 |
|
New Carpet Odors |
| |
A recent question sent to us by a property manager was so intriguing that we thought we'd share our response with you here.
Q. Recent renovations on two floors of our office building have resulted in a lot of chemical type odors. We've tried increasing the outside air, but the odors and complaints continue. What should we try next?
A. Since you've already increased the outside air quantities and given that step a few days, I would look next at the newly installed carpeting.
Despite the best efforts of the Carpet and Rug Institute, carpeting is still one of the major sources of those odors also known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). However, I would be very careful about what I did to clean carpet to reduce odor. As far as we are concerned, the only acceptable chemical to be used in cleaning is water. A wet extraction will remove many of the water soluble chemicals. All odorous substances such as VOCs (at least in theory) must have some water solubility.
However, I would be concerned that the odors might be coming from sources other than the carpet fibers although some of the odorous chemicals can be found on the fibers by adsorption. Instead, there is a reasonable probability that the odor emanates from backing materials or adhesive materials, in which case cleaning the fibers is not going to be very effective.
If you do use wet extraction, be sure that the maximum possible amount of water is removed and that the carpet is dried quickly. Fans and high air exchange rates can help with this. Upon occupancy, the coolest possible temperatures should be sought, and the highest possible air exchange of outdoor air should be attempted. Meanwhile, be sure you are using maximum ventilation to accelerate the curing of the carpet and other new materials inside the building. This process may need to be done two or possibly three times to get a good reduction of the VOCs.
The most volatile compounds (hexane soluble) will probably not be reduced by the water extraction process; however, they should offgas in the first couple of months. For this reason, bringing in the maximum quantities of outside air remains a priority. |
|
|
|