Water Removal And Your Wet Carpet

When you you're dealing with a flooded home, a wet carpet is one of the more difficult tasks to deal with. The easiest thing to do is clearly to remove the wet carpet and to replace it totally with a brand new one. However this may not be an option to many household owners who are struck with the disaster of a flood. Also, the carpet may very well be salvageable. It all depends on the amount of damage, and the type of flood which affected it in the first place. Water removal and further recovery procedures to a wet carpet, include the following steps:

1- Water removal
2- Removing waste and soil
3- Removing chemical pollutants
4- Removing odor
5- Drying the carpet
6- Protecting against mold

Water removal from the wet carpet can be performed by a wet vacuum cleaner. Wet vacuum cleaners range from powerful industrial-strength vacuum cleaners, to household ones. While both are effective, a large carpeting area may require a larger wet vacuum cleaner. Otherwise it may be a tedious and a tiring job to use a small scale wet vacuum cleaner which may be good enough to deal with isolated wet spots on your carpet. It is worth mentioning here that there are specialized places, even grocery stores, who rent out larger wet vacuum cleaners on daily or hourly basis.

When you're performing water removal, chances are you've also removed the larger portion of solid in the process, which was removed by the vacuum cleaner. However, that's not to say your carpet is now free of soil and other solid waste. If upon examination you find further waste, you might want to try and shampoo the carpet. Using the same wet vacuum cleaner, there is usually an option to add a special carpet detergent to the carpet, then to steam clean the carpet. This may not be a small job, especially if you have a large house. The other option would be to wait for the carpet to dry, then to use a dry vacuum cleaner to clean the dry waste.

If your house has been subjected to an area-flood, there is a chance that the flood water which entered your home, also carried with it chemical pollutants. The chemical pollutants could have settled in your carpet. Use visual or smell examination at first to determine if your carpet has trapped any of the common household pollutants, such as gasoline, oils, or anything which requires additional cleaning measures. Some oils, like engine oil, cannot be removed by the regular carpet shampooing detergents. You may need to apply a solvent first, such as alcohol, to break down the oil before you can use steam cleaning. There are also some commercially-available solvents which you can use.

Removing odor from a soiled carpet can be a straight forward task or one of great complexity which may force you to actually replace the carpet. If you can detect any odor during the initial water removal process, chances are it is due to the waste (liquid or solid) soiling the carpet. If the odor develops at a later stage, say a few days after the drying of the carpet, chances are it is due to the developing of a mold or mildew problem. For odors, you need to treat the cause, and the odor will go away. That's why it is essential that you fully dry the carpet, and not just simply perform water removal hoping it would dry on its own! Dry- vacuuming the carpet after covering it with generous amounts of baking soda usually removes most odors. The carpet needs to be totally dry before you can use baking soda otherwise the baking soda will stick to the carpet causing you another problem.

Drying the carpet involves the use of either simpler techniques, such as the use of a fan, or the use of a more efficient method such as dehumidifiers. To both, there are advantages and disadvantages. A compromise would be to use your household fan to circulate the air, while your central air conditioning unit helps by condensing the moisture in the ambient air, and getting rid of it through the unit's drainage system.

The most important aspect of water removal when drying a carpet is to fully remove any remaining moisture from the carpet. You may risk hazard to your health, or at least you may risk ruining your carpet, if it remains damp for more than a couple of days.

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