There are numerous researches done linking carpet to allergies and asthma, and there are about the same amount of research done linking hard floor surfaces like tile, laminate and wood flooring to allergies and asthma as well.
The studies done on how carpet affects us have shown that carpet can have a major impact on our health, they even linked brain fog, low productivity, low focus and a bunch of different allergies to dirty carpet flooring. The reason for that is that carpet will trap in its fibers pretty much anything that falls on the floor, human and pet hair, dead skin, dust, dirt, feces, etc.
I know it sounds disgusting thinking of what is in your carpet, especially in high traffic areas like offices, malls and even worse airports.
Off topic here, only because I have seen it so many times. If you are traveling with toddlers please don’t let your toddler crawl around in the airport terminal while waiting for your flight, those floors are unbelievable filthy.
Experts recommend vacuuming your carpet floor minimum of 3 times per week, and doing a deep carpet cleaning once every 3 months. Hiring a carpet company to do carpet clean up every 3 months can come up pretty expensive. So if you have carpet floors you might want to invest into a nice deep clean vacuum, a good one runs at about $400.00 and up but you will save a lot of money right away not having to hire a crew for deep cleaning every 3 months.
Other researches show that the major drawbacks of the carpets are their strengths as well…
Lets look at Sweden since over the last 40 years, in hope to decrease the instances of allergic reactions, they have replaced more carpet with hard surface flooring then any other country. But in spite of their expectations, their instances of allergic reactions have not decreased, in fact is shows that hard flooring surfaces are even worse!
Studies show that a well-maintained carpet can keep the indoor living environment healthier. Just like mentioned above the carpet will trap in its fibers, dust, particles, pollutants, etc; not allowing them to become airborne and get into your breathing zone. As on hard flooring surfaces a swift breeze will cause dust, hair and pollutants to become airborne and getting them into your breathing zone.
Personally I am not a big fan of carpet flooring, since with a lot of traffic they wear out quite fast, it is too much work to remove food and drink stains and I think carpets should not be installed in the basement, unless over a raised non organic sub-flooring and only after the moisture mitigation was performed.
Carpets are perfect in the bedrooms, in areas where you would kick off your shoes and feel the nice lush, soft, clean carpet under your feet.
Just like carpet, hard flooring surfaces need to be regularly vacuumed and cleaned. To check how clean a tile, hardwood, or laminated floor is, look for dust and dirt in the low traffic areas like room corners, under low desks and couches. You will find dust clutters, dog or human hair and all kids of debris that other wise are harder to notice on carpet surfaces.
In conclusion, the best way to avoid allergic reactions is to maintain a clean floor at all times, vacuuming at least 3 times a week. If you have carpets a good deep clean vacuum will be a great investment to keep your family safe. Vacuum and wipe hard flooring surfaces with special antibacterial cleaners, which will give the room a nice fresh smell and will actually make your flooring last longer with less scratches and stains.
