When a flood has impacted your home, the results can be overwhelming. This is particularly true for your long lasting carpet which may not last too much longer should it remain submerged in standing water for any length of time. The key to saving your carpet from such a disaster is to extract the water from the material as quickly as you can. The sooner you act, the more likely you are to prevent long-term damage.
If you don’t remove the water, the damage could be significant. Not just to the carpet but to the flooring underneath and the walls surrounding the room. But removing it from the carpet is most important, because all of that moisture getting trapped under the carpeting can lead to the growth of mold and mildew on top of the water damage that can take place on your floor.
Water Extraction
You must remove as much water as you can as fast as possible. This will reduce how much germs and bacteria get into the carpet and beneath it.
Find the Source
This is the first step in extracting water from carpet. You need to stop the flooding and it will help to know if the water is toxic or not. As you may have guessed, this will be a determining factor into whether or not the carpet can be saved at all.
If you are dealing with a flood from a sewer line or the toilet has overflowed, you are going to need to remove the carpet entirely. There is simply too much bacteria in this water for trying to salvage the carpet. Even if you extract all of the water, the bacteria will remain and no amount of Professional Carpet Cleaning Services will be able to eliminate all of that contamination.
For floods that come from other, cleaner sources you’re still going to need to remove the water quickly but you will be able to clean the carpet after you’re done.
Removing the Water
So how much has gotten into the carpet? Most floods are pretty large and you will need to take steps to absorb and remove the water. Throwing down some towels is a good start, let those soak up as much of the water as possible. You might end up using every towel in the house but as long as you can remove the excess moisture, you’re well on your way to drying the carpet.
Wet-Vac
If you have one, use it. This is a great way to pick up the water that your towels can’t get at effectively. The suction will be useful for extracting the water that is tougher to remove.
Air Flow
Now that you’ve removed all of the water, you need to allow the carpet time to dry. Open all the windows, bring in some fans, get air moving through the room and the fibers of the carpet. Don’t introduce heat into the carpet, that will only keep things wet and moist. Cool and dry air only.
