Carpet And Indoor Air Quality: Why Carpet Is Bad For You
All homeowners want to feel safe and comfortable in their homes. Therefore, we do everything we can to improve our living spaces. Some homeowners might opt to use carpets as their flooring. Carpet offers insulation and noise reduction features. It also enhances the aesthetics of your rooms as carpets come in many colors and patterns. Unfortunately, carpets also have a few disadvantages, particularly when it concerns your indoor air quality. When you know why carpet is bad for you, you can decide and implement the best possible solutions to carpet issues you might encounter.
Read on to find out how carpets affect your home’s indoor air quality.
How Do Carpets Impact Indoor Air Quality?
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Most homeowners think that carpets are made of natural materials because of how they feel to the touch. What many do not realize is that the fibers carpets are made of are synthetic. Most manufacturers prefer to use synthetic fibers because they are stain-resistant and cheap. Unfortunately, the manufacture and installation of such carpets also utilize toxic chemicals. These indoor air pollutants can be released into the air inside your home. These pose potential health risks to you and your family upon prolonged exposure. Old carpets can also pose some danger as they can trap dust, bacteria, mold, pet and human dander, cleaning solutions, and other hard to remove contaminants.
What Is Indoor Air Quality?
Indoor air quality is the condition of the air inside your home or other enclosed buildings. Having poor IAQ is detrimental to you and everyone else inside these spaces. You will likely feel sick and irritable due to poor IAQ. The symptoms can range from mild to severe, and they could appear immediately or over time. These contaminants might be from inside or outside sources. Therefore, understanding the common causes of these pollutants can help you minimize them inside your house. This way, you and your family breathe in healthy indoor air quality at all times.
What Impacts Indoor Air Quality?
Poor ventilation often leads to poor IAQ. Modern houses are air-tight. This is because they have active HVAC units that need airtight spaces to operate as they should. These systems have air filters that help manage air quality. However, this might not be enough as pollutants continue to get trapped in your home and accumulate as time passes.
Any chemical emissions from indoor sources cannot be vented outside. High humidity levels inside your home or building can also affect IAQ. This encourages mold and bacteria to grow, which can wreak havoc on your home and health if neglected. Other common indoor pollutants are wall paints, cleaning products, tobacco products, and pressed wood furniture, to name a few.
Is Carpet Bad For Your Indoor Air Quality?
Carpets can worsen your IAQ if you neglect them. Therefore, you must ensure that the carpet is clean at all times. You should also have ways to clean the air in place so that you can use your carpet without worry. If you have babies and toddlers at home, keep in mind that they crawl on the floor a lot, so they are at greater risk of exposure to carpet pollutants.
Neglecting your carpets can result in adverse effects on your health. You will notice respiratory symptoms in you and your family, such as coughs, sneezes, runny noses, and difficulty breathing. If you have pre-existing conditions like asthma, the airborne particles that your carpet releases may trigger further symptoms.
You could also aggravate any allergies from exposure to these pollutants. You could develop hives and other skin irritations or suffer from a high fever. Our immune system works every second of every day against harmful contaminants from our immediate surroundings. However, it weakens when it strains to do its job due to prolonged exposure to a dirty environment.
Steps To Take Before Buying Carpet
Carpets can affect your home’s indoor air quality. Therefore, it is a must for you to conduct safety measures to ensure that you lessen indoor pollution even if you install a carpet in your home. Here are some steps you need to do before you purchase a carpet:
- Research the materials and construction. When choosing a carpet, look at more than just the design, color, and budget. Look into what the carpets are made of. Opt to buy ones made of natural fibers instead of synthetic ones. If this is out of your budget, make sure to get a synthetic carpet made with the least harmful materials.
- Find out more about their volatile organic compound emissions. Most carpets have VOC emissions, but a few are eco-friendlier than others. Check what the carpet’s brand has to say regarding their products’ VOC emissions. Buy from green brands that make it a point to reduce their products’ toxicity for the consumers.
- Stay at a different place during carpet installation. The adhesives used in the installation release unpleasant odors and harmful emissions. Therefore, during your carpet installation, find accommodations somewhere else. Wait for a few days until the smell clears out, so you don’t have to inhale the poor IAQ at that time.
- Make sure that there is proper ventilation in the affected areas. Proper ventilation can help you remove the pollutants from inside your house much faster. Open the windows in the affected areas so that the contaminants can be vented outside. If you have exhaust fans, make sure to utilize them as well.
- Read and follow the care instructions carefully. Carpets have varying maintenance needs. It all depends on the materials it is made of and how it was constructed. Therefore, read and follow the care guide carefully. Be sure to clean the carpet now and then and pay special attention to the parts of the carpet that has the most traffic.
Conclusion
Carpets can be an excellent flooring option. However, they need proper and regular upkeep. Otherwise, they can contribute to the decline in your home’s IAQ. Make sure you keep the carpets in your house clean. You can also use air purifiers, among other solutions to ensure healthy IAQ at all times. Consult any IAQ concerns you have with a licensed HVAC technician as well.
Call Wilcox Energy For Superior Indoor Air Quality Solutions
When you need top-quality HVAC services in the southern Connecticut shoreline, do not hesitate to contact Wilcox Energy. Our company has professionally certified technicians who conduct excellent heating and cooling maintenance, repairs, replacements, and installations. Each of our skilled and experienced techs can service your system accurately and on time.
Rest assured that we offer one of the most affordable and competitive HVAC service rates in the area. Our tune-ups can enhance your home’s IAQ and energy efficiency while reducing your utility costs. We can also recommend the best HVAC repair or replacement solutions that are within your budget. We back all of our work with a guarantee. Schedule an appointment with Wilcox Energy today for a free, in-home estimate.
For more information about our HVAC services, be sure to contact Wilcox Energy. You can click here to contact us, or you can call us at (860) 399-6218 to find out more. We offer a full line of heating and cooling repairs, maintenance services, and installations.