Sorry this is long. I'd like to give as much detail as possible.
As a kid, DH has eczema, asthma and childhood food allergies. He's grown out of all of them other than the asthma which was quite mild and exhasperated by cats.
We moved into our maisonette in May. The previous owners had cats, as had the owners before hand. The first day DH had real difficulty breathing, so he went and stayed at his mums whilst I cleaned, wet dusted vaccumed every inch of the (pretty filthy) flat. I hired a steam carpet cleaner and spent hours on the carpets. Huge amounts of cat hair came up, and I'm confident I got rid of as much as possible. DH came back, and no problems with his breathing, although looking back he might have been using his inhailer slightly more often than before.
Our maisonette is 'upside down'. Living area is on the upper ground floor with very good ventilation and access (via steps) to the garden. Our bedrooms are in the lower ground floor. Even with the windows open the air is pretty still. Over the summer I painted the upstairs. The windows and back door were open most of the time, and DH had no noticable breathing problems (unsuprising as he had never had an issue with paint.)
However when I painted the downstairs DH's asthma started getting really bad. It seemed to be worse in the spare room (which i had had to give 4 coats of paint) His breathing problems got worse, even when the paint was seemingly dry, and DH had to sleep upstairs for a while on the sofa. We have had the windows open whenever possible, although I've been careful about this as atleast once a cat got in.
Its been nearly two months now and DH is still having difficulty breathing at night. he wakes up a lot and uses his inhailer much much more than I have ever seen before. He wakes up with really puffy eyes and dry and flakey skin around his eyelids. He is generally wheezy and blocked up. Sometime he feels it gets worse for the first 20 mins he is up (he blamed the towels for a while). He is better when he gets upstairs (fresher air and no carpets?) and he is fine at work.
First we thought it was the paint (f&b and fired earth rather than our usual cheaper brands), then maybe cats, but these aren't ongoing. DHs mum has suggested dust mites (she is a very enthusiastic cleaner and had as a precaution put dust mite covers on his bed as a child), but would he suddenly get a dust mite allergy? Could the paint have triggered other allergies? Can you become allergic to a flat after 3 months of no real problems?
And what can we do to try and make it better? Are there any special cleaning routines I should start?
Or can you think of any other common household allegies I have missed? Mice? Me?
TIA