Yeah, I reckon airing for a bit is a good plan, and if that doesn't work, maybe a wipe down with a bit of Naptha or equivalent (Shellite here in Oz), but don't go splashing it around in there, it'll just wash all the gunk into impossible to get to corners...
And while we're talking smoker stories...
My partner and i bought the house in which we currently live about 8 years ago; was a bit of a shambles, and one room in particular was a real wreck, couple of holes punched in the wall etc, and absolutely WREAKED of cigarette smoke..the walls were covered in a thin sheen of nicotine..
So we got to work patching the holes, pulling out the old stinky carpet and washing the walls/ceiling down...three washes with sugar soap later and there were still dirty brown streaks of nicotine dribbling down, the mop and brush turning brown, we figured enough, we're starting to eat through the plaster, so bought a big can of the thickest undercoat we could find, guaranteed to cover anything etc.
And it worked!
Covered it all up fine, painted it all up, but.... still the smell of smoke prevailed...
After a couple of weeks of this smell not dissipating i thought right, time for the full sniff test.
Nope, not the walls, they smell fine, not in the corners, not around the window...my trusty nose lead me to the rooms door, which was one of those plain pine doors that had been oiled or varnished or something...
I scratched at it with my fingernail and sure enough, what we thought was varnish was actually a coating of nicotine/tar/whatever cigarette smoke covers things with!
The whole door was evenly coated with a golden-brown film of nicotine and it actually looked like it had been varnished! Which is why we never figured...
So, took it out the back, scrubbed it down (big time YUK!) painted it up and viola, smell gone.
Can't imagine how many years and how many cigarettes it took...
