How to Get Cigarette Smoke Smell Out of a Basement or Rec Room

Quick answer: To get smoke smell out of a basement, treat the porous surfaces that trapped it: carpet, upholstered furniture, drop-ceiling tiles, curtains, and any washable walls. Saturate soft surfaces with a smoke odor eliminator that breaks the odor down on contact, wipe hard surfaces, and re-treat carpet and furniture. Poor airflow makes basements hold smoke longer, so thoroughness matters.

Every house has that one room. Downstairs, finished off years ago, and used as the smoking spot for a long time. Now you want it to be a rec room, a home gym, a guest space, and it still smells like the inside of an old ashtray the second you hit the bottom of the stairs.

Why does my basement smell like old cigarette smoke?

Because a basement is the perfect trap for it. Low airflow, few windows, and a lot of soft surfaces. Every session of smoke that happened down there settled into the carpet, the old couch, the ceiling tiles, the curtains, and the walls, and then it just stayed. There was never enough ventilation to carry it out.

So the smell has had years to set in, and it is stubborn. You can run a fan, crack the one small window, and set out bowls of baking soda for a month, and you still get that stale hit of smoke every time you go down. It seeps into anything you store down there. It kills the room for guests. And you cannot turn a basement that smells like smoke into a space anyone actually wants to spend time in. Covering it with a plug-in just gives you scented smoke.

How to get smoke smell out of a finished basement

Low airflow means the odor is concentrated, so a thorough surface treatment does the heavy lifting. The Stink Solution Smoke Odor Eliminator uses OAM Technology to break smoke odor down on contact wherever the residue is sitting.

1. Clear and vacuum. Move furniture off the walls and vacuum the carpet, couch, and any fabric down there.
2. Saturate the carpet. Work section by section and coat it heavily. Saturate it fully. Do not lightly mist. Basement carpet holds an enormous amount of smoke.
3. Treat the furniture. Saturate any couches, chairs, and cushions on all sides.
4. Hit the overhead and the edges. Spray drop-ceiling tiles, curtains, and blinds. Wipe down washable walls, trim, and hard surfaces.
5. Re-treat the carpet and couch. These two hold the most. Give them a second pass, and expect a heavily used basement to need the extra coverage.

Because it is Plant Based, Enzyme Free, Biodegradable, and Made Without Harsh Chemicals, it is safe to use throughout a finished basement, around family and pets, with no staining.

A basement is a big job, so size up

Carpet, furniture, ceiling, and walls add up to a lot of square footage. The Smoker Double Pack gives you two 16 oz bottles for $29.99 (regular $39.98) to cover the room and re-treat the worst areas. For a basement that was smoked in for years, keeping extra on hand is the difference between a half-fix and a real one.

Turn your basement back into a room people use → Shop the Smoker Double Pack

FAQ

How do I get rid of old cigarette smoke smell in my basement? Treat the surfaces that absorbed it: carpet, furniture, ceiling tiles, curtains, and washable walls. Saturate soft surfaces with a smoke odor eliminator that breaks odor down on contact, then re-treat the carpet and couch.

Why does smoke smell worse in a basement? Basements have low airflow and few windows, so smoke residue gets trapped and concentrated in the soft surfaces instead of airing out. That is why the smell lingers for years.

Can you get smoke smell out of basement carpet without replacing it? Yes. Saturating the carpet with a surface odor eliminator that breaks odor down at the source removes the smell without pulling up the carpet, though heavily used carpet may need a second treatment.

Is it safe to treat a whole basement at once? Yes. The Stink Solution is Made Without Harsh Chemicals and safe to use throughout a finished space around family and pets.