carpet offgassing

ceridwen

Had a new carpet fitted few months ago - and its STILL got that "new carpet smell" - ie its offgassing. The fitter did seem to be using an awful lot of spray glue when fitting it - though its hessian-backed, so got those edging bits underneath it.

Thats main reason I have barely used the room concerned since. I can see theres coating-type stuff one can buy if in USA to deal with this - and I wondered if this would be any good (its supposed to seal in the outgassing I gather) (I would need a UK supplier to get it from).

Any suggestions please? before I contemplate ripping it all up again (and it wasnt cheap!) and unfortunately the floor underneath isnt suitable for stripping down - as a large section of my wood planking got replaced by hardboard by a previous owner.

I am also wondering about another bit of my house which is due to have new carpeting as soon as I can afford it - dont want the same situation. Again - dont feel I have any option but to have carpet - as the floor is too damaged to strip it (in fact its also uneven as well to compound the problem).

louidog

Have you tried gallons Febreeze?

ceridwen

Well - thanks for the thought - but, as I understand it, Febrese is a chemical product which alters smells by covering them up. So I guess thats not a goer - as its chemicals that are the problem.

UK007BullDog

I am having the same problem right now but it is getting a little bit better now. Keep the windows open is all I can say.

did the fitter glue the carpet directly onto the floor? Do you have any underlay fitted?

We have underlay and grippers, so no glue.

maybe the glue is reacting with the carpet and/or the floorboards if they were treated or painted before.

ceridwen

Thanks for that UK007bulldog

Yes the carpet does have underlay and grippers - but the fitter was still spraying glue for England! for some reason.
Suffice to say - I won't be using that firm again - as I had to get the fitter to sort something else he did whilst here as well.

The floor hadnt been painted before and doesnt look like it had been treated with anything and I'd had secondhand "make do and mend" carpet there for some years before getting the new carpet. Did do a lot of airing of room initially - but will go and open that window now and get both my fans rotating away (wish I had more window opening space in that room! - being ground floor I was being security-conscious when I had the window replaced and had one of those ones put in where one can only open the top 1/4 if you know what I mean).

tru

You don't need glue if you're using gripper, he probably glued the underlay down. The glue on the floor shouldn't smell once it's dry (it dries in minutes).

The new carpet smell lasts for ages, I like it

What type of carpet is it? Mr tru is a carpet expert, I ask him about this when he eventually gets out of bed

roddydogs

tru wrote: »

You don't need glue if you're using gripper, he probably glued the underlay down. The glue on the floor shouldn't smell once it's dry (it dries in minutes).

The new carpet smell lasts for ages, I like it

What type of carpet is it? Mr tru is a carpet expert, I ask him about this when he eventually gets out of bed

Neve heard of underlay needing to be glued down, its held down by the carpet/grippers

tru

Some fitters do, dunno why I'll ask mr tru about that too

I do know that the underlay isn't held down by gripper though, it's fitted up to the edge of the gripper.

roddydogs

tru wrote: »

Some fitters do, dunno why I'll ask mr tru about that too

I do know that the underlay isn't held down by gripper though, it's fitted up to the edge of the gripper.

Yep, i meant by the carpet being held down, sorry.

tru

The newer type of underlay (foam) is very light so fitters use glue round the edges to make sure it doesn't move, the older type (rubber) is a lot heavier so doesn't need gluing.

If the smell is just a new carpet smell, it's nothing to worry about and it'll disappear eventually.

If it smells slighty fishy or of chemicals then it's either faulty underlay or there's a problem with the latex on the back of the carpet, in which case go back to the shop and get them to come and have a look. It's not always obvious which one is the problem so they'll probably change the underlay first, if the smell doesn't go then the shop or manufacturer should send someone out to check the carpet.

If there isn't a problem but you're fed up with the smell, don't bother with fancy products, just sprinkle bicarb on the carpet, leave for about an hour then hoover it up

tru

roddydogs wrote: »

Yep, i meant by the carpet being held down, sorry.

Oh I thought that might be what you meant but I wasn't sure