The WoW Style

“You keep it new, and it keeps you healthy and comfortable”

Clara, 5, the only child of Mark and Lisa Brown, had been coughing violently for about a week. It started with a mild tickling in her throat which continued for a couple of days and gradually aggravated to dry cough. Their house physician, suspecting a common cold, first tried with simple cough syrup and then with an antihistamine. It improved the cough a little, but the tickling persisted, and she kept complaining. Then the doctor decided to take a closer look.

What the doctor found was interesting. The girl started her days quite normally with no symptoms of cough. It all started when she spread her new toys on the carpet, and started playing with them.

Clara became completely free from coughing just the day after Mr. Brown had changed their carpet.

Understanding the Problem

This is not an unusual or isolated story. Hundreds of people around the world suffer various types of allergic symptoms, whether in mild or severe form, due to their worn-out, and used carpets. Many of them drag on with the ailments for years, not even recognizing the culprit under their feet.

Is it just a lack of awareness? Or to indolent deferring? A Carpet installer spotlight the second mentality, saying that people often feel kind of nostalgic when it comes to getting rid of their old belongings. 

And that’s not the only problem with old carpets. There are many more than most people often ignore. There are two major issues:

• Air Quality

There are several ways that an old carpet can make the air in your room unhealthy. Firstly, most of them are not made of natural materials. Then the process involves even more artificial products. Some of them use chemicals that exude toxic emissions, causing air pollution.

Then the carpeting, padding, and adhesive were used to install the carpets. They are also responsible for emissions that can be potentially harmful to human health, especially children. 

• Health Problems

Besides polluting the air, your carpet can create a number of health issues. When one or more of your family members start frequently suffering from the following symptoms, it’s time you suspect your carpet to be the reason.

• Persistent cough or sore throat
• Frequent headaches
• Irritated skin
• Difficulty breathing
• Red, irritated eyes
• Irritation of the nose and throat
• Fatigue

What about Cleaning Carpets?

The first thing is wear and tear matters. This is a process that you just cannot rollback. You clean your carpet, and use it in the most proper way, taking systematic care of it, and still, you find, after some 5 to 15 years, it’s worn out. Destiny takes shape infallibly.

Cleaning and mending don’t always help either. Carpets are composed of millions of fibers, which makes it impossible to get it completely cleaned once it sucks dust, dirt and different kinds of stains. Cleaning smooth-surfaced materials are always easier. 

Now What?

Now is the time to inspect your carpet closely to find out if it has served you enough.

There are a number of symptoms suggesting your old buddy needs to retire. Here are some of the reasons:

• Stains in the Carpet

Are you covering your carpet with furniture and rugs just to hide stains? There cannot be a more prominent sign strongly telling you to change it. There are softer stains that pet urine, vomit, feces, mold, and mildew cause. (And yet you need to be prompt enough to be successfully able to remove them) But the harder ones like blood, red wine, colored drinks, coffee, ink, plant food, bleach, tea, mustard, and other cooking oils never come out completely. And the increasing number of stains should make you consider a new carpet.

• Stinky Carpet

Steam wash, as professional carpet cleaners suggest, works fine for the first couple of years. But carpets are said to be damn omnivorous magnets that stubbornly hold back little bits of everything that you cleanout. So the stink grows within 3 to 4 years and keeps getting ever more bothersome, no matter how strong the washing you conduct because this indicates that the root of the odor has reached the carpet pad, fibers, or the subfloor. 

• Worn-Out Carpet Padding

It’s the base of your carpet supporting the fabric. It also serves the purpose of keeping your room quiet.

Due to the same reason as stated above almost no cleaning operation can clean up the padding, and, therefore, it steadily starts to wrinkle, becoming uneven giving a crinkling sound when someone walks on the carpet.

• Visible Damage

From burn marks to mold damages— all are making your carpet ready to retire. Damage in a small area or two can very well be mended (generally the patch-up) but when the number of damage grows that at a certain time you know it’s time for a change.

• Carpet Pests

Worn-out carpets are an ideal place for some small organisms. Coupled with the allergic problems created by the carpet itself, the harmful germs carried by these pests can cause even more serious health issues. Here are some of the pests that can live in your carpet:

• Book Lice: These tiny insects feed on molds and dead insects that your old carpet is abundant in.
• Carpet Beetle: Though an adult beetle is not harmful, its larvae surely are. Firstly, their tiny furs are irritating to some soft skins. Then comes the germs that grow on their skin. Vacuuming and cleaning of their food can keep down the number of such beetles, but you just cannot get rid of these pests from old carpets.
• Bed Bugs: They are found mostly around the carpet’s edge.
• Silverfish: These are some of the most stubborn, slithering creatures that you cannot expel once they are in.

What Next?

The next part shouldn’t be very difficult: Replacing and installing. You do it yourself or call an expert— that’s another part of the story that we’ll tell the other day.

The best part of replacing your carpet is that you feel kind of relieved for another 5 to 15 years. You maintain the aesthetics of your home, protect your family members from stealthy health issues, and ensure luxury and comfort for some years to come.

Good luck with your new carpet!