Question from Jane

We just had regular new carpet installed in our Master bedroom 2 weeks ago and the Smell is terrible!!!  It’s still giving us headaches and congestion even with running our air purifier And whole house fans!  Is there anything else we can do to get rid of it?

Lisa’s Answer

Unfortunately, carpet can be a significant source of indoor air pollution.  Ventilation will help with some of the off-gassing but not all.  Unless your air purifier is specifically designed to remove VOCs and other gases (most are not), it will not help.  You can read more here about air purifiers that remove both VOCS and particles.

If your carpet is synthetic, AFM Safecoat makes a carpet-sealing system designed to seal in the chemicals but it does not work on natural fiber rugs.