UPDATE: sign a petition directed at Pottery Barn hereIt all started when we were give some credit and coupons for Pottery Barn. We thought we would get two rugs to cushion the wood floor in the girls' room. This was before the girls were born. Within a few months there was the most noxious burning rubber smell in their room. I traced it to the back of the rug and it totally correlated with heat. As we got into summer it got so unbearable we took it out and I went back to the store and demanded a refund. From what I've now found here, here and here, I was lucky. Apparently it's a common problem. A lot of people didn't get their money back or got way reduced values. We put the smaller rug that didn't seem to be a problem in our office, but just last week I noticed that started with the smell. Argh.
The most credible answer I could find for the smell was posted at RedBook Magazine by someone calling himself Rug Guy:
This odor is commonly found in rugs that are hand-tufted in India. These rugs are quite substantial for their low cost, but we've found that about one in ten either has this odor from new or will develop the odor in a year or two. The problem is with impurities in the latex rubber that holds the tufts of fiber in place. Remove the latex and you remove the smell, but remove the latex and the rug may fall apart. There is no economical way to fix this as the time and effort involved in removing the rug backing, scraping off as much smelly adhesive as possible, and recoating with a quality latex will cost near the replacement value of the rug and may not remove the smell completely. The only sure cure is to return the rug to the retailer. Again, we see this in one in ten, so if you really like the rug you may be able to trade it for one that doesn't smell.
If you do buy a Pottery Barn rug for your kid make sure you smell the back and make sure there's no trace of a rubber smell. At least that's what I'd do. Our solution: once we got rid of the PB rug, we found a pile wool rug on Craigslist. It was all wool and knotted so no synthetic backing material!
UPDATES [July 15, 2010]:
1. Thanks for all the signatures and posts about your own experiences. I wanted to add that it appears not just to be Pottery Barn rugs… I’ve been in friends’ houses where I could smell that telltale odor and it was not a Pottery Barn rug, though it was a wool rug with a canvas backing.
2. In my non-parenting blog life I am a journalist, and my experience with this post has piqued my interest in the issue of indoor air quality. If any of you have a rug that you’re planning to get rid of, I would be happy to take it off your hands for possible air quality testing – hopefully it is a smaller size or else you’re located in the SF Bay Area where I could do a pick up. If you’re interested in reaching me about this you can email me, Rae, at potterybarnrugpetition [at] yahoo [dot] com. Thank you!
8 comments:
BLUF (Bottom line up front): CAUTION: Breathing hazard - the rugs stink like burned rubber because there is a nasty-smelling latex substance on the rug backing underneath the burlap. BACKGROUND: Bought my stinky rug at American Home Furnishings, Albuquerque, New Mexico, some time back. After reading all these posts, decided to try fixing it last week. First tried ordinary rug cleaning with Bissell Little Green, no joy. Next soaked it overnite in the bathtub with a full 16 oz can of Oxyclean. Still stinky. Tore off burlap backing and found the culprit - uncured latex or rubber backing. My guess is they left out or under-cooked the vulcanizing part of the process to cure it. If it is indeed uncured rubber or latex, some of the handling instuctions I'm reading classify it as a hazardous substance and not to breath the fumes, because they can irritate the nose, throat, and lungs. Let's be careful out there!
I fixed my stinky carpets!
I had the same problem with 2 imported carpets that I purchased from a reputable department store. I have had them for about 4 years. The second year I started smelling the same strong noxious odor. At first I thought the odor was comming from my home heating unit because the smell got stronger when it cycled on. I had the heating unit serviced multiple times, thinking that something was burning in my heating system...But there was nothing wrong with it. Then I realized that the smell was coming from the carpet...and the smell was intensified because the heat blowing through the ducts made the noxious carpet smell waft through the room. I took the carpet outside and soaked it with water from a garden hose. I let it soak for about an hour. I then turned the carpet over and tore off that canvas backing. 90% of it peeled off with ease. 10% was adhered properly (cured)....but I was able to rip it off anyways. Once the canvas was off I saw that the 90% was creamy yellow in color and flakey. That other 10% was white in color and gummy, as I suppose the cured area should be. I then ripped off the cotton netting that I suppose helps maintain the shape of the carpet before the canvas backing is applied. The netting stunk unbelievably! As I was running the water over it, the run off was yellow in color and full of a yellow powder suspension that a assume is latex powder. (This powder, I suppose, if it is latex based, should not come in contact with anybody who has latex sensitivity!)
I then bought out my Karcher electric pressure washer and proceeded to blast off the crumbly, stinky latex residue. (It did take some time!) The carpet remained in one piece...still "tufted". I then turned the carpet over (carefully), and pressure washed the carpet from the top side to remove any additional residue. The washing was then complete. I left the carpet out on the concrete patio in my back yard to dry. I live in the Southern California desert. I was sure it would dry quickly before it got a chance to mildew. I kept it covered from the direct sun by throwing a canvas drop cloth over it in the day time. It took 2 days to dry. Then I researched latex adhesives for rugs on the internet. I found that Home Depot carried an indoor/outdoor carpet adhesive that was solvent free and was environmentally safe...Roberts 6700 Premium. I used a trowel and applied a thin layer to the back of my newly washed and dried, "stink free" carpet. I then quickly applied a new canvas backing...a heavy grade canvas painters drop cloth. It adhered fabulously! I trimmed the extra canvas around the edges within a few hours. Yes, it had an adhesive odor for the first few weeks, but I kept the rug outside on the patio or moved it to the garage if rain was in the forcast. The Roberts 6700 Adhesive cured within the time frame the manufacterer described. The adhesive odor dissipated. I then moved the carpet back into my family room...where it belonged! No more noxious odor to agravate my asthma!!! I fixed the problem! Yes, it took a lot of time...and a lot of guts...but I did it to both my stinky, imported, defective, "hand-tufted" Chinese carpets. Now they are perfect. But....they did shrink a bit once they were dry. My advise to you...just don't buy an imported tufted carpet at all..or any carpet that has canvas that is glued onto the back, unless you can return it a few years down the road if this defect arises...(Sometimes the noxious odor begins a few years down the line...as I found out in researching this matter and the noxious odor intensifies with time with the drying out of the "uncured latex".) After all I went through with these 2 carpets, I rewarded myself by buying 2 imported Persian oriental rugs, HAND-KNOTTED, with no canvas backing glued on. They are beautiful!! Best wishes, RBS
I also bought a rug from American Home Furniture in Albuquerque and had the same horrible problem. Fortunately, they returned it, Unfortunately, I believe that the particles may have caused the asthma in my son. I have a call into the EPA to see if there has been any study done on this. If you have had the same problem, please contact me: geneva.garciaellen@gmail.com.
this drives me nuts, since we built a super eco-friendly house to minimize the toxins in our home.
Thanks for your post. My daughter's rug has been smelly for the past year or so. I didn't realize it was the rug for sure until I read your post. I called Pottery Barn Kids and they gave me a FULL REFUND even though I bought the rug a few years ago. Your post helped me immensely and now we have a new rug with no stinky odor.
I bought Pottery Barn Franklin rug three years ago. It has recently begun to smell like burnt rubber. I also feel it is agravating my sons' and my alergies. I had my husband throw it in the garage and now my garage stinks. I no longer have the receipt and have since moved away from the store of purchase. Does anyone know if Pottery Barn will still allow a refund or an exchange? I'm going to try the store in my are tomorrow.
they (PB and WS) know about this problem, can't comment further, however, pursue it!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOCpqQI-dI4
This link will be helpful. The rugs are done, throw them out.
Fact: a smell can't hurt you.
Fact: only the combustion/fire of a plastic or rubber can harm someone that ingests it.
Fact: Only ingesting defective latex, latex, rubber? or plastic is harmful. Litmus test. ZERO class action law suits against PB.
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