Influence of Parquet Flooring on the Indoor Air Quality of Private Residence: A Case Study

This paper presents results from a case study on IAQ in a residence where the occupants complained about health problems during a few years’ time including infants after they changed the flooring to a new parquet flooring in both the floors. During the last years the health conditions of the children became very bad resulting into several emergency visits to the hospital. This study presents measured values for VOC and aldehydes under different conditions. Initial measurements showed that the values were very high and exceeded all the recommended health Hazard limits. This resulted into the decision that all the parquet flooring was removed. This study shows how the values of VOC and aldehydes decreased with time and also the decrease did not follow the general diffusion principles. Therefore, forced ventilation conditions under elevated temperature and very high relative humidity were used to accelerate the release rate. This study shows that elimination of volatiles was a very slow process and it took almost 30 days to achieve acceptable concentration levels both for the aldehydes and for the VOCs.

This case study shows for the first time that although such flooring material meets the standard, how they may influence the IAQ of residential houses. In case if such contaminations occur, this study also shows that how the reduction rates of chemicals and specially aldehydes in indoor air could be accelerated by using different accelerated ventilation conditions. The study shows that the health hazards due to the presence of aldehydes in indoor air are underestimated in normal IAQ control routines. Since, aldehydes are classified as carcinogens, the study shows that measurement of aldehyde concentrations in indoor air should always be included in the indoor air quality control to assure a healthy indoor air climate.