Carpet drying vs carpet replacement, is often much cheaper, easier and quicker. It also deals with water which has penetrated surrounding walls, floors and other building materials.
Water flooding throughout a home or office which has carpet can be a real problem if not handled quickly and professionally. The most common response to water loss or a flooding throughout your property is to quickly throw towels down, soaking up as much water from the carpet as possible. This is usually followed by domestic fans and opening of the windows in the water effected rooms or building.
This maybe a viable solution if we are dealing with a glass full of water. Though when a water loss occurs from a broken water pipe, flexi hose, washing machine flood, hot water system leaking, flooding from outside or via the roof, say after storm damage. The towel and window open option will not cut it.
Why?
Basically water loss from the above examples will most likely penetrated beyond the reach of the household towel. Water has a great ability to travel through the smallest of gaps, and when you are dealing with a broken water pipe, you could be dealing with hundreds of litres of water loss, which saturates carpet and floor coverings, timber framing, plaster walls, concrete and timber sub floors, floor and ceiling cavities and a variety of other places.
Water which has infiltrated the building needs to be extracted and all surfaces which have come in contact with the water after a house flood or commercial flood needs to be dried quickly to reduce secondary water damage and mould growth in the property.
Water loss in a property adds further complications depending on the source and type of water that has flooded through the property. For example sewage water is handled completely differently to a clean water pipe burst which has flooded the house or office. It’s possible that a clean water loss, thats leaking through a ceiling which contains rat faeces, or from outside source to indoor environment can also contain gross contaminants and bacteria. A qualified technician is trained to identify these issues and scope out a plan to rectify and remediate.
The 4 Common mistakes: wet carpet, and the drying of wet carpet after a flood
- Failing to understand extent of water penetration. And category of water loss.
- Failing to understand the microbial impact and result to carpet backing,underlay and sub flooring. Including correct treatment and remediation procedures
- Carpet feels dry when I touch it,so it should be ok.
- Carpet and underlay is dry so the issue is resolved.
Example: Its going to cost you $600 in insurance excess, and the bedroom carpet is only 3m x 3m. The carpet and underlay replacement, say costs you $500-600. So you think its probably cheaper to just replace myself. Then you take into consideration all the surrounding plaster and skirting has absorbed water and is wet upto 10cm, water is trapped in the sub floor and could cause organic growth & rot. The cabinet the leak occurred in, probably has water trapped in its base. That so called basic flood could cause $10,000 of damage, to remove and replace plus the time involved and trades required to rectify a relatively small issue. Drying can reduce this cost dramatically, and re-occupency can be achieved in days not weeks.
4 Common mistakes explained: when handling wet carpet, and the drying of wet carpet after a flood.
In summary, its possible for the carpet fibre to feel dry, while highly likely that the carpet backing, carpet underlay and the sub-floor beneath can still be very wet, stay wet for an extended period of time.
If the carpet has been saturated, you will probably find moisture has penetrated sub flooring, plaster walls, skirting boards and concrete. These wet materials will need help to dry, using science based drying procedures to extract water in a timely manner to avoid further structural damage and mould growth.
If in doubt feel free to call and speak to a technician, they can give general info and recommendations over the phone and organise for an initial inspection to scope the water loss and offer recommendations, which could save you thousands in repairs.