What do you plan to do with the generator of the smoke; the woodstove? As a stove owner I can guarantee smoke will enter the home every time you open the door of the stove to put wood in it.

Smoke smell actually will go away with cleaning, painting and replacing carpeting. Sealing sub flooring is not necessary. I've done this twice. Once with a weekend home we purchased, the other with my dads condo after he passed away. The pet smell is something completely different. If its in the hardwood, (if there is hardwood), you will probably need to replace it or the sub flooring underneath it. (If it is urine soaked). If its just the smell of an animal being there, the same remedy as smoke should get rid of it.

"As a stove owner I can guarantee smoke will enter the home every time you open the door of the stove to put wood in it."

Not if you do it correctly.

You don't simply fling open the door- crack it for a second first so the draft gears up.

Wouldn't you need to use one of those special primers for sealing in odors? I pose that as a question. Was told to do that after buying house belonging to heavy smoker - even thoroughly washing the nicotine off the walls didn't completely get rid of the smell but the primer/paint did.

Might you be dollars and time ahead to tear this down and build a new house (without a wood stove)? Is the land worth the investment? (Land is about 60% of our home assessment.)

Thank you for your responses and experiences! I should've added that the smoke is nicotine, not the wood stove. We've been hearing from some house flippers that the nicotine goes down into the drywall and studs and will always remain a slight stale smell even with the most powerful primer. Being sensitive to smoke, might be one project we pass up on..

There are several labor intensive but very reasonably priced ways to remove 95% - 97% of the smoke smell. Mainly they involve intense cleaning of every single nook and cranny.

There are also sprays that react with nicotine and tar to turn them into tiny gas particles that can be aired out of the house. But unless you can really give them time to air out, you are essentially just turning it into second hand smoke.

The question really becomes are you sensitive to smoke or do you just not like it. I am very sensitive to it, as is my wife. We have to go above and beyond simply cleaning, but for most people cleaning, sealing and painting will work.

Wash the walls thoroughly with TSP and paint with a primer with odor control in it. Might have to rip up all carpeting and replace it or do wood floors.

I burned wood for about half my life and never had smoke when I opened the door to add more wood unless the damper was shut way down.

Many agents would recommend a whole-house ozone treatment. They are generally done by those companies that do post-disaster (fire, blood, whatever) cleaning, and I believe that it's a three-day process (much like tenting for bugs but not as toxic).

This is in addition to much of what you've already discussed. If there is pet urine, you'll definitely need to pull up all flooring (except tile, but you'd need to re-grout) and seal the subfloor. And don't forget that for smoke, you'll need to do the ceiling as well.

We had a bedroom where a smoker lived and after washing with TSP, priming and painting, smell was gone. It was a gross process as walls had yellow nicotine film on them, gross! We did nothing to wood floors and didn't notice any smells after remodel

@ c9pilot

I was going to recommend Ozone but when I looked it up, there was a health warning about the reaction between ozone and nicotine. To be fair I didn't read any further, and honestly may have recomended a product that has the same problem...

I inherited a house in which someone had chain smoked, with windows closed, for 30 years. It was saturated/permeated with nicotine and the smell was unbelievable. We removed all carpeting, blinds and furniture then had to clean every single surface including the ceilings. We used Simple Green full strength; as someone else said it was so gross to see nicotine literally flow in brown rivers out of the walls and ceilings. I also had to replace the central air conditioner because smoke gets into the interior and then is pumped through the house-so if you have AC that's something to consider as well. I removed, cleaned and painted the AC vents too and had the ductwork professionally cleaned.

After all that I had a professional painter cover every paintable surface including closets, doorways, walls and ceilings with a coat of oil based primer, followed by regular (water based) primer then two coats of interior paint. Happy to report that the smoke smell and residue is gone. However it was one of the most daunting projects I've ever tackled and I would never want to do it again. In my case the house was in a great neighborhood and the value was there once the smoke was cleaned up, but I'd think long and hard about doing it unless this is the case for your situation.