The real estate blog.

In a story I read the morning from Realty Times reminded me of why I don’t like carpet. When I lived in Michigan, I didn’t mind it because in the winter time, it helped keep the house a little bit warmer than if I would of had wood or tile floors. But here in Florida, tile floors are best to have for a couple reasons. Once the sand gets in the carpet, it trashes the carpet pretty quickly and tile floors also help keep the house cooler here in a warm climate.

Here are a few excerpts from that article:

Over the last 20 years, there have been many complaints made to health agencies relating to carpeting — as they have been tested and some have contained hazardous materials.

One of the hot button issues is carpet glue used for installation. Over recent years,

companies have reduced the levels of harmful substances hazardous materials. But some installers allege that the “safe” adhesives do not perform as well as the “bad” adhesives.

Once installed, the carpets retain a little of everything embedded on the shoes of people who walk on them.

Since this can include many of the pesticides, chemicals, and solvents found outside, a carpet represents a microcosm of the outside world, but in a confined space.

SO…..I think it’s best to say that if you do have carpet, to make sure you clean it quite often. Think about all the things you are tracking inside your home from the bottoms of your feet or shoes. Oil, gas, dog poo, bugs, pesticides and many other nasty things. These are the same floors you are walking all over with that stuff on the bottom of your shoes that your kids are playing on. All that stuff gets trapped into the fibers of the carpet.

Needless to say, I think I’ll stick to tile floors. They are much easier to clean.