The last people who rented this house were hardcore smokers.
When we first opened the door for the initial walkthrough, the rank odor hit me in the face like the blade of a shovel.
I have always been very sensitive to odors and especially smoke, so I put on a face covering before continuing with the tour. The house was old and in need of a lot of repairs, but it did come on a large parcel of land that overlooked the river. A beautiful setting for an old and dingy house that needed a lot of work… especially the air quality! Although it had been empty for some months, the indoor air quality in this place was still foul and disgusting. This was not a matter of opening the windows for natural ventilation and turning on some box fans. The entire place needed to be scraped down to the bare walls, and the whole ductwork system needed a thorough cleaning. Besides being smokers these jokers also neglected to ever change out the air filters in the system. The old air filters were so dirty they had crusted over. With no air filter to protect them, the insides of the air ducts were coated with layers of dust and grime. It was actually quite sickening! After a full ductwork cleaning, new air filters, new paint and carpets, and a few days of airing out, the place was livable again. The air quality was reasonable, but hopefully it will keep improving over time, because we won’t smoke in the house.