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Why does nobody talk about the smell in old carpet padding?
I was in a house in Phoenix last week, built in the 70s, and when I pulled up the carpet the padding underneath just reeked. Like old dust and something else I couldn't place. It made me rethink using recycled padding for jobs, that stuff holds every spill and odor for decades. Has anyone else run into this or just me?
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phoenixh7427d agoMost Upvoted
Pulled up some carpet in a 1980s rental last year and nearly gagged on the smell, thought I was digging up a mummy or something in my own living room. Its that weird mix of decades of pet accidents, spilled soda, and just plain old dust that gets trapped in there like a time capsule of grossness. I used to think recycled padding was a good deal until I realized you're basically buying someone else's old smells to bring into your house. Honestly, Ive just started telling clients to budget for new padding no matter what, because that old stuff is a gamble you don't want to lose. Makes me wonder if thats what my childhood bedroom smells like now under all that carpet, probably not a mystery I want solved.
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Totally nailed it with that time capsule comparison. That dusty, stale smell is basically decades of trapped bacteria and moisture that never fully dried out, just festering under there the whole time.
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