How to Dry Water Damaged Carpet That Can’t Be Replaced
Anyone who has experienced any kind of flooding in their home—whether it’s a burst pipe, a hurricane-related incident, or a toilet that took a week off from vacation to start leaking—knows that water is your home’s biggest enemy. Water damage is exponentially worse when it comes to carpeting, and even worse if it’s carpet you can’t replace, either because your landlord won’t allow it or because you simply can’t afford it. But if you can’t get rid of wet carpet, you can dry it out and leave it in place if you act quickly and use the right tools.
Dangers of Wet Carpet
What does it mean to act quickly ? This means to start immediately; Mold and mildew will begin to grow on your carpet within 24 to 48 hours of contact with water. Now is not the time to overthink it: mold can have some pretty serious negative health consequences.
But before you take action, you first need to figure out what kind of water you’re dealing with. White water is clear water – rainwater or fresh water from a burst pipe. Gray water is dirty water that has not come into contact with human waste—anything that goes down the drain. Black water is water that has come into contact with human waste – sewage. If your carpet is soaked with gray or black water, it needs to be thrown away—no amount of cleaning will make it safe to store.
Drying the carpet
If your carpet gets wet from relatively clean water, you can dry it out and save it. It’s not a quick or easy process, but if you put in the time, it will work. Here’s what to do:
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Remove furniture. Make room. Remove everything that is on the carpet. If you don’t do this, the moisture will remain underneath no matter what you do, and you may have to temporarily remove the carpet later.
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Remove the water. Step one is to remove the saturated water from the carpet. Your best bet is to rent a carpet extractor . They are used as professional carpet cleaning machines, but they also have a powerful vacuum cleaner function that can suck the water out of your carpet much better than the vacuum cleaner you have in your basement. If you can’t find a range hood to rent, try renting a carpet shampoo that will have similar capabilities – just skip the cleaning aspect. If you can’t reach any of them, use a shop vacuum, but work in small sections and be prepared to be very patient.
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Towels. After you have sucked out as much water as possible, use towels to dry up any remaining moisture.
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Fans and dehumidifiers. A carpet blower is a special type of powerful fan designed to dry carpets and other floor coverings. Take a few, place them around the carpet and let them run around. At the same time, rent the largest dehumidifier you can get and let it run, pulling moisture out of the room.
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Remove the lining. Once the carpet is dry to the touch, remove it from the floor. If you have underlayment installed under your carpet, tear it up and throw it away – it will no longer be salvageable. Even if it looks dry, it will almost certainly become moldy over time. Make sure the floor underneath the carpet is dry and disinfected, then replace the carpet (and padding if necessary).
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Clean. Just because your carpet is now dry does not mean it is safe. Disinfect your carpet by cleaning it thoroughly.
If you get through all of this, you can now safely return to your normal life and feel safe having this rug in your home.