Allergens: The Truth About Carpet vs. Hardwood

Dander. Dust mites. Sneezing and coughing and sneezing some more..that is the reality for many who have carpeting in their home, and many of them aren’t aware that their carpet might be the culprit for their misery. Today we will look at 3 things your carpet might be hiding, and why it might be time for you to switch to hard wood floors!

1. Carpets can contain 100 times more allergens than hardwood floors! 

You read that right! 100 times more! Now many of us might not struggle with allergies, so this might not be as alarming to you. Those of us that have year round issue though know that getting rid of that amount of allergens can seriously increase your quality of life.

2. One square meter of carpet can house 67 grams of dust

While a square meter is 11 square feet, and 67 grams sounds like a small number (1 M&M is approx. 1 gram), consider how much this might affect a 9-month-old child that crawls or is on the floor a good percentage of their day!

3. Dust Mites produce up to 200 times their body weight in waste every day! 

I know…ewwww, right? 200 times their body weight is a TON of waste (almost more waste than the 9-month-old produces that we referenced above!) The important thing about this fact is that people aren’t allergic to the dust mites themselves, they are allergic to their waste! That means that for every 1 dust mite that you have, 200 times their weight of allergen is being released into your home daily, and carpeting is where these little buggers like to hang out.

So it might just be time to pull the proverbial trigger and get hardwood floors. Especially if you have allergies, kids or are not super comfortable with large amounts of dust mite waste being a part of the cushy flooring that you currently walk on each day.