Question from Gary
Anyone know if these carpets off-gas less or more healthily than petroleum based carpets?
Debra’s Answer
These carpets are made from propanediol, or Bio-PDO, a corn-based polymer. It is made from corn sugar, a by-product of making ethanol, generated at a nearby plant. An E. coli bacteria –genetically-modified by DuPont scientists–breaks down the corn sugar through a fermentation process that is much like making beer.
Mohawk is now selling a carpet made from this fiber called SmartStrand.
The SmartStrand website tells all the environmental savings that comes from using Bio-PDO, but also says that only 37% of the carpet is Bio-PDO. So I called Mohawk and found out that the other 63% is polyester. And it contains no stain resistant treatments because the polymer is “naturally” stain resistant. Hmmmm, I’ve never heard of a natural fiber being inherently stain resistant.
I haven’t seen a sample, so I can’t tell you if it offgasses, but maybe someone has seen a sample and will enlighten us.
I have MCS. We thought we had researched this carpet thoroughly several years ago, and had it installed. The carpet colors did not match across the seaming so it had to be pulled up and a new one ordered from the factory. When it came in it had a terrible smell. We thought that was because of the fact that it was a new dye and had not sat around for a few weeks or months in a warehouse. I became very ill. We did not connect the fact that it might be the carpet because of the research we had done. When we finally did figure it after my husband and dog became ill as well, we had Lowe’s come and remove it. It took me months to get well. We now have ceramic tile on the floor with no problem.
I stay far, far away from any product that calls itself “Smart”. It usually, if not always means that its just the opposite. And since this is made from GM corn you can be assured that it contains residues from Round-Up and other dangerous pesticides.
I had smartstrand installed September 22 or so. Today is December 14 and although I am in cold New England I am still opening my upstairs windows for cross ventilation for an hour a day due to off gass smell.
If I had EVER known this would take so long, I would never have purchased. Initially, I thought it would just take awhile, but now, I know it comes out more with the heat running and only have the run the thermostat for an hour or two a day.
It is going to be a LONG winter with this.
Oh, and after they put the carpet down, including in closets, I found after a week or two that ALL clothes in them had to be washed due to the smell of off gas, which had permeated the material.
I have a corn sensitivity. I am not ‘allergic’ but don’t eat corn and try to stay away from corn products because of excema. I noticed that the Mohawk Smart Strand Carpet contained corn. I wonder if the petroleum based carpets would be even worse for allergies.
In my opinion, petroleum-based materials are more toxic than corn-based products in general. However if you are allergic to corn, you should avoid corn-based products.
We fell in love with SmartStrand in the showroom and had it installed a few months ago. My eyes are red and itchy all day long! So are my daugther’s.
I had Mohawk smartstrand carpet installed in my teenager’s room on Feb 19. We have yet to be able to return her to sleeping in her room. The off gassing smell is horrendous! She has horrilbe allergies and the smell even gets my other child who does not have allergies. it has been almost a month now and we still can not stand in the room for more than a minute. We have had a fan exhausting air from the window from day 3 of the install and multiple fans in the whole room pushing air out the windows. This has been one of the worse choices I have made regarding carpet. We originally were going to put wood flooring in her room but onces at the store I felt a smartstrand natural fiber rug would be better for resale of the home (we don’t plan to be here for more than 4-5 yrs). I called the installers they assured me the smell should be gone within 48-72hours. NOT….I was also told the smell was not dangerous to our health! I calle Mohawk and the person I spoke with said she had the carpet installed in her home and she has asthma and was able to be in the room a few days after install as she opened windows and had a cross breeze going. She even went so far as to tell me to send my daughter to a friend’s house for a few nights until the smell disapated! I will not install carpet again in any room of my home I will stick to hardwoods or other natural renewable fibers only! Mohawk smartstand is not a no offgassing carpet it is one of the smellest rugs I have ever had installed!
Mohawk Smartstrand was the worst carpet I have ever purchased. It smells terrible and it made my chemical sensitivities flare-up really bad. Three years ago I purchased this carpet for my living room to replace the old carpet. I thought it was cool to be certified as “green” and thought it was safe for me. Wrong. I had it off gassed a couple of weeks before I placed it in my home. For the next 3 weeks it still smelled horrible. I couldn’t even go into my living room without getting a headache and burning eyes. My husband who doesn’t have chemical sensitivities like I do was even bothered by the smell. It made his eyes water and burn. I called the carpet store and had them take it out and got my money back because is was still under warranty. The carpet guy said he has never had a customer do that. I ended up putting ceramic tile in my living room and am very pleased with it. I still have sample pieces of the smartstrand from when it was first installed and it still stinks. Nasty stuff.