What is carpet water damage?
Carpet water damage is what happens when water soaks through carpet into the pad and the floor beneath. The top of the carpet can feel nearly dry while the pad and the slab or subfloor stay wet, which is why wet carpet so often turns into odor, stains and mold a few days later.
Cleanup focuses on getting water out of all three layers: the carpet, the pad and the floor underneath.
Carpet water extraction and drying
Extraction comes first. Providers use extractors, sometimes weighted tools that press water out of the pad, to remove as much water as possible. Carpet is often lifted at the edges, the soaked pad is cut out, and air movers blow under and across the carpet while dehumidifiers pull moisture from the air. Readings on the carpet and the floor show when drying is finished.
When carpet has to be replaced
Carpet wet with clean water from a supply line is the most likely to be saved. Gray water, such as washing machine overflow, may allow carpet to be cleaned and kept. Black water from sewage or outside flooding means carpet and pad are usually discarded. Carpet that stayed wet for days, delaminated, shrank or kept a smell after drying is also usually replaced.
Carpet on a concrete slab
On a slab, water has nowhere to drain, so it sits between the pad and the concrete. That is why pad removal and drying the slab matter. Water can also wick into the bottom of drywall and baseboards along the carpet edges, so those areas are checked too.
What affects the cost of carpet drying
The provider explains costs after assessing the room. The main factors are the area of wet carpet, the type of water, whether the pad has to be replaced and how long the carpet was wet.
What to have ready for the call
Have the property address, which rooms have wet carpet, where the water came from, whether it was clean or dirty water and how long ago it happened.