Any ideas on how to touch-up walls with the paint color that was originally used, but due to smoking the walls are not the original color of the paint.
By gayle from Rochester, NY
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You can't paint over directly Nicotine stains (I've tried) you'll have to use a high quality primer! (like Zinsser 123 or Gripper), or you'll have to wash the whole will down with a very strong cleaner like scrubbing bubbles (bathroom cleaner) or straight Ammonia. My ex-mother-in-law was a chain smoker & we made the mistake of painting over her walls without primer & it took 4 coats of paint! The nicotine kept bleeding through as the paint dried.
I used to be an apartment manager and we had one apartment heavily coated in nicotine. We ended up getting a bunch of those magic erasers. They did work, it just took a while to do the entire apartment.
You'll simply have to wash the walls first :-( I know it's a big job but there's no way around it. A sponge mop and vinegar and water mixture helps make the chore a bit easier but there will be areas where good old fashioned elbow grease will be neccessary. Change out the vinegar water mixture as needed (depends on how much nicotine is on the walls) or you'll end up just spreading the nicotine muck around on the last walls.
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