Get rid of home allergens

10 years ago

We recently purchased a 1951 one-and-a-half storey home whose previous owners had 2 cats and a dog. We ripped out the carpets, installed subfloors and laminate, painted the walls, ceilings, and baseboards, and moved in. Now that I'm sitting in my office (attic), I can still feel allergies. Itchy, watery, reddish eyes, tickle in throat, slight headache, tired feeling. Hindsight of course says we shouldn't have bought a home with pets since we both have allergies, but it was a great location and we thought new flooring and paint would eliminate problems. Anyway, now that we're here, we're looking for ways to minimize allergens. We've closed the vents, opened the windows, and cleaned the light fixtures. We are also getting our ducts cleaned next week. Any other suggestions?!??! These allergens are interfering with my ability to work (I work from home).

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Comments (4)

emma
10 years ago
Give it awhile for the problems to go away. Some of it may be the new materials. Open windows when you can and get a draft through the home.
sanschult
10 years ago
Are you only allergic to animal dander? Or is it maybe the pollens, grasses weeds and other outdoor allergans coming thru the open windows?

I moved from California where I'd had hay fever for my whole life, to the Ohio Valley. I was just fine with no allergies for several years until I started having problems due to mold!

Do you use a steroid nasal spray, that helped me a lot.
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hissy
Original Author
10 years ago
I gave the attic another good scrub last night and the air is better today. I think you're right, the construction in the house has stirred up the dust (and dander and mites, etc). Opening the windows just stirred it around even more. So, a good scrub every couple days until the air clears is probably the answer. It COULD be the pollens coming in from outside, though when I'm actually outside I feel fine. (Thankfully, live in a dry climate). Will try the nasal spray for when I'm inside, thanks for the tip. Cheers.
nerdyshopper
10 years ago
Since you are allergic to pet dander, I think that the ducts could be the answer. If they are, a good cleaning (or maybe two) will be needed. We have a whole house filter system on our heat pump and it has proved to be useless because the filters leak so bad. Would have to tear out the whole filtration and install a better one to get rid of dust which collects on everything here. So we need to clean ducts pretty often.