Is Carpeting Ruined After a Flood?
As we head into spring, there are a couple of flooding threats you have to be aware of. One is from heavy rain, whether it floods into your home directly or caused a sewer backup. The other is present throughout the year, and that’s the possibility of a burst pipe. Flooding is an annoying and sometimes dangerous problem as it is, but if your home has carpeting where the flood reaches, then it adds another step to the cleanup process. If you don’t want to have to replace your carpeting after a flood, act as soon as you can and follow these steps.
What happens to your carpet after a flood?
Carpets are great for adding comfort to a room, but they’re also great at absorbing liquid. If you’ve had a flood, then this is a problem you need to address immediately. If you leave moisture in your carpet for too long, mold will grow and negatively affect your health. The carpet doesn’t have to be soaked for mold to grow, even if it’s just damp then that’s enough to begin mold growth. Since your home is relatively warm, the carpet is wet, and deeper into the carpet it’s dark, there are perfect conditions for mold to grow. You’ll notice the health effects of mold if you start to experience symptoms similar to seasonal allergies affecting your throat, nose, eyes, and lungs. If you let mold stick around for too long, it will cause longer-term health problems that you don’t want to deal with. So, if water has flooded your carpeted room, here’s what to do about it.
How to dry your carpet after a flood
First, make sure the water is safe to clean up. If it looks contaminated, or it may be touching an electrical source, get away from it and call a professional for help. If the water is safe, then immediately get to work on cleaning it up
Use towels and a wet-vac
If you don’t have a wet-vac in your home, lay some towels on the carpet to soak up what you can while you go to rent a wet-vac. Using a wet-vac will suck up nearly all of the water and take care of most of the work for the cleanup.
Get some fans going
The more you can circulate the air, the quicker the moisture left in the carpet will dry out.
Use a dehumidifier
To increase the effectiveness of the fans, use a dehumidifier to take some moisture out of the air. That way, the fans will circulate dry air so that it isn’t just sending more moisture around.
Get a professional steam cleaning
The final step for eliminating any chance of mold in your carpet is to have a professional steam clean it. The heat from the steam cleaning will kill any mold that may have started to grow during your clean-up process.
Now for the padding
In most cases, carpeting has a layer of padding underneath to make it more comfortable to walk on. Unfortunately, this padding is even more absorbent than your carpeting is, and it’s nearly impossible to completely dry it out. The steps mentioned before will work on your carpet, but they won’t reach the padding underneath. The best fix is to just replace your padding. You can have the carpet removed and then put it back on once the padding is replaced, which will save some money.
Centurion Services | Professional carpet steam cleaning
Unless you’ve got access to a steam cleaner and know how to use it effectively, it’s best to have a professional perform steam cleaning so that you know the mold has been killed. Our experts are highly experienced in steam cleaning, we can kill the mold quickly without damaging your carpet from the high heat. Remember, the quicker you get the carpet steam cleaned, the less chance there is that mold will stick around.
To schedule a steam cleaning appointment, give us a call at (586) 204-6387 or send in an online contact form today!