what kind of germs and bacteria are in old dirty worn out carpet?

Question

Someone I know has the worst carpet...It is so rotten the carpet gets sucked up into the vacumn cleaner, tons of it, every time it is vacumned!!, and I just can't believe that this could be healthy for her..It must be getting into her lungs every time the house is vacumned...She has MS and this must be awful for her health!!...In one of the back bedrooms, the carpet was so rotten that whole big hunks got sucked up at once in the vacumn cleaner and burned up the vacumn engine...Is there anywhere that I could send a sample of this gross carpet/pad underneath, and find out what is growing in it...

HELP!!...Any suggestions? Her carpet is probably about 40 or 50 years old...

This is serious...

Thanks for your time and consideration!!

S. Grainger

Answer 1

I don't know what could be in there, but I say get rid of all carpets.

We bought a house, and almost immediately my allergies became worse. Since the house was up a canyon, I assumed it was the increase exposure of plant life. However, when we ripped out the old carpet, my allergies all cleared up. My dogs got better (they suffered from fleas and dry skin). We went with bare concrete for months, as it was better than the stale old carpet. Now we have tile and love it. Is it cold? Technically no...tile is just a good conductor of heat and robs our feet of heat. But we're in California, so that's not a big deal. Spills clean up better. Rugs look great, and can be changed whenever; and are easier to clean. I could go on and on. I hate carpet now. There is no way to keep it sterile and clean.

Answer 2

Just change it out and throughly clean the house. Save a sample if you must.

Answer 3

I don't know about someone local, but Pro-Lab has kits. See the description, it includes carpets...

http://www.prolabinc.com/products.asp?kit=mold

Answer 4

the answer page is not big enough, yellow pages will give local labs for testing.