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Dust allergies: Carpet Steaming or Dehumidifier?

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Posted 7/19/2007 11:07 AM (GMT -8)
I have severe dust allergies. Most medication I have tired don't work so the only thing I can do is to try and stop the allergen. I can either get the carpet professionally steam to kill dust mites or I could get a dehumidifier and try to ruin the dust mites' living enviornment. My home has a 63% humidity level currently. Which should I do? confused
Posted 7/19/2007 5:39 PM (GMT -8)
My suggestion - get rid of the carpet :) No matter what you do to the carpet, you are always going to have to deal with the mites. The only problem with a dehumidifier is if you make the air too dry, it can irritate any allergies or asthma you may have. There's a fine balance with humidity that helps us stay healthy. I used to sell some high end vacuums and one of the tests we did was put a super fine cheese cloth on the end of the suction wand. We did a test, we vacuumed brand new carpet, chemically treated carpet, old carpet and just cleaned carpet. You know what it revealed? Every single carpet still had some degree of dust mite still living in the carpet. Actually we used the test to freak potential buyers into how unhealthy they're carpet was so they would buy the vacuum :) - it was a gimmick but the actual test was very real. Professional cleaned carpet is a short term solution because unless you live in an air tight room, the dust is always going to be present.
Posted 1/9/2008 12:03 PM (GMT -8)
hi qelery had same problems with dust allergies...got rid of carpets in bedroom and bathroom and put down flooring that i can hoover and disinfect with a mop...used vynil flooring...looks like wood but 1/4 the price...night weezing ceased almost immediately...also try putting pilllows/cushions in the freezer for just a few minutes..kills of bed bugs that aggrivate the respiratory ststem...breathe easy...groovey.
Posted 1/9/2008 1:05 PM (GMT -8)

I also throw away my pillows once a year and buy new ones.

Carla

Posted 1/10/2008 2:54 AM (GMT -8)
My doctor told me to put pillows in the clothes dryer on the highest heat setting for 20 minutes every 2 weeks to kill the dust mites. I also have zippered allergy dust covers on my pillows that get washed every 2 weeks. I put a regular pillow case over the zippered dust cover and change my sheets/pillow cases at least once a week (more often if I'm really having a bad time with allergies).

Good luck,
Posted 1/11/2008 6:45 AM (GMT -8)
Here's a tip that I have recently learned and abide by: wet mop your hardwood floors. Dry mopping them simply pushes around dust and stirs it up and will, actually, make your allergies imeediately worse.

Post Edited By Moderator (Red_34) : 1/11/2008 8:11:56 AM (GMT-7)

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