Printed from smellbook.com/smells/fresh-carpet. This printout keeps the entry for Fresh Carpet itself: its description, reference card, Connections, questions, evidence, related smells, record details, states, names and citation. It leaves out your own notes, the map, the lists of paths, routes, stories and fragrance directions, and the lists headed “Also linked to” (other entries that share its place or material) and “Linked from”; they are on the page online. The entries this one links to are still printed under Connections and Related smells.
Categories and types group entries for browsing; they are editorial, not evidence. How smells are grouped.
A newly installed textile-flooring smell combining fibers, backing, adhesives and a strong sense of newness.
Setting: new · manufactured · interior. An editorial word for the kind of place or occasion the smell belongs to, not a smell word.
New carpet smells strongly of newness: a dry, synthetic, slightly plasticky note from the fibres and backing, often with a sharper, glue-like edge underneath. EDITORIAL
Named in the VERIFIED claims about this smell: not a list of what it is made of, and not its cause.
Links SmellBook records for this entry: where you meet it, molecules and related smells. EDITORIAL links are chosen by SmellBook editors and VERIFIED links come from VERIFIED claims. Nothing here is a ranking, and a molecule is not presented as the cause of the smell.
QUESTIONS ABOUT FRESH CARPET
New carpet smells strongly of newness: a dry, synthetic, slightly plasticky note from the fibres and backing, often with a sharper, glue-like edge underneath. The smell is most noticeable in a closed room just after fitting, and a carpet that has been walked on for a while smells much quieter. Wool carpets smell softer and slightly animal.
In SmellBook’s words: fabric.
It is met in new homes and offices, in rooms that have just been refurbished, and in carpet shops and showrooms where rolls of flooring are stored.
Typical settings: new office, new home, recent installation.
SmellBook links it to one place page: see it in Connections.
Material: Carpet.
One VERIFIED scientific claim from one published source is recorded for this entry: The source of new-carpet odour. This claim says only what its source supports, in the scope shown with it.
The scientific study behind this evidence is chemistry or emission work, not a study of how the smell is perceived.
2 molecules are named in this claim; see the evidence for the role the claim gives them. Each molecule this claim names has only the role the claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell. Where a molecule is listed as a reported volatile, the claim does not say it shapes the smell.
Fresh Carpet is descriptive only and is not an indoor-air or product-safety assessment.
No historical source or heritage record is linked to this entry yet.
Answers marked EDITORIAL are written by SmellBook editors to describe the experience and add no scientific fact. Answers marked VERIFIED point to claims on published sources, checked against each source's own summary where one was available (each claim's page says how); what each claim supports is in its own text and scope.
Scientific evidence · 1 claim
The source of new-carpet odour
New carpets measured in a 20 m³ environmental chamber emitted a variety of volatile organic compounds; the two with styrene-butadiene rubber latex mainly released 4-phenylcyclohexene, identified as the source of the 'new carpet' odour, and styrene.
Four carpet types collected at manufacturers' mills (study published 1993); backings and adhesives change the emissions.
How this was found: Emissions or air measured. What a material, product or place releases into the air was measured, usually without assessing odour. Source: primary study; material-emission work.
Alfred T. Hodgson, John D. Wooley & Joan M. Daisey
DOI 10.1080/1073161x.1993.10467136Each molecule is named by the claim shown after it. Each molecule named here has only the role the claim states; one molecule is not the whole smell. About molecules in SmellBook
Links chosen by SmellBook editors, not a ranking.
Associations can vary strongly by person, place and culture.
PATHS FROM HERE
Each step is a relationship SmellBook editors recorded in the knowledge graph, named as it is published there. Paths are not ranked or personalised, and they do not mean the smells smell alike.
Each step is a molecule that a VERIFIED claim names for both smells, in whatever role the claims state. Sharing a molecule does not mean two smells smell alike.
MY SMELLBOOK · LOCAL ONLY
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MAP THIS SMELL
Follow the related smells our editors recorded, or use Smell Between to compare this smell with any other, field by field.
WHERE THIS SMELL APPEARS
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FOR RESEARCHERS AND EDITORS
Identity, revision history, corrections and how to cite Fresh Carpet.
CULTURAL: This entry's associations depend on context, language, memory or culture; its description and smell words are editorial. It says nothing about research or historical evidence; evidence for this entry is shown separately: VERIFIED.
A state says how an entry is met, such as wet, aged or roasted. It does not create a new smell, and it adds no scientific fact by itself: states marked EDITORIAL come from the entry's own records, and only those marked VERIFIED are reported by a VERIFIED claim.
How this entry is identified and named, for citing it or matching it with other records.
SmellBook SB-0185 — Fresh Carpetsmellbook:smell:fresh-carpethttps://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-carpetSmellBook. (2026). Fresh Carpet (revision 4, 2026-10-06). SmellBook Public Atlas. smellbook:smell:fresh-carpet. https://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-carpet@misc{smellbook_fresh_carpet_r4,
author = {{SmellBook}},
title = {Fresh Carpet},
year = {2026},
note = {SmellBook Public Atlas, revision 4, 2026-10-06, smellbook:smell:fresh-carpet},
url = {https://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-carpet}
}TY - ENCYC ID - smellbook-fresh-carpet-r4 TI - Fresh Carpet AU - SmellBook T2 - SmellBook Public Atlas PY - 2026 DA - 2026/10/06 ET - revision 4 UR - https://smellbook.com/smells/fresh-carpet N1 - SB-0185; smellbook:smell:fresh-carpet; resolver https://smellbook.com/id/smell/fresh-carpet ER -
The citation names revision 4 of 2026-10-06, so a reader can tell exactly which version was cited. Citing records what was read; it does not grant a licence.
Fresh Carpet is descriptive only and is not an indoor-air or product-safety assessment.
Editorial description expanded to answer what it smells like and where you meet it; independently reviewed.
Created 2026-09-22 · Updated 2026-10-06Dataset history In the SmellBook dataset since the first of three dataset releases of 2026-09-30; changed in the first of two dataset releases of 2026-10-05 (descriptors).
No correction notices published for this entry. Corrections policyEVIDENCE MATTERS
SmellBook separates cultural association, community perception, verified evidence, prediction and experimental relationships rather than presenting them as the same thing. Read the evidence guide ↗ See the evidence coverage report ↗