How to Remove Smoke Smell from House?

[TrMama]

A nearby house under construction burned today. We live downwind and the inside of our house stinks of smoke. Any advice on how to get rid of it?

[Sibley]

I would first air out the house really well. Fans everywhere, etc. Completely turn over the air in the house a few times. Then start washing all the soft furnishings. That might take care of most of it.

Cleaning after long term smokers in the house is different, but that's a pretty well known process. Might want to look into that. A lot of it would be overkill for your situation but pieces might be helpful.

[Chaplin]

You could rent an ozone generator. It’s what hotels do when someone smokes in a non-smoking room. XF45 tried it after I mentioned it to him and it improved the situation. There are downsides like the time you have to be out of the house and potential for some surface damage on some items.

[Morning Glory]

After it's out of the outside air, you can put baking soda on the carpets and soft furniture, then let it sit a couple hours and vacuum.

[Blindsquirrel]

 After as many air changes as possible and washing what is washable,  we use a product called Odorxit for stinky rentals and it works pretty well.

[draco44]

as many air changes as possible and washing what is washable

Sorry to hear you are dealing with this, OP. I was unfortunately once in a similar situation. The quoted text above is basically the answer. Time will help too. After whenever it next rains in your neighborhood, that helps also.

Also, if you can reasonably swing the money, it may be worth sleeping at a hotel for a few nights. Per the other posts, it's good to take action as soon as possible to clean and air out your home, but at night when you are sleeping, be elsewhere if you think that would be best for your health.

[TrMama]

Thanks for all the advice. We were away from the house when the fire started and had left a few windows open. The fire was a couple hundred metres away but the wind was blowing directly towards us so it was initially pretty stinky inside. Obviously I closed up the house as soon as we got home, but even with the windows closed, at a few points thick smoke was billowing towards us. I don't think the smell inside is going to stick around, but it's only over 24 hours later that the smell outside has died down enough that we can open up the windows to start airing out the house. I'll keep running my air filter inside anytime we can't have the windows open.

Anyway, we got to practice our forest fire evacuation plan yesterday. There's a big stand of very dry trees between us and the construction site and with the direction of the wind I was very concerned that if it spread to the trees we'd only have minutes to leave. The fire departments managed to get it under control shortly after we left so everything's fine now. Hopefully, that was the most excitement we'll see for quite a while.

[WSUCoug1994]

After the 2017 Tubbs fire here in NorCal our house didn't burn but there was so much smoke in our house I couldn't see my hand in front of my face.  Our insurance company hired an outfit to address our smoke damage.  Obviously our case was extreme but here is what they did

- wiped literally every surface down with a smoke neutralizing product - I mean every surface of everything in the house
- replaced all soft material items - mattresses, couches, etc - they said those never recover.
- ran giant fans inside of the house for a couple weeks - just moving the air around
- dry cleaned our clothes, towels, sheets, drapes, etc.
- replaced all of the insulation in the basement and attic
- similarly to bug bombs used for termites and other tenting type pest removal - they had these "anti-smoke smell bombs" they set off in each room - which they claimed got into all of the cracks and crevices they couldn't reach.

I don't know if this would have resolved itself without this intervention but I can tell you that we haven't even had a hint of smoke in our house since we moved back in.

[youngwildandfree]

You should absolutely make an insurance claim and request cleaning and replacement of your textiles and carpets at a bare minimum. It is basically impossible to remove the smell from carpet/mattresses/couches, and this is why you pay insurance.

Outside of the smell, if the fire contained anything toxic including significant amounts of plastic you don't want your family living in the residue from that garbage.