before you hit it with shellac, consider putting a small ozone generator in
the room for a couple days. The ozone may very well remove the smoke smell.
After that, drywall as usual.

Michael
"charlie b" wrote in message
...
Probably should ask in .home.repair but I'm not sure
they'd have much knowledge of shellac - so . . .

My neighbor, a single mother with three young daughters,
had a fire in her home. No one was in the house at the
time but they did lose a bird and two house cats required
lots of cleaning. The structural damage was negligible,
done by firemen, not the fire itself, which neighbors
had put out with garden hoses prior to the firemen's
arrival. Firemen ripped open a wall, tore down celing
dry wall - dropping borax treated paper insulation
into the 100+ gallons of water they used "just to make
sure the fire was REALLY out - to make paper mache,
and cut a hole in the roof - right next to a large
whirly gig - "have to vent the smoke out of the
attic you know. The smoke was all generated by
the burning plastic of - wait for it - their computer
(and printer). The power strip, which had a reset
button circuit breaker, somehow shorted and caught
the computer on fire - on an oak desk.

Anyway the smoke damage was major. Gritty thick
black crud went everywhere - even in drawers and
cabinets. ALL the interior dry wall must be removed and
all the structural wood above the floor must be sealed prior
to re-dry walling. Apparently the smokey smell even
gets into the wood behind dry wall, and if not sealed off,
will get back into the living area over time. Since
the middle daughter is asthmatic, that wouldn't be
a good thing.

The question is - would a one pound cut of shellac
seal the would enough to stop future smokey smells?
The wood in question is 50+ year old douglas fir
which, today, would be considered furniture grade
as it's mainly close to all quarter sawn, tight
grown ringed stuff that's hard as a rock.

If there's another, less expensive way to seal
the smoke in please feel free to provide that
as well - specific product name if you can

Thanks

charlie b

If it weren't for bad luck, this poor family wouldn't
have any luch at all. But, with help from friends
a neigbors they'll get through this.