Your home’s air quality affects the air that you breathe in your house. Many people are not aware of how much air moves around their homes. Exposure to air pollutants in indoor air can lead to health problems such as allergies and asthma. If you have carpeting or other flooring material in your home, it is important to know air quality can be affected by your flooring materials.
Different flooring materials have different air-cleaning abilities. For example, carpet facilitates the movement of air around your home and filters dust from the air as it passes through. This puts less dust into the air to be breathed in by you or your family members. Carpet is a porous material that can trap pollutants within its mass. It is a good air filter if it is maintained and cleaned frequently.
Hardwood flooring may attract particles of dust, dirt, mites, or other air pollutants that can cause allergies or asthma. These air contaminants will be attracted to the smooth surface of the hardwood floor, rather than being filtered out of the air as they pass through porous materials.
There are air pollutants that emit from the flooring materials in our homes. There are air quality issues that arise when your floors have poor quality, or if they have problems such as tears and stains. Flooring can also cause air pollution by emitting volatile organic compounds (VOCs). VOCs are released when floor coating materials, adhesives, and other finishes on the flooring material break down.
If you want to improve air quality in your home, hiring a professional may be your best bet.
Professionals have the expertise to test air quality, identify air pollutants that may be in your home, and provide you with solutions on how to improve air quality.