expensive structural repairs or mold remediation. Nevertheless, odor removal can serve as a serious obstacle to overcome during a real estate transaction. Such is the situation in this case study of property sellers needing smoke odor removal from a Manchester home.
Recently, three adult children were tasked with the responsibility of selling their elderly parent’s Manchester home. For medical reasons the parents needed to move to a senior living facility. During the pack-out of the property the children interviewed a few real estate brokers before selecting their listing agent. The consensus on the house was fairly scattered as far as value and selling advice, but one thing was unanimous: the house needed serious smoke odor removal. Unless the children would accept a drastic reduction on price, they needed to deal with the cigarette smoke odor that had accumulated in the Manchester home for the past twenty years. Can this kind of smoke odor even be cleaned or deodorized?
Smoke odor removal, in this case from cigarette smoke, can be cleaned and deodorized. This was the good news for the children preparing to sell the property. They commandeered Soil-Away Cleaning and Restoration’s smoke odor removal team to tackle the Manchester project. Projects like these are not uncommon and typically follow a similar scope of work. Smoke damage typically attaches itself to every physical surface it can: ceilings, walls, floors, cabinets, appliances, and contents. In this case, the children had boxed up and moved out all the contents. The house was empty, thus only the structure needed to be cleaned and deodorized. Working top to bottom, left to right, Soil-Away smoke odor removal crews diligently washed down all surfaces. Heavily affected areas, such as the kitchen, even required some degreasing agents to breakdown the nicotine sludge build up on surfaces. All carpets are cleaned and deodorized with truck-mounted, hot-water extraction machines. This is a very labor intensive, detail oriented process. Following the full cleaning, an inspection is done of the entire property. Areas behind appliances, inside cabinets, and on top of light fixtures are all check for smoke residue or odor by a project manager. This Manchester project also required us to perform ozone treatment of the entire property for 48 hours following the cleaning. The house was locked down for two days while the smoke odor removal process was completed.
Following the services of Soil-Away, the family was relieved that the smoke odor had been completely removed from their parents’ Manchester home. They combined their efforts to perform a quick paint job to brighten the place up. The house was now empty, clean and deodorized. The smoke odor damage was a memory and the property could now be confidently put on the market for sale.