Painting over nicotine stains

Bargain Hunter

Bargain Hunter

One of our properties has become unexpectantly vacant and we decided to do a bit of a spruce up.

The original owners appear to have been heavy smokers so most of the ceilings and some of the walls where badly stained with nicotine.

We used sugar soap and Zinzer paint but the stains continue to bleed through to the top coat. It's driving me bananas.

The paint suppliers keep recommending Zinzer but it is not doing the job.

Have any forumites found a product which works????

Regards

Andrew
 
Hi Andrew

Was it Zinzer Cover Stain?

That was what I was recommended but I haven't tried it yet.

Solver have a good one apparently.
 
Tools said:
I have no idea what zinzer is, but "stop tar" is what you need.I think it is made by viponds.

Tools
Click to expand...

Zinzer is what all the retailers are flogging, and it doesn't work. I have spent $210 on 12Lts and the stains are still bleeding through.

I have sent a request for information to Viponds regards where I can purchase the product as no retailers come up in the search.

Thanks for the recommendation.

Regards

Andrew
 
Hi Andrew

The previous owner of Myrtle Cottage used to shut himself in his room and smoke - for thirty years!

The rest of the house was OK, but at some stage his room had been painted in gloss washable paint, but scrubbing the ceiling (liquid nicotine dripping into my hair, running down my arms) and the walls (enough said) was ridiculous.

When I had scrubbed off as much as I could, I realised that the tar had impregnated the plasterboard to the point that any more scrubbing would require the plasterboard to be repapered, so I primed the ceiling with alkyd oil based primer.

This was wonderful stuff! Just the one coat and then I painted over that without any problems. I used acrylic primer on the walls, which was no where near as good as the alkyd primer. It crazed and lifted off in parts whereas the oil based primer really stuck like glue!

My local paint shop said that the Wattyl alkyd primer was no longer being made, so last job I used Dulux Three In One - just about stripped my lungs but had great adhesion and covered everything really well.

I wouldn't use acrylic primer again if I had the choice to use an oil based primer.

Hope this helps

Kristine
 
If ever there was a thread to discourage people from smoking, this would have to be it.
I was quite revolted to read it!! Kristine you deserve a medal. :eek:
 
Just a thought but..... when painting feature walls the colours are actually quite watery and you need to paint underneath with a solid grey. When you put the colour over the top it is 'true' to the sample. Would a solid undercoat with the actual colour over it work? Or would the yellow patch show through? I know you got special stuff but what colour is that anti-nicotine special under coat?
 
Wish-ga,

Unlike an old water mark the stain is 'live' the tar physically seeps through each coat of paint. The undercoat needs to form a solid barrier to prevent the stain bleeding through.

I have previously used a product which was almost like wood glue, however I cannot remember the name and so went with the product recommended.

I have contacted Viponds directly and they state that some Bristol Trade Centres stock the Tar Stop product so I will be making some calls tomorrow.

Andrew
 
Bargain Hunter said:
Wish-ga,

Unlike an old water mark the stain is 'live' the tar physically seeps through each coat of paint. The undercoat needs to form a solid barrier to prevent the stain bleeding through.

Andrew
Click to expand...

Bummer. I *once* bought a second hand car from a smoker. Never again. Even 2.5 years later if I parked in the sun the smell would seep out from the seats (guessing in the foam not just the fabric cover). No matter how great the car, not buying from a smoker again.

Nicotine seepage. Doesn't sound nice. Antedote: plaster over it. That'll show it!
*shakes plastering trowel in fury at unwanted work*

Overkill? Yeah, sorry about that.:p
 
ani said:
Hi Andrew

Was it Zinzer Cover Stain?

That was what I was recommended but I haven't tried it yet.

Solver have a good one apparently.
Click to expand...

Ani,

I made some calls to find where to buy Tar Stop. Didn't have much luck, but one retailer recommended Zinzer. I told that it was rubbish and I'd never buy it again.

He was confused and guess what. I'm using the wrong Zinzer. I didn't realise there were different Zinzers as my local Bunnings only stocked the one type.

I have bought the Zinzer Cover Stain and will see how I go (crosses fingers).

wish-ga said:
Bummer. I *once* bought a second hand car from a smoker. Never again. Even 2.5 years later if I parked in the sun the smell would seep out from the seats (guessing in the foam not just the fabric cover). No matter how great the car, not buying from a smoker again.

Nicotine seepage. Doesn't sound nice. Antedote: plaster over it. That'll show it!
*shakes plastering trowel in fury at unwanted work*

Overkill? Yeah, sorry about that.:p
Click to expand...

From you car story I think the stain would keep coming... oh no the BLOB (does a Macauley Culkin scream and runs away)

Regards

Andrew
 
A bit of a different situation for me. I wrote a few measurments in Biro on a wall. Anyhow after painting over the area 6 times with ordinary acrylic paint, the biro would just come straight through. I was starting to go mad :D

I mentioned my problem to a sales person at my local Bunnings,, and he told me to get a sealer / undercoat. Or in my situation, where the affected area was so small, he recommended ordinary spray enamal ie a spray can. That did the trick straight away. I just painted over the enamal with the acrylic without any noticable differences. No biro showed at all.
 
Guys I have been a painter for over 20 years and zinsser is the best product ever released bar none for any undercoating or stain sealing.
When you say Zinsser didn`t work, did it just look like the stains were still coming through so you didn`t bother with the top coat?????.
Zinsser always works there are three types, water based, turps based and metho based and I can tell you they all work.
Metho based product is the best though for very bad staining.
What I did notice a few years back was after applying Zinsser it didn`t look like it worked, but then when the top coats went on, absolutely did the job!!!.

May need two coats on some areas.
I use Zinsser for everything, it is fantasic as an undercoat under gloss enamel etc.
Does take a long time to go 100% hard under the gloss so if you bump the surface within the first month it will peel and appear not to do the job.
 
Last edited:
As an update.

Yes the Zinsser did the trick.:D

We now know that we have to travel 20 mins to another Bunnings to get the paint as our local Bunnings doesn't stock the correct one.:mad:

Looks good now, thanks everyone.
 
markpatric said:
Guys I have been a painter for over 20 years and zinsser is the best product ever released bar none for any undercoating or stain sealing.
When you say Zinsser didn`t work, did it just look like the stains were still coming through so you didn`t bother with the top coat?????.
Zinsser always works there are three types, water based, turps based and metho based and I can tell you they all work.
Metho based product is the best though for very bad staining.
What I did notice a few years back was after applying Zinsser it didn`t look like it worked, but then when the top coats went on, absolutely did the job!!!.
Click to expand...

Mark,

I was using the wrong product.

The Zinser Cover Stain (turps based) worked a treat.

Regards

Andrew
 
So once you have cleaned the ceiling/wall with sugar soap (presumably) used the zinsser (or is it zinzer) to cover the nicotine stains what kind of paint do you use as a top coat? Are you restricted to oil based paints or can you use acrylic paint over the top?
 
we never used anything extra, but did have to use 3 coats to cover nicely. water based paint iirc.

Slightly different situation, but i recall a simmilar issue. We had written some measurements in biro on the wall. No matter how many times we brushed over it using water based, it would pop back out every time. We ended up buying a cheap can of white enamal spray paint. Put a few light sprays over the pen marks, painted over with the water based and all was good.

So I guess it depends on how bad the staining is really.
 
mate! you need sugar soap and a broom, to scrub them out! we had one once that had nicotine steligtights, from the ceiling, then sand , undercoat and paint, :D
 
Psu

We recently bought our first IP and the same thing on the lounge room ceiling. Good o'l sugar soap cleaned with a squeegy mop, although we could not remove the nicotine colouring, anyway we new it was clean then) a friend recommended PSU Undercoat/Sealer (not sure what brand, might be dulux) which did the trick and then used a one coat ceiling paint and probably used 2 to 3 coats. Anyway that is what worked on the ceiling we did and after reading some of the posts I am not sure that ours was as bad as others have come across. Hope this helps. Cheers K
 
Get a product called Tricleanium, its available at all bunnings, it comes in a yellow tub and it will get rid of the smell from the walls as well as the stains. I spent yesterday disinfecting a previous owners house and it works a treat. It also managed to get rid of the food stains he left on the walls quite well as well. I think he must of sat there fagging off while throwing food from a distance somewhere near his mouth. Word of warning though USE GLOVES ( I only say this as some people read instructions as recommendations, like the speed limit etc). The product will be somewhere in the paint section not the cleaning section.
 
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