Having laminate floors can really help people with allergies by eliminating a host of problems that come with having carpet in your home.

If you are concerned about the expense of transitioning from carpet to laminate flooring, don’t be.

You can find some fantastic deals on the purchase and installation of laminate floors that will make the effort all worth while.

If you still can not decide about whether you should install these type of floors, I have listed 7 reasons below why you should consider doing this.

If nothing else, consider the allergy sufferers in your home. Hopefully reading the list can help make your decision a lot easier.

1. Dust and Dust Mites Around Edge of Baseboard

A lot of people with allergies are allergic to dust and dust mites. Where there is dust, you will find them. They live in your home – especially the carpet – eating flakes of dead skin that is shed by you and your family. A female house dust mite lives for only 70 days, but during that time she can lay as many as 60 to 100 eggs.

During their life span, it is also possible for dust mites to produce about 2000 particles of fecal matter and a very large amount of dust particles that are covered in their partly digested enzyme. The gut enzymes on their fecal matter is what some people with allergies react to. It can cause sneezing, a runny nose, red and watery eyes, itching and in some cases it can trigger asthma.

2. Pet Dander in Carpet

Anyone who is allergic to pets is at risk from having an allergic reaction to pet dander that accumulates in your carpet, and don’t be fooled into thinking you can contain it. Once pet dander is in the air… it can even travel into rooms where your pets are not allowed to go.

It’s not the dander you are allergic to however, but the oils that are secreted from your pet’s skin into their fur. Exposure to pet dander can cause congestion, itchy eyes, a runny nose, sneezing, hoarseness, wheezing and even rashes. Cat dander however goes a little further and may cause asthma attacks or even chronic asthma. Eliminate this with laminate floors.

3. Pet Urine and Saliva in Carpets

As much as you love your pets, they can cause double trouble because some people have an allergic reaction to pet urine and saliva. The urine and saliva happens to contain proteins that causes this, and like pet dander, once it dries and gets into the air, it can get into any room in your house.

This is really common with cats because they clean themselves by licking, thus applying the protein in the saliva onto their fur. Then not only do you have pet dander with oils from the skin, you now have fur covered with allergy-causing proteins.

4. Pollen Tracked on Carpet From Outside

Regardless how hard you try, sometimes cleaning your carpet just doesn’t help with any of this, and that includes pollen being tracked in from outside that can cause the same allergy symptoms as those mentioned above.

Even opening your doors or windows during pollen season will have it floating into your home and settling on your carpet. To alleviate all of these problems, it is recommended that you deep clean your carpet regularly. This is okay, but it can get to be expensive and tiresome after a while. You can eliminate this too with laminate floors

5. Mold and Spores on Carpet From Outside

It’s sad but true that your carpet acts like a magnet for all these allergens… including mold spores that can come in from outside, on the bottom of everyone’s shoes, or through open doors and windows.

The mold itself doesn’t cause the allergic reactions… this is caused by the mold spores, which is how mold reproduces itself. Huge amounts of mold spores are released into the air and find their way into your home and onto your carpet.

They can cause allergic reactions like… congestion, a runny nose, sneezing, coughing, itchy and watery eyes, sinus headaches, hives, rashes and difficulty breathing. You also risk spores from toxic mold getting into your carpet and causing more severe reactions or even death in children.

6. Cleaning Carpet With Chemicals

These chemicals can be household cleaners or professional cleaners, it doesn’t matter. If you are allergic to them, then they are a risk for you and your family.

Cleaning compounds contain a host of chemicals that could cause serious health and respiratory problems in you and your family.

If you happen to deep clean your carpet on a regular basis like instructed… then these chemicals will eventually build up in your carpet and create off-gassing into your home.

7. Chemicals in New Carpet

I really don’t know which is worst, all of the above or the chemicals that are found in new carpet. Formaldehyde is the worst of these chemicals and can cause not only allergy symptoms, but dizziness and lightheadedness. If you happen to expose yourself to formaldehyde repeatedly, it can even cause a weak immune system.

I know you are probably saying that laminate flooring has its own problems, but think about it for a moment… carpeting is all over your home and can become a major expense to keep clean and free of allergens.

If you install laminate floors, all you have to do is get a relatively inexpensive steam cleaner for wood floors and this will eliminate having to use chemicals, and the steam sanitizes your floor in the process. You won’t have to worry about carpet that acts like a magnet for everything you’re allergic to.

Laminate floors are so easy to clean. It’s also easier to clean under heavy furniture and around the baseboards. In fact, just think about not having to deep clean any more carpet.

Now, as for chemicals that can be found in laminate flooring, you do the same as when you are purchasing high-end carpeting for your home… you look for environmentally responsible flooring that meets or exceeds low emission standards. It might be a little more expensive than other laminate flooring and even carpeting, but you save in the long run by…

• Not having to replace a carpet
• Getting professional deep cleaning on a regular basis
• Spot cleaning high traffic areas
• Spending money on chemical cleaners

All I can say is that I love my laminate flooring and it’s one of the best decisions I ever made about replacing my carpet. I have to say that at first I wasn’t sure, but when experiencing the ease of cleaning the floor and under furniture and along the baseboards… I became totally sold on the idea.

You can spend money purchasing HEPA vacuum cleaners, air purifiers and other items that will help eliminate all the above problems, but why bother? Make life easy for you and your family and consider switching over to laminate floors. If you don’t want to install laminate floors, then switch to real wood floors. I can’t comment on how easy it is to clean them, but the point is that they are better than carpeting.

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