Choosing the appropriate floor surface for a school environment is a complex issue. To assist school personnel in determining which flooring is best for their school, we studied the biocontaminant levels associated with carpeted and hard surface flooring. Two schools, as similar as possible with the exception of their floor coverings, one predominantly tiled and one predominantly carpeted, were selected. Neither school was a ‘problem’ building. Multiple biocontaminants were measured. For flooring, there were statistically significant differences for all the tested contaminants except fungi. The carpeted surfaces, being strong sinks, contained higher levels of the contaminants except for fungi. However, airborne allergen levels were significantly higher over hard floors than over carpeted floors. Significant differences were found for spores, fungi, and dust mass. The results suggest that carpet floor covering was not the major contributor to airborne levels of biocontaminants in these two nonproblem schools.
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