Should You Have Carpet When You Have Asthma?

For those of you who are regular readers, you know that we are a family of 5, all of whom have allergies and 4 of us have asthma.

We just bought our 3rd house a couple of years ago. I was excited to see wood floors on part of the main level, but the upstairs (where the master bedroom is) has deep, lush carpet. 

It's like buttah 

Walking barefoot on that carpet is amazing. But - I know that the deep, lush carpet also traps a lot of dust and allergens.

Our 1st and 2nd home were historic homes with original wood floors. (Fun fact: back in the 1950's, many homes used surplus wood from WW II quonset huts. Carpet was a luxury and came later.)

The first thing we did when we bought our historic homes was to tear out all of the carpet, pad, and tack strips and refinish the wood floors.

The carpet LOOKED clean, but Hubby showed me what was under the carpet when he pulled it out. Ugh. 

Hubby remodeled the house before we moved into the home, to protect our asthma lungs. I just helped pull up the tack strips ;)

My lungs have been cranky off and on since we moved to this house. We are very careful and have tried everything to keep our house allergy and asthma friendly. 

In our bedroom, we have:

• Washed the curtains
• Dusted weekly with a duster that traps the dust
• Vacuum weekly - including under the bed
• We don't store anything under the bed (Asthma Doc's orders)
• Use an air purifier in our room
• Have a mattress pad cover and pillow case covers

 And yet, I wake up coughing at night. 

Did you know that if you wake up coughing more than 2 times per month, your asthma is not well controlled? I'm already on a daily, controller inhaler. Before I call my doctor to increase my inhaler, I want to make sure my home is allergy & asthma friendly.

So, what to do about the carpet? At my age, if I fall on a hard surface, I am more likely to break a hip. That soft carpet would help cushion a fall, but if it's making my lungs worse.....

So today, the carpets are being steam cleaned. We are going to see if that helps. 

If not, we will be tearing the carpet out and installing wood floors.

  

Stay tuned to see what happens. And let me know if you have had to remove carpet because of asthma.