A rental home’s interior could be greatly damaged by cigarette smoke. This is the reason why most Bothell property owners include a clause in their lease documents that stipulate a ban on smoking inside or anywhere on the rental home property.
The question then becomes: What about vaping? There has been a sharp increase in the use of e-cigarettes in the past few years. Many people use them as a substitute for smoking tobacco. Many people look at vaping as a safe and fun activity. Some of them even look at it as a means to quit smoking altogether— this is because vaping is generally considered to be less harmful to one’s health.
Despite the reputation it has gained, vaping still has its share of danger when it comes to one’s health. The e-cigarettes and other vaping devices produce clouds of vapor. This vapor would leave a filmy residue on your walls, floors, furniture, or anything it comes in contact with. Think about it: If air can get there, vapor can too. If air can go everywhere inside your home, there is no reason why vapor can’t reach it as well. This includes inside air vents and ductwork. This makes things complicated as problems in these areas could go undetected for months or even years.
The reason that vapor causes so much trouble is that it isn’t made from water. The vapor is actually glycerin. It may resemble water since it’s clear, but it does not simply evaporate into the air. In fact, it is rather oily. The emissions from an e-cigarette are more similar to aerosol gas than water vapor. It consists of particles that are made up of chemicals, flavoring, and preservatives. These particles stick to whatever it comes in contact with. Over time, these particles accumulate and create a thick film that is difficult— and expensive— to clean up.
While it is relatively easy to wipe down the film off of hard surfaces like windows and mirrors, that is not the case for other surfaces such as carpets, painted surfaces, and ductwork. Getting rid of the filmy residue that vaping leaves on surfaces like these are both time-consuming and costly and may harm some items permanently.
For example, you can’t wash away the vapor particles from fabrics and carpets, so they may need to be professionally cleaned more than once a year. Another challenge would be the painted walls because they are porous and vapor particles could easily get into every pore and stay there. And this problem increases with the texture of your walls. The more textured they are, the faster the sticky film builds up. You would need to frequently scrub the walls to get rid of the film. However, the scrubbing itself may damage the paint.
With so much potential to damage the interiors of your Bothell rental home, it makes a lot of sense to prohibit the use of e-cigarettes along with other forms of smoking. At Real Property Management Eclipse, we execute regular property evaluations to check for signs of vaping inside your rental homes. We want to make sure the value of your investment is protected, so we ensure better lease compliance by having our expert property managers monitor your properties carefully. If you want to know more, feel free to contact us online or call us directly at 425-209-0252.
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