New Carpet?

sophia17

We are in the middle of moving and trying to do some slight changes to our new house before we move in. Our closing kept getting pushed back and we finally closed in the house a couple of weeks ago. Sine then we have painted almost every room in the house (with zero VOC/ no odor paint) and we just had new carpet installed upstairs and in the den yesterday. I made sure to do a great deal of research on the paint before we started to ensure I was being as safe as possible but it never even crossed my mind about the carpet. Now that the carpet is installed I keep hearing how bad the chemicals in the backing of the carpet are. Has anyone else replaced carpet recently? I am worried that I have now put myself and our new baby in danger. We haven't yet moved in the house but we had planned on moving in this weekend?

temporalrobe

Wash the whole carpet in dreft, tumble dry low.

peeper72

Open all the windows nice and wide to air things out. Those chemicals are bad news even if you aren't seeing the effects immediately. 

doggie mama

Just make sure it is well ventilated and vacuum it thoroughly. A week should be plenty of time to off  gas, especially if the windows are open. One of the biggest dangers involved in installing new carpeting is actually the tearing up of the old one. Older glues and carpets tended to be not so safe. Keeping the place ventilated will get all that nasty old stuff out.

APendola

I had the floors replaced in two-thirds of the house when I was about 20 weeks pregnant.  We put hard wood floor everywhere, but new carpet on the stairs.  We asked the installers if they used any glues etc or anything that would cause fumes - they don't.

I suppose the carpet itself has some chemicals in it, but it should be minimal.  If you air out your house and have the carpet installed well before the baby arrives, it should be fine. 

surprise3rd

New carpet was installed 2 weeks ago, the intallers told me to leave the sliding doors open and the fans on for about 4 hours after they left.  Open the windows, turn on some fans.  They didn't seem concerned about any long term, a few hours after install and the odor was gone.

bluemommy

Ugh-new carpet is the worse!!

The fromeldyhyde in carpet makes me lose my voice. That stuff is no joke.

I wouldnt worry about the baby too much. Just take action instead. Here is what we have done in the past with some success:

-Block of the air vents to that room so you are not overtaxing your a/c.

-Leave the windows open all the time(unless you have to leave of course). With it being summertime and so hot, your carpet will off gas more quickly.

-Put a fan in the room to get a cross-breeze going

-Buy a house plant that is know for improving indoor air quality. You can get these at LOwes and they actually state 'air purifier' on the tag.

Other than that carpet usually takes a good year to off-gas well. But with some of the steps above you can improve it by a good 50% in my opinion. Vacuuming and washing the carpet will do nothing to help btw.