Cigarette smell

Hi,

A friend of mine visited a home based daycare and she found that there was a definite cigarette smell in the air. However, the provider swears that neither she or her husband smoke. The previous owner (1 year ago) did smoke according to her...

Should my friend be suspicious? What would you do?

:huh:

Funny that should come up. I was talking to someone at playgroup the other day and she said that her friend had to terminate her daycare provider on the spot just a few weeks ago.

Apparently the mom got off work early and went to pick up her child and found the daycare provider outside with the kids playing but with cigarette in hand.

The parent terminated on the spot and had to find another provider. I do find that rather shocking and scary to think that people would advertise non smoking only to smoke around children and put that in front of children to see.

Smoking is definitely one of those scents that WILL stick around in a house. It is VERY VERY hard to get out, which is why I would never buy a house from a smoker.

Did your friend call the references? Did she ask them if the provider smokes?

I say it is quite possible that no one in the home smokes but that the smell lingers. But you never know I guess.
I live in a semi detached home and neither me or my spouse smoke but my attached neighbor does smoke indoors so MY basement sometimes smells in the evening.
I always make sure to air it out for the next day though.

I would have to agree that the smell of cigarette smoke lingers. My family is non-smoking and we have lived here almost 4 years. To my knowledge the previous owner of the home never smoked, but when I walk by my one daughters' room it almost always smells of smoke. We had such a quick tour of the home that I didn't notice it until we took possession. It is just one room but I think the previous owner designated that room as the 'smoke' room.

I also know that smells in a home daycare can sometimes be misleading! I had family come for an interview who swore that a certain area of my daycare smelled 'perfumy'. After some investigation, I discovered that it wasn't originating from my home but one of my daycare children's snowsuit, I asked the mom the following day about the smell, and she informed me she wanted the snowsuit to be soft so she washed it with double the fabric softener. My daycare smelled like the snowsuit for a good week. I was thankful that it wasn't a 'bad' smell ;)

I guess my point is, if it is the whole house I would have to question whether someone smokes in the home daycare area, but if it is in a specific area the smell might be from the daycare children's items.