Have you talked to a realtor about it? I personally would not do it, at least not in the first trimester. Can you borrow/buy rugs that you might use in your new home to cover up the really bad areas. And, with the way homes aren't selling these days, the home could be on the market for a long time, well into your pregnancy when it wouldn't be as potentially harmful to be exposed to such chemicals.

The only other idea I have would be to try to find carpet that's been sitting some where for a long time or maybe remnants. Then search have organic or low-toxic glue & padding used.

Good luck w/ selling your home!

Sus

 

If I was your Realtor, this is what I would advise you to do:

Instead of putting in the carpet now, why not offer the buyer a carpet/flooring allowance at closing instead?

That way the buyer can choose their own carpet or flooring, and you don't have to spend the money on new carpet until the house actually sells and the money will come out of the proceeds of the sale and you wont have to worry about the fumes!

Plus in this terrible housing market, it could be a year or longer before your house actually sells and by then your new carpet will most likely not look so new any more.

 

I wouldn't put in new carpets at all. First of all, it is dangerous, not just to the baby, but also to you. Secondly, how many people are going to agree with your taste in carpets? I hear story after story of people who buy a house where the carpets just got replaced and they wish it hadn't... because they feel guilty about ripping it out but they'd rather X (different color, shag instead of berber, hardwood, etc.). I'd get the ones you have professionally cleaned (without toxic chemicals, call around), and like a pp suggested, include a flooring allowance in your closing cost budget.

 

I would not do it either. New carpets are so toxic! And if I bought your house, I would just rip them up and put in wood anyway. Can you look into installing bamboo? We got bamboo fro pretty cheap and installed it ourselves. It was really easy. Otherwise I agree with the PP, offer a flooring allowance at closing.

 

Our realtor recommended replacing the carpet. It is really old and has urine stains and other stains all over it. Our dog has a problem with marking.

Bamboo just wouldn't make sense with our house, since the rest of our floors are pergo and linoleum.

I'll talk to her again about not replacing it, but she said when we met that people are really looking for homes they can just move into right now and not have to do any work.

At the very least, I guess I'll wait until I'm out of the first tri.

 

I would replace it. We looked at tons of houses recently and the ones with new finishes (carpet, etc.) went MUCH faster. Our house on the other hand, had sat on the market for nearly 2 years with it's old carpet. We got a killer deal plus a carpet allowance. I'm sure it would've sold at least a year sooner and at a much better price if they'd invested a bit.

Can you stay with someone for a few days while the house airs out? With the good weather that comes with this season it shouldn't take long.

 

You probably need to replace the flooring to sell the house. What about matching the Pergo in the rest of the house instead of installing carpet?

If you must use carpet, you can get felt pads instead of the VOC-emitting rubber ones. You can also look for carpet that has been verified as low VOC. If you look at the carpet label, it will have a CRI inside a little green house...that means it passed the air quality testing. You can ask the installers (in advance) to use a non-solvent or low VOC adhesive and that will cut down on the nasty chemicals, too.

One option to explore might be Flor carpet tiles. They are low VOC and easy to install yourself, although they will cost more than wall-to-wall carpet. http://www.flor.com/