Does Flooding Ruin Your Carpet?
Flooding, whether it’s from heavy rains or a broken pipe, is a stressful and sometimes costly mess to clean up. What can make the problem worse is if you have carpet in a room that has flooded. However, if you are able to act quickly enough, you may be able to save your carpet and avoid having to replace it entirely.
What does flooding do to your carpet?
As you’ve seen anytime you spill something on a carpet, it soaks right in. When you’ve got serious flooding in a carpeted room, your carpet will soak up as much of that water as it can. The longer the water sits in the carpeting, the higher chance that mold will begin to grow. Within the carpet, it’s dark, it’s humid from the water, and it’s likely to warm enough since your home isn’t cold. These conditions are exactly what mold needs to thrive. If you’ve got mold growing in your carpet, you’ll start to notice allergy-like symptoms, such as irritation in your nose, eyes, throat, and lungs. Of course, this is bad for your health and if you breathe in the mold for an extended period of time, it will lead to health problems. If you have water flooding your carpet, you need to act as quickly as you can.
What to do if your carpet floods
As long as the water is safe to touch (not contaminated, not in contact with an electrical source), you should begin cleaning up as soon as you can.
Use a wet-vac
You can rent a wet-vac from most hardware or home improvement stores, and they can really help with flooding cleanup. A wet-vac should be able to get most if not all of the water out of your carpeting.
Turn on the dehumidifier
Mold needs moisture to grow. If you’ve used the wet-vac, there’s likely still a small amount of moisture left in the carpet, which is all mold needs. A dehumidifier will pull the water out of the air, allowing your carpet to fully dry faster.
Turn on some fans too
Fans will circulate the air and that moving air will help any wetness in your carpet to dry out quicker. This combined with the dehumidifier will make a big difference in drying time.
Have your carpet steam cleaned
Hiring a professional crew to steam clean your carpet is the most effective way to ensure that mold doesn’t grow in it. Steam cleaning gets down to the roots and the high heat will kill any mold that has started to grow.
Padding isn’t so easy to dry out
Most carpeting has a layer of spongey padding underneath to make it more comfortable. While the previous steps will help dry your carpet, they won’t do much for the padding. The spongey padding will soak up as much water as it can, and it’s unlikely you’ll be able to fully dry it out. If you’ve had serious flooding that reached the padding below your carpet, the best course of action is to have the padding replaced. You should be able to keep the carpeting as long as it’s been dried out, but the padding is probably a lost cause.
Adams Complete Cleaning & Restoration | Flood damage restoration
If you’ve had serious flooding in a carpeted room, you don’t want to leave the cleanup to chance. If you’re doing it yourself, it may seem like you’ve got the carpet dry enough, but there’s a chance that it’s still holding enough moisture to grow mold. Once you’ve got mold, the problem is more dangerous and the cleanup more expensive. The experts at Adams Complete Cleaning & Restoration have the professional equipment and expertise to completely restore your home after flooding damage so that you can keep your peace of mind.
To schedule an appointment for flood cleanup and restoration, give us a call at (586) 701-8512 or send in an online contact form.