My carpet got flooded. What's the best way to save it?

The Vac will take up most of the water no problem.

I'd avoid using the wood as a Squeegee and see if you don't have a brush with a smooth reverse edge as the wood will be very tiring. The brush reverse would allow you to exert a little weight but you will reach a point when the water 'Squeegeed out dsiappears back in as soon as you try to Vac it. At that point you might consider thinning the aperture down with maybe a straight edge rule & Duct Tape/

Another reason to avoid the larger peice of wood is that the abrasion of that wood may cause streaking if the carpet was dirtier than you realised, or if the underlay has degraded and is being sucked up the pile. What you want is to be vaccing up all water raised from the pile and not letting any return.

The time drying will vary according to your local ambient temperature and humidity, however, once you have the pile dry to the casual touch you may well still have a lot of water in there. Another thing to consider is the carpet underlay, some retain more water than others. THe harder you squeegee the more you might cause a degradation in the backing.

A purpose built Carpte Cleaner head would provide a long thin aperture. As you pass the Vac over the moist carpet it will suck the moisture out fairly slowly on the final pass. Y ou will see little bubbles of water vibratring in the airflow.

Providing the ambient humidity is low enough the warm air you have should be sufficinet to dry a carpet with integral underlay in a couple of days at most [It may be quite quick too]. The point you stop vaccing is when the bubbles don't form at the leading edge of the Vac tool.

While you wait for the carpet to dry use a cotton sheet or bath mat to allow you to walk without adding dirt from your shoes. Dont allow too much water to get sucked up in one go. A full Vac is heavy to empty adn you may splash water around your bathroom if you empty it down your toilet.

When doing the several hours vaccing watch you don't over so it with any movement. Repeated actions you don't normally make could cause you pain later. The squeegeeing definitley will!

If the humidity is such that it remains damp for a day or two you may need a air freshener to cover the musty smell that will be likley.

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My carpet got flooded. What's the best way to save it?

My washing machine (in the bathroom) blew off the water hose when I wasn't home. Water came out and flooded my bedroom carpet (fitted) about an inch deep.

So far I have brushed a lot of the water back into the bathroom, with a broom. A friend is arriving shortly with a wet and dry vacuum...

Call a carpet cleaning company like Coit. Their equipment is more powerful than home wet dry vacs. Also if the carpet needs to be pulled up to dry they will be able to. It probably depends on the type of pad underneath and the humidity. If they steam clean the carpet, the steam will probably help to kill any mold that is present in the carpet and might start to grow before it is dried out. In a humid climate the humidity in the room might have to be artificially lowered with a dehumidifier, which could probably be rented for a few days. Be careful with making any insurance claims. My parents friends did after they had a pipe leak and they substantially increased their rates to about double because they thought they were now a mold risk.

I agree with AL, the last time this happened to us, I rented a really BIG wet vac / carpet cleaner from the rental outfit. It was able to pull nearly all the water out of the carpet and within 24 hours it was fully dry. The large cleaner machines can pull lots of water.

There are also some services available here Steamatic is one used often. There are some in AU

http://www.steamatic.com/locate.php?country=Austra...

Might be worth a phone call if any are close enough.

How To Dry Wet Carpet