Posted by Jim Locker on January 16, 2001 at 10:36:49:
You should suck all the water out of the carpet and pad that you can. A commercial carpet cleaner with the head weighted down with bricks does a pretty good job.
Then, crank up the heat and on a daily basis come to the place and open the windows for half an hour to exchange the humid air. Of course the dehumidifier will help too, but it is more costly to run.
Do not depend on a dehumidifier to dry the carpet. Suck the water out, and don’t wait.
You will probably have a lot of mildew in the place to contend with after you have dried it out. Check inside all kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and clean as necessary. Also in the furnace ducts and around baseboards.
Once it is dried out and cleaned up with disinfectants, you should be OK.
There will be a stage where the carpet is almost but not quite dry. At this time, it will stink quite badly - smelling like wet fur. Don’t worry about it. In a couple days, when it is completely dry, the odor will vanish.
Posted by JHyre in Ohio on January 16, 2001 at 09:53:54:
Have a nice bank-repoed mobile with 3 rooms of wet carpets from pipe breaks. Breaks are now repaired. The carpets are quite nice and clean (i.e.- no pets) but have been wet for 2 weeks in freezing weather. We have turned the heat on, installed a de-humidifier and fans. Once dry, we’ll deodoerize if necessary- I would hope that mildew and the like would not develop in freezing weather. Is this so?
Any suggestions? Anything else we can or should do to ensure that the carpets are not ruined?
Posted by Rick(CA) on January 17, 2001 at 01:38:12:
You can also purchase a Living Air XL-15 unit. It will produce ions that will effectively kill the mold and mildew and ozone to neutralize the odor. You may have to wipe up the mold once it dries, but it does remove it and no lingering odor. It’s like letting nature inside your house to spring clean.
A good carpet can get wet several times before it damages it. Pads are usually not the same. After sucking the water out of the carpet, pull the pad and get fans to blow air under the carpets