I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
... yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike P

Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike P

I've had to deal with the same situation 6 months ago. The nicotine will
have to come off as even if paint will initially mask it, in time it
will bleed through. Three progressive scrubs with sugar soap and
multiple coats of white emulsion seem to have done the trick. It was a
horrible job to undertake.
I've now got a tenant in the property (non smoking!!) so I'll not see
the long term performance until the next inspection but so far so good
and they have not complained about the decor yet!

Good Luck

Bob

In article ,
Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

It's the tars in fag smoke that show - not the nicotine. But they seem to
be water soluble so clean off easily with sugar soap. Wet it first then
leave a few minutes - then wipe off. Finish by rinsing with clean water.
If only other household 'deposits' were so easy to shift.

--
*Upon the advice of my attorney, my shirt bears no message at this time

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Mike" wrote in message
news
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

I had the same problem some years ago, with on old pub. Half a dozen washes
with sugar soap didn't solve the problem, so, as the room was over 9ft high,
I put in a suspended ceiling 6" below the real one.

Colin Bignell

Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
... yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike P

We had the same problem on moving into our French property. We were
advised ordinary water based emulsion paint wouldn't work. Tried a small
area and sure enough the brown just came straight through. On
recommendation we ended up buying some spirit based white emulsion. It
was expensive as hell, as paint tends to be in France anyway, but the
brown has not come through after nearly four years of doing the job.

Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Its got to come off completely or twill bleed through.

Rather than sugar soap, look in Yellow Pages & find a nearby Janitorial
Supplies place. Pop in & ask for a really good Hard Surface Cleaner.
5litres will cost £10 max and will dilute heavily. A world apart from the
products in supermarkets.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk

David in Normandy wrote:
Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
... yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike P

We had the same problem on moving into our French property. We were
advised ordinary water based emulsion paint wouldn't work. Tried a small
area and sure enough the brown just came straight through. On
recommendation we ended up buying some spirit based white emulsion. It
was expensive as hell, as paint tends to be in France anyway, but the
brown has not come through after nearly four years of doing the job.

Oil based undercoat is cheap enough. Nothing bleeds through that IME

On 9 May, 17:14, Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike *P

Are you going to carry on smoking in it? The top decks of London buses
used to have their ceilings painted creamy beige so that the stains
weren't so noticeable. I always thought it was quite a nice warm color
for a ceiling.

--
Remember Dr Folkman

In article ,
Bob Minchin writes:
Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike P

I've had to deal with the same situation 6 months ago. The nicotine will
have to come off as even if paint will initially mask it, in time it
will bleed through. Three progressive scrubs with sugar soap and
multiple coats of white emulsion seem to have done the trick. It was a
horrible job to undertake.

If the ceiling is in otherwise less than perfect condition,
might be worthing thinking about replacing it instead.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Sat, 9 May 2009 11:56:06 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On 9 May, 17:14, Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike *P

Are you going to carry on smoking in it? The top decks of London buses
used to have their ceilings painted creamy beige so that the stains
weren't so noticeable. I always thought it was quite a nice warm color
for a ceiling.

Not my ceiling ......... but the guy who owns it is a heavy smoker.

Mike P

Not sure about cigarette tar but

Paint in France is a ridiculous price.
I needed to paint over a strongly coloured wall in France a couple of
years ago and cheap white emulsion made no impression so we were sold
an oil based white paint which cost a fortune but did the job.
I'm pretty sure it was just white oil based undercoat which you can
get here for £10 for 5 litres in Wickes.
Next time i'm faced with whiting out a pink wall I'll use oil based
undercoat first rather than 3 or 4 coats of emulsion.

Some people think a coat of PVA seals cigarette stains and it has been
discussed here before but I don't think a conclusion was reached.

Brendan.

In article ,
nightjar cpb@insert my surname here.me.uk wrote:
I had the same problem some years ago, with on old pub. Half a dozen
washes with sugar soap didn't solve the problem, so, as the room was
over 9ft high, I put in a suspended ceiling 6" below the real one.

The products from fag smoke wash off easily. But of course don't expect
white oil paint to be white again. But should be easy to re-paint.

--
*Forget the Joneses, I keep us up with the Simpsons.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Mike wrote:

Not my ceiling ......... but the guy who owns it is a heavy smoker.

Mike P
Sounds like he eats too much as well ;-)

John

--
John Mulrooney
NOTE Email address IS correct but might not be checked for a while.

A day without sunshine is like... night

On May 10, 4:14 am, Mike wrote:

Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Certainly use the sugar soap, and then seal it with an oil-based
sealer before you use undercoat & top coats.

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
nightjar cpb@insert my surname here.me.uk wrote:
I had the same problem some years ago, with on old pub. Half a dozen
washes with sugar soap didn't solve the problem, so, as the room was
over 9ft high, I put in a suspended ceiling 6" below the real one.

The products from fag smoke wash off easily. But of course don't expect
white oil paint to be white again. But should be easy to re-paint.

I suspect a public bar ceiling that probably hadn't been redecorated for 40
years is a special case. The residue was still coming off brown and sticky
after six washes, although the smell was more or less gone. The bar had been
decorated in shades of brown, so there was no problem with white paint..

Colin Bignell

"Mike" wrote in message
news
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

If the colour shows through the first coat of paint, try painting with an
oil-based gloss and then overpaint with emulsion. The gloss will seal the
stains in (probably).

In article ,
Mr Benn %%%@%.%% wrote:

"Mike" wrote in message
news
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
.. yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

If the colour shows through the first coat of paint, try painting with an
oil-based gloss and then overpaint with emulsion. The gloss will seal the
stains in (probably).

Not gloss - emulsion won't stick to it - an oil-based matt. You can
also buy special paint for sealing such things in.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On May 9, 6:44*pm, David in Normandy
wrote:
Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.

I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
... yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?

Mike *P

We had the same problem on moving into our French property. We were
advised ordinary water based emulsion paint wouldn't work. Tried a small
area and sure enough the brown just came straight through. On
recommendation we ended up buying some spirit based white emulsion. It
was expensive as hell, as paint tends to be in France anyway, but the
brown has not come through after nearly four years of doing the job.

Surely if it's not water based, it ain't emulsion?

MBQ

Man at B&Q wrote:
On May 9, 6:44 pm, David in Normandy
wrote:
Mike wrote:
I have a very smoke laden room to paint. The ceiling is quite brown
all over except above the fireplace where there is a large area where
it is really dark with nicotine ....... you know the sort .... like
where you see an old smoker's fingertips dark and engrained with the
stuff.
I am pretty sure just painting brill white vinyl matt on it will just
loosen it all to give a lovely streaky brown mess.
I have steamed off wallpaper and watched nicotine run down the walls
... yuk.
Will a good scrub with sugar soap be enough to get rid of it enabling
me to paint ?
Mike P
We had the same problem on moving into our French property. We were
advised ordinary water based emulsion paint wouldn't work. Tried a small
area and sure enough the brown just came straight through. On
recommendation we ended up buying some spirit based white emulsion. It
was expensive as hell, as paint tends to be in France anyway, but the
brown has not come through after nearly four years of doing the job.

Surely if it's not water based, it ain't emulsion?

MBQ

Technically speaking one fluid suspended as droplets in another fluid is
an emulsion, it just happens that the most common emulsions people come
across are paint where the oil based compounds are suspended as droplets
in water. The opposite is true when making a sauce - the emulsion
inverts and the water becomes suspended as droplets in the fats which is
what makes a sauce thick. Frankly regarding the French paint all I know
is that it was described as an oil based emulsion, what exactly went in
to it I don't know. It worked anyway.

--
David in Normandy.