After writing this post about an awful smell from two Pottery Barn rugs we bought, I was amazed at how many hits I got from people Google-ng "pottery barn rug odor."So I created this online petition... anyone who is having a similar problem can sign it. And please do sign if you have experienced this issue. It asks for your name and email, though you can click "private" and only your name will ever be displayed along with any comments should you choose to leave them. When I get a critical mass of signatures I will be sending a hard copy to Williams-Sonoma, the parent company of Pottery Barn. My sense is a lot of people have tried to take this up with them piecemeal, but maybe if they see collective unhappiness they will actually DO something about quality control.
A little more about my experience with this: We purchased a 5'X8' Pottery Barn Rug for our kids' room and a few months later, when the weather started heating up the burnt rubber smell was unbearable. We were allowed to exchange it, but the replacement rug had the same problem. After some persistence on my part (a real pain to deal with while having 6 month old twins), they took the replacement back and gave us a full refund. Now a much smaller rug we bought at the same time has begun to smell in our office. It's much milder and I wouldn't have ever guessed it was the rug, except for my prior experience. In fact, even with what happened before I suspected some overheating electrical plug before I thought to sniff the back of the small rug. Bingo!
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!
41 comments:
We have had our PB rug for about 5 years. After 2 years we began to notice the smell. We had professional cleaners take it to their shop to try to analyze the problem. They also determined it was the backing; later I was told it most often occurs in tufted rugs from India. They cleaned it with their best odor-removing cleaner but after about 6 months the odor returned. I steam clean it twice a year but every week I sprinkle a box of baking soda over the entire rug and let it sit overnight. Next day I vacuum and the smell is slight. The rug is still great to look at -- If I have to wait until it shows signs of wear I am screwed! Pottery Barn said they had never heard of odor problems!
We have 5 PB rugs and as with many others, we have finally isolated the burning rubber smell to the rugs. It is so gross. I will try the baking soda fix, but will also look into a legal remedy with PB.
I didn't get my rug from Pottery Barn but found this thread when I typed in "rug with burning rubber smell" into a search. My rug (it's wool but I ordered it through a decorater, so I don't know where it came from). It started to smell about 6 months ago when it was about 2.5 years old. I thought I was out of my mind. Both of my daughter in laws that were visiting said "your rug smells like burning rubber". It was nice to have the validation of knowing I hadn't been nuts. My husband will never admit to smelling things as he knows it'll end up costing him money. I think I paid about $900 for the rug, and it's upsetting because I'm ready to get rid of it. We're selling our house right now so the last thing I feel like buying is another huge floor rug that I won't probably be able to use in my next house. However, I'm afraid that the smell of this rug will turn off potential buyers.
This is a health hazard. PB does not want you to get sick. The way the latex backing used to be manufactured, it would break down 1-2-3 or more years after purchase. They say the current new stock is made differently, however, make sure you are buying a newly manufactured rug, not old stock.
Pottery Barn current policy on the old latex-backed rugs is to refund purchase$ -10% for each year of use. This I confirmed today, so dont sweat the small stuff. call the corporate office @ 800-270-4508.
I'm very worried to read these posts. I too, am victim to the "smelly rug" problem. One of my big issues with this is that my rug was purchased as a gift to me and is about 3 yrs. old. So, I have no proof of purchase. I am also 4 mths. pregnant and am worried for the health of myself, husband and unborn child. I've read everything I can read about this situation but no one really has any solutions. It looks like PB isn't owning up to any responsibility when it comes to this particular problem. Does anyone have any really good advice for me, other than getting the smelly rug out of my house?
We bought a rug form PB about 7 years ago (it had no rubber backing but was a wool oriental type) We had no problem with odor until we had it professionally cleaned. The odor tends to be stronger in the winter when the heat is one because the heating ducts are under the floor where it lays. We thought it was the Rug cleaning Company but we never had the problem with other rugs cleaned by them that were not purchased from PB. It eventually subsided-after 3 years but i am afraid to have it professionally cleaned.
We did not figure out it was PB rugs until my neighbor had the same issue and we put 2 and 2 together.
Hi mama! mama!,
What is the latest on your petition to Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma re: the smelly rugs? Have you already forwarded the petition to them or are you still accepting "signatures"? I just discovered all the links and posts online about the stinky rugs and have owned 2 of PB smelly rugs for 3 years now. Thanks!
Hi Caroline,
Thanks for inquiring. I just noticed how many more signatures I’ve gotten of late (I think it’s the hot weather which always makes the rugs smell more) and have been spurred to action. And yes I am still accepting signatures.
Before giving Pottery Barn the petition, I was hoping to be able to get some concrete lab information to present to them as well. So I’ve been contacting environmental labs in the area where I live. One toxicologist I spoke with said an air quality sample would have to be done to determine toxicity. Apparently labs that do that testing are rare and so I’m trying to reach one in Southern California right now.
I also placed a call today to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control. They might help with this kind of issue as well.
If anyone has had testing done and has lab results, PLEASE let me know.
You can contact me directly at: potterybarnrugpetition@yahoo.com
Thank you and I’ll keep you posted,
Rae
PB knows about this problem! I complained in 2007 and the store manager queried their corporate office who then denied knowing about problem. BUT I persisted and sited another website with a customer who had the exact same situation (who also contacted corporate who denied it). Finally they exhanged my rug
In Seattle they exchanged my rug no questions asked. They said they no longer use that supplier...very good customer service about it
Hi -- My rug too!!! It is 4 or 5 years old, wool from India,and started smelling last year. I have aired it out and it still smells strongly. I originally purchased it from Costco on-line. I contacted them on Monday 9/14/09 and received a prompt reply. I am returning it for a full refund today, 9/15/09, even without a receipt. They found the record on my Costco American Express. That kind of customer service cannot be beat. I will buy another rug from Costco. Thank you for posting this, I could not figure out what I had done wrong prior to reading this and felt very apologetic for returning it.
just adding another name here. Amazed I found this link.
8X11 Henley Rug in Green. Purchased in 05. Horrible, horrible burnt smell.
I just returned a 3 yr old rug to Pottery Barn after calling and complaining about its odor of burnt rubber. I could not relax in my home because of the smell. I frequently had to light candles or spray with room freshener to mask the odor. I finally called after my mom complained of the smell this weekend. The salesperson had me read off a # on the back of the rug and told me to bring it right in for an exchange! I was told that Pottery Barn no longer uses the same sprayed on latex backing so this new rug should be fine. They were so quick to take back the rug. I am concerned about my exposure, as well as the exposure of my husband and 4 kids to the off-gassing. I have noticed problems with memory loss that I had thought was due to my age (48). Could it be environmental?
I have the exact rug in your photo and went to the store today to see what they could do about it. I have had it my boys' bedroom for three years. Along with the smell, it seems that the glue is coming apart and leaving a sandy mess on my hardwood floor. Has anyone else experienced this? The sand is a very fine white sand, almost dusty and comes back as quickly as I vacuum it up. I need to get rid of this rug!!
I too bought 2 pb rugs 9x11 for my living room and a rental property. my tenant complained of a smell and i was totally embarrassed, got the rug professionally cleaned and it still smelled...i gave up and threw away the rug. Then i noticed a smell in my living room and it was the same obtrusive smell as the other rug...then i was angry, did not try to clean the rug and just called pb to complain..i was so disappointed in pb for such an inferior product. i want my money back.
Thanks to everyone who has commented. I've had a number of people email and tell me that they've called Pottery Barn who has told them they're aware of the problem and issued a refund. However it sounds like there are still people who are not getting their money back. If someone who has been successful could post the number they used that would be great. The 1-800 number above didn't work for me.
I was able to get my money back on one rug by taking it back to the store where I bought it, but that was over 2 years ago. They first insisted on sending me a new rug in the same style, but I determined the replacement also smelled when I put my nose to it, so they then took back the replacement for a full refund.
Another note, it seems like this isn't an issue limited to Pottery Barn. Problem rugs seem to have been manufactured under all different labels.
I am so relieved to have found this post. We bought our rug in early 2007 and by April 2008 we had to roll it up and store it at our parents due to a job related move. Last year my mom started noticing a horrible smell and told me about it and when I went to check it out, I couldn't believe how strong the burnt rubber smell was. i didn't know what was going on or where to begin. I was going to spend money getting it cleaned (but we didn't use it much and we have no pets) but now, I will call to get my money back and refund the damn carpet. When I think of the money I spent!! i mean, it was nearly $700.
I purchased a Couristan rug called Super Indo-Colors Brielle through Rugs Direct about 11 months ago. I didn't pay that much attention to it because it was not a heavily used room but I continually noticed a wierd smellin the room in general and now that I read these posts realize that it smells of burnt rubber and it's coming from my hand-tufted wool Indian made rug. Manufacturer and Rugs Direct claim that there is no latex or rubber type material in the rug and won't do anything about it. I would have thought that a certain amount of off-gassing is normal in a new rug but it has been almost a year and no change.
If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Thank you!
Me too. A PB rug of about 4 years old, 8 x 10 now smells so badly of rubber that we are going to have to trash it. WHAT A SHAME! It's perfect on the topside, not a mark. But the smell is pervading the whole house.
We had the same issue with stinky rugs! Bought 2 rugs from PB in 2003-ish. But they didn't stink until around 2006, when we moved into our new home. It took so long for us to figure out what it was!! We tried Febreze and used air fresheners to cover up the smell, but then finally figured out it was the rug, and had to remove it from the house! The smell was horrendous. I will call PB tomorrow.
This seems to be an unending problem in my home (all stone floors with only area rugs) I have two very large area rugs, one from PB and the other from Expo, both in difficult to find color combinations. First the Expo rug started stinking and 6 years later the PB rug is now smelling up the place. I have used Zerorez (uses only water) to clean front and back of Expo rug and it is better, though not perfect. I am going to have to try the same thing with the Pottery Barn rug, though it's going to be very difficult to move the big dining room furniture off it. Funny how it took so long for the second rug to smell. Now I'm worried about the 2 year old Pottery Barn rug in my family room. I will never buy a canvas backed rug again until I know what is under it. So glad to have found these posts.
I purchased my four India tufted rugs from Pottery Barn in February 2010. This September my house started to smell very bad. The odder was so overwhelming it was torture being in the house. After several investigations I determined the walls had black mold and we removed all the plaster on the walls on the first floor. I was shocked to not find any mold bet now the basement stunk and we discovered it was the three Pottery Barn Rugs with a taupe backing. The total cost of this mess was $32,638.00. Now I am discovering Pottery Barn has been having problems with the rugs for almost five years before my rug was purchased. What kind of company it this? They clearly don’t care anything about the customers who purchase their merchandise. I am contacting my lawyer and throwing everything from Pottery Barn out to the trash because it makes me sick to even think about it. John Lounie
I purchased my four India tufted rugs from Pottery Barn in February 2010. This September my house started to smell very bad. The odder was so overwhelming it was torture being in the house. After several investigations I determined the walls had black mold and we removed all the plaster on the walls on the first floor. I was shocked to not find any mold bet now the basement stunk and we discovered it was the three Pottery Barn Rugs with a taupe backing. The total cost of this mess was $32,638.00. Now I am discovering Pottery Barn has been having problems with the rugs for almost five years before my rug was purchased. What kind of company it this? They clearly don’t care anything about the customers who purchase their merchandise. I am contacting my lawyer and throwing everything from Pottery Barn out to the trash because it makes me sick to even think about it. John Lounie
I have 2 PB rugs..one bought in 2002 that does not smell and one bought in 2005 that stinks!!Both are wool, but the stinky one has the canvas latex backing and was made in India. It took me a while to figure out what the smell was because it seemed to come and go at first...I thought it might be a heating problem. Plus the other rug is fine. But every year the smell has gotten worse and now it is unbearable and very obvious that it is coming from the rug. I was shocked when I went online tonight to see how many others have the same problem. The rug is in my baby's room so now I am stressed out about what she has been exposed to. I am going to roll it up and take it out tonight and call PB tomorrow. Thanks for all the posts, phone #'s and info.
Just wanted to add that I called PB today using the customer service# on their website. The # posted above for the corporate office does not work. Anyway, i ranted and raved like a lunatic and the person said absolutely nothing...dead silence...very weird. Then I said "have you heard of this problem?" and all he said was "yes". More weird silence. So I said I wanted the rug out of my house and he said they will pick it up tomorrow and issue me a full credit for the rug even though I purchased it 5 yrs ago and don't have a receipt. He found my order right away in the computer using just my name and said it was not a problem. So I recommend that anyone with a smelly pottery barn rug, call customer service to have it taken away and get a store credit for the full value of the rug. Although I am pleased with this outcome, I am still concerned about any harmful effects to my children from breathing in these fumes for all this time. Has anyone heard weather or not its been proven harmful? I am hoping that PB would have had to issue a recall if it had.
A few years ago I too purchased a wool rug with canvas backing. Mine was from Land of Nod and I used it in my young daughter's room. It took me quite a while to figure out that the odor was from the rug. I recently sent it back to Land of Nod for a full refund. No hassle. I am very glad they took it back so readily, but I am worried about my daughter's chemical exposure. Do the retailers or rug manufacturers know something we don't? Did they accept it back because they are concerned about customer satisfaction or because they fear litigation? Has anyone here determined whether the off-gassing is indeed a serious health risk? (My rug is gone now so I can't have testing done.)
Thanks so much for documenting this. Just returned to toxic rug and working on improving air quality.
WE had a pottery barn kids rug in our sons room for the first 2.5 years of his life, thinking the odd odor was from the diaper can, etc. As soon as we realized it was an issue with the rug we had it removed.
He has asthma, allergies, and either an autism spectrum disorder or adhd or both. No family history, we're wondering if it could somehow be linked to chemicals in the rug. We eat carefully & use safe cleaning products....
Same problems here. purchased our rug in 2005 at PB in Newton, MA, as we were decorating a room for our newborn son. In 2008 or 9 we noticed the smell in his room but couldn't identify the source. (He's had asthma since age 2); Only a few months ago (late 2011) did we realize the source of an ever stronger burnt rubber smell. we'll be demanding a full refund on our 6 year old rug today- will not accept any -10% per year policy. We are ANGRY that PB KNEW OF THIS PROBLEM FOR YEARS and did not issue a recall. My wife is an oncologist, and says that emissions from petroleum based products are known carcinogens. Seems to me like this is a CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT waiting to happen. This is why the rep. from PB corporate office was silent other than offering a refund: their lawyers are aware of the problem and have advised them to keep quiet.
Thank you for starting this post....
I thought that I was crazy sniffing my rug. I noticed burned rubber smell some time ago, and at first I thought that smell was coming from my fire please. We have replaced sand and washed the logs and assumed it would help, but burned rubber smell only intensified and again I sniffed the rug and it was it, especially the back side of it.
We have bought the rug from Potter Barn in Dec 2005. Now, I am very concerned about it because my 2 months old son was on the carpet a lot.
If this is toxic, I do not know what I am going to do.
Any, I am glad to find these posts and tomorrow I am going to contact Pottery Barn. I only hope my baby will not get suffer because of it.
Could you tell me what the back of your smelly Persian-style PB rug looks like? Specifically, do you actually see the latex backing , or is it covered by a cotton scrim, like this: http://regalfabriccare.com/2010/03/my-world-is-coming-unglued
I have PB rug that has a canvas back with latex underneath. I poked a hole in it, plus I have white powder/sand coming out. Store manager told me that this kind of rug doesn't have any problems, and the weird smell is due to some liquid spills, which makes the wool smell bad. I think it smells like latex/rubber.
Hi anonymous,
Glad your found your way over here. YES... the problem rugs I've encountered all have this cotton scrim you are talking about. It certainly does not seem confined to the Pottery Barn Brand. I've been in houses where I smell the odor and when I picked up the rug, sure enough there is that cotton backing. Please let me know how your efforts to return the rug progresses.
I am determined to get to the bottom of this, as part of a larger story on indoor air quality. I will post and update as I can.
Thank you!
Feb.13,2012
This is unbelievable that PB continues to deny the problem as they have with me also.They are still not taking any responsibility for making us and our kids sick.I suffered for years as I live alone and noone else smelled the "smell".I continued to get sick with many symptoms including allergies and feelings of malaise and just "sick".I saw doctor after doctor as it was becoming debilitating and ruining my quality of life.Everything I ate tasted like gasoline combined with chocolate as did the smell.Eventually after an episode from this rug that required an ER visit my family came into my home to play detective and after crawling on the floor they lept up yelling,"here it is"OMG this is awful.Well,even that did nothing to move PB and their adjuster to do anything to compensate me which I think they should be doing for all of us!They sent an adjuster out to get the rug but I kept it.I allowed her to unwrap it from my yard where it had been sealed in plastic since discovering it was off-gasing.When she unwrapped it she jumped back and said,OMG this is awful!She proceeded to discuss it with me and after photographing it she asked to come into my home to wash it off her hands and arms.(Pretty amazing,eh!)Well,I have been going back and forth with the company that handles their claims and they won't budge.Oh they'll give me my money back but I wanted them to do more.Their product should have been recalled and they should have taken complete responsibility for this with each and every customer who fell prey to these rugs from India.(Beautiful though deadly)Stay tough and don't let them intimidate you.... I have had this rug for @6 years.Six years of misery!
Hello I came on here to find out how to clean the rug I just purchased from craigs list. thought I got this great deal and when i unrolled it, after about 10 minutes my throat started burning and nose, so I thought maybe the person that sold it to me broke a belt on her vacume and the smell was in the rug, and after reading all this I know it is just the smell of the rug and that is why these people sold it, now I dont know what to do I am stuck with a beautiful rug that is out in my garage and my throat is still burning, Any suggestions ??? This is terrible I feel for the people that had there babys on these toxic rugs.. I know the outcome of formaldehyde, you can get tested for it to see how much is in your system, I did and my levels were pretty high and now this.. Thanks for all the help.
Thanks to all who continue to leave their stories and write. I'm afraid I don't have additional information at this time, but continue to keep an eye on this and am working to get something done. Again, if you want to reach me directly you can email me at potterybarnrugpetition@yahoo.com
Just have to say THANK YOU for making me fell less crazy! It is 2012and i have been researching ways to cover "wool" smell and only now thought to look up "rubber smell". I just called my local pottery barn store where i purchased the rug (on sale) 5+years ago. They called back after a short time and offered a merchandise credit. I am shocked and TOTALLY IMPRESSED that they handled it so nicely.
IMO i have had the rug for a long time, though i kept it very clean i wouldn't have expected much after this much time. POTTERY BARN IS AWESOME for customer service!!
My ~10 yr old rug just recently started to smell like burnt rubber. I called customer service and they said there was nothing they could do about it because: 1) they could not find my purchase in the system since it was too old; and 2) that they no longer carried that rug so there could be no exchange. Any suggestions about what I could do? I got it as a gift...Thanks!
Here's an article about toxins in home furnishings and home fabrics:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/magazine/arlene-blums-crusade-against-household-toxins.html?_r=1&ref=magazine
In a nutshell, the home furnishings landscape is potentially toxic and lethal. Pottery Barn will respond to pressure, though it will take time. And lots and lots of pressure. Did I say pressure?
Question. I purchased the same type of rug from IKEA with same outcomes discussed here as well as latex and glue constantly peeling and now stuck permanently to my hardwood floor. Anyone purchase their rug from IKEA.
Question. I purchased the same type of rug from IKEA with same outcomes discussed here as well as latex and glue constantly peeling and now stuck permanently to my hardwood floor. Anyone purchase their rug from IKEA.
Oh my gosh, I thought I have been crazy for years until reading this thread Purchased quite a few rugs for my new home between 2003-2005 time-frame. I have had a handful of people comment that my house has a weird smell through the years. I noticed that my kids rooms started to have a strong odor after a couple of years but passed it off on them being "kids" and dirty clothes in the room.???
Since that time I donated several of the rugs but still kept the Pottery Barn Kids rug in my daughters room. This was a rug for her nursery that I bought when she was born. When she was about 2, she didn't want to sleep in her room anymore and said she didn't like her room. She was getting headaches and a lot of allergies.
Last year, my daughter took her rug out of her room and put it in the guest room. We keep the guest room door closed since we do not use it often. I went in there about 6 months ago and thought I was going to pass out. I immediately got a horrible headache and felt like I was going to throw up. I couldn't figure out what was going on. I looked around trying to figure out what the smell might be. It wasn't until I started rearranging the room last month when I picked the rug that I realized the horrible strong chemical odor coming from the rug. I immediately threw the rug in the basement.
I have been suffering from horrible memory loss this past year and I work from home. My dining room is right next to the room I work in. I just decided to smell the Pottery Barn rug under my dining room table, OH MY GOSH, it is horrible!!!
I cannot imagine what kind of damage this could have been doing to my family for the past 10-12 years! I just called Pottery Barn Corporate Customer Relations and I had to leave a voice message.
Any advice? I know this thread is quite old. Both of the rugs I still own were made in India and have a beige canvas backing on them.
Were you ever able to get testing done on the rugs to see if the chemicals are harmful?
Not sure were to go from here. Thank you!
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