What to do if your newly purchased home smells of cigarette smoke

Question: Before we bought our home, the sellers kept flowery room deodorizers throughout the house. Since moving in, we've become increasingly aware of a cigarette smell that permeates the interior. Our home inspector has no suggestions for getting rid of this odor, and we're wondering what can be done to eliminate it. We suspect that the sellers deliberately concealed this smell. What can be done to remedy this condition, and how should we communicate our extreme displeasure with the sellers?



Answer: For those who do not smoke, the smell in a smoker's house can be exceedingly unpleasant. Products and techniques compete in the marketplace, each professing to be the answer. Some may weaken smoke odors, but none has delivered a knockout punch.

The most effective short-term approach to the odor problem would be to repaint the walls and ceilings, replace carpets and draperies and clean up everything else. Another problem area is the interior of forced-air heating ducts. These can emit odors every time the heating or air conditioning is operated. Some kinds of air ducts can be cleaned; while others must be replaced.

The most reliable long-term remedy, however, is the simple passage of time. If you live in your home long enough, the cigarette odors will gradually but surely dissipate.

As for the sellers of your home, they may or may not have been deliberate in masking the smoke smells. You can try to pursue them with various means of formal and legal complaint, or you can simply take steps to eradicate the problem and get on with your life.



Property-line setbacks vary

Question: How many feet from the property line is the setback requirement for a new home?



Answer: There is no universal dimension for property line setbacks. They vary from one municipality to another and from one neighborhood to another, depending on such factors as lot size, terrain, population density, and the predisposition of developers and bureaucrats. To learn the required setback for a particular property, check with the local building department.



Tiles: You break 'em, you fix 'em

Question: I'm a real estate agent and am having a disagreement with another agent. He insists that home inspectors routinely walk on concrete tile roofs. A home inspector I know says that tile roofs should not be walked on by anyone except a licensed roofing contractor. Who is right, and what is the standard for inspecting tile roofs?



Answer: No rule mandates whether home inspectors should or should not walk on tile roofs. But the standards of practice of the American Society of Home Inspectors and the National Assn. of Home Inspectors exclude walking on tile roofs as an obligation. The reason for this exclusion is to relieve inspectors of the liability imposed by broken tiles, whether or not those tiles were broken by the inspector.

Actually, it is not difficult to walk on a concrete tile roof without causing damage, but sometimes damage does occur. And home inspectors who break tiles are liable for the costs of repair or replacement. The other risk assumed when inspectors walk on tiles is the chance of being blamed for tiles that were already broken. This has happened to some inspectors and is one reason that most inspectors refuse to walk on roof tiles.

Tile roofs are usually inspected by placing a ladder against the eaves at various places around the building. When the eaves are too high for the inspector's ladder, binoculars are sometimes used. Walking on a tile roof admittedly enables a more thorough inspection, but unfortunately, liability pressures have had an adverse effect on how tile roof inspections are conducted.

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