Nothing ruins a rental home’s interior like cigarette smoke. This explains why many La Crescenta property owners include a clause in their lease documents that prohibit smoking inside or anywhere on the property of their rental homes.
Should vaping be prohibited as well? As a substitute for smoking tobacco, people have gone to e-cigarettes. Over the past few years, e-cigarette usage has sharply increased. A lot of people view vaping as a recreational activity and even a way to quit smoking altogether. This is a common view since vaping is generally considered to be safe— or at least less harmful to a person’s health.
Despite the hype, vaping isn’t harmless at all. There is a filmy residue that gets left behind by the clouds of vapor that comes from the use of e-cigarettes and other vaping devices. This residue sticks to anything it touches, from walls to floors to furniture. 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. When it goes inside air vents and ductwork, it could cause problems that may remain undetected for months or even years.
The reason that vapor brings about so much trouble is that it isn’t water, but glycerin. It may be clear like water vapor, but unlike water vapor, it doesn’t evaporate into the air. Actually, it is slightly oily. The emission from an e-cigarette more closely resembles aerosol gas than water vapor. It has particles that are composed of chemicals, flavoring, and preservatives. These particles stick to any surface it touches. As more and more particles build up, they create a thick film that is both difficult and expensive to clean up.
While windows, mirrors, and other hard surfaces can be cleaned relatively easily, other surfaces including carpets, painted surfaces, and ductwork can’t. Cleaning the filmy residue that vaping leaves on surfaces like these takes a lot of time and money and it may permanently destroy some items.
For instance, the residue left by the vapor won’t dissolve in water, so fabrics and carpets may need professional cleaning multiple times a year. Painted walls pose another challenge. Paint is porous and vapor particles could easily get into the pores and settle there. Textured walls are even worse. The sticky film builds upon them more rapidly. You would need to frequently scrub the walls to get rid of the build-up. However, the act of scrubbing could also damage the paint.
With so much at stake— specifically the interiors of your La Crescenta rental home— it makes perfect sense to prohibit the use of e-cigarettes along with other forms of smoking. At Real Property Management East San Gabriel Valley, we carry out frequent 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 626-600-2884.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
