Congratulations on Your New Textile Furnishings. We hope you will be pleased with the carpet, rug, upholstery, or draperies you have just acquired. Here are a few hints to help you enjoy these new items and ensure their proper installation in your home or workplace.
All new furnishings will give off some odour until they are fully aired. This may be true whether it is a rug, carpet, pad or cushion, or products used to install the carpet. It may also include the foam, fabric, and construction materials used in furniture manufacture or the fabrics, linings, vinyl, or foam backing used on some draperies.
The odour is related to a low level of emissions from the new furnishings. Most emissions drop significantly after the first day or two following the carpet installation or removal of the plastic covering protecting new upholstered furniture. In those situations where the odour lingers, it is usually due to poor ventilation.
Any odours, if noticeable at all, will disappear within a few days to a week for most textile furnishings. The key to minimising the odour and speeding up the “airing out” process is to ventilate, ventilate, and ventilate.
- Ask the retailer to unwrap or unroll the textiles for a day or two prior to delivery and installation to minimise the new product odour.
- Open the windows or doors to let in fresh air.
- Run the fans or air conditioner on the “fresh air” ventilate or exhaust setting.
If you work in an office building without windows, or with windows that do not open, ask the building manager to ensure that the fresh air intake is open on the central air handling system.
If the odour is objectionable, consider moving to another room or area of the building, or try another part of your home, until the odour has subsided or disappeared.
The small initial emissions and odour do not pose any known health risk. However, some people who are more sensitive to these emissions may experience mild allergic or flu-like symptoms. Again, fresh air is the best remedy.
Some have also asked if carpet contains formaldehyde. You will be pleased to know that it does not and has not for more than ten years.
Another common question is whether the excess pile fibres (or fuzz) removed during vacuuming of new carpet is normal. It is, and this does not indicate anything unusual. After the initial wear period and vacuuming, the loose surface fibre will be removed. This has no bearing, however, on the carpet’s eventual service life.
