Basics of Property Management: Screening Potential Tenants

How To Get Smoke Smell Out Of Your Area Rugs

6 January 2015

Jesse Obrien

Do you have an area rug that constantly smells like smoke? If you have a smoker in the house, virtually every fabric in your home will be affected. Until you deal with your area rugs and upholstery, you'll still be able to smell that scent.  If you have inexpensive or synthetic fiber rugs, you should be able to deal with it on your own--though more expensive rugs may need to be treated by a professional.

Begin With a Pre-Treating Solution

There are a variety of solutions that can be used to treat smells. Some of the most popular involve a 1:4 ratio of vinegar and water or a 1:10 ratio of color safe bleach and water. There are also solutions specifically designed for cleaning carpets. But regardless, the important thing to do is saturate the rug. You can purchase a pressure sprayer at a home and garden store. These sprayers have a simple pump action to pressurize the fluids inside of them. Use this sprayer to completely and gently saturate the rug. Many people make the mistake of throwing the rug in a tub (which can stretch the rug out) or just spraying the rug with an ordinary spray bottle (which won't saturate enough).

Blot Out the Solution With Dry Towels

Once you have thoroughly saturated the rugs, you should wick up the solution with towels. The reason you use a towel rather than a steam cleaning machine or other vacuum apparatus is because these machines can damage area rugs. Area rugs aren't like carpeting; they aren't secured to anything so they can be pulled up. Moreover, they're usually made out of fragile material. If you want, you can do this outside so that your flooring is not affected. 

Hang the Rug Outside to Dry

At this point, holding the rug up to your nose should show that there are no remaining odors. Hang the rug gently outside to dry. Do not hang the rug over a line--hang the rug from one edge and securely fasten it with at least three fasteners for every foot of rug. This will prevent warping. The rug should be thoroughly dried before being brought in, or musty odors may replace the smoke odors.

Of course, for oriental rugs and other fine area rugs, you probably shouldn't try to tamper with them yourself. It's usually best to hire a professional upholstery cleaning service to handle fabrics that are either expensive or old. Even water can damage an antique rug, let alone chemicals and other treatments. 

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