Drying Carpet

[stockrex]

I have a 5 ft x 4 ft section of carpet in my basement soakingn with water.
I shoped vac'd it and my shop vac is aged. The pad is wet and everytime I step on it I can feel the water surface up to the carpet.

I have a fan aimed at the wet spot and a dehumifier running.

I also got some thick towels (ralph lauren ) and put on top of the wet spot and walked on the towel to soak up water,
I did this with 2 towel, they are soaking wet now.

What else can I do to expedite the drying process?

 

[GumbyJarvis]

http://www.damprid.com/

 

[raytseng]

if a towel can still pull up moisture, keep repeating that with more dry towels until you can't pull up any more moisture.

If it is really bad, you can see if you can get an edge of the carpet up and blow air underneath it.

Assuming outside air is relatively dry, stick with getting in more air circulation. You need a method to get the humid air out, if you can cycle outside air in with windows or out the door, you setup a daisy chain of fans to make sure you can move more drier air in.
that's going to do loads more benefit than your dehumidifier or damprid.

the big hardware stores will also rent carpet dryers which are just fans but with the air output going at ground level.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Likely the pad will never dry well in place. Many pads have 'skin' on them and as such retard evaporation. Raytseng has it right, rent a BIG drying fan, get it under the edge where it inflates the area.

 

[abycat]

When we have floods in my apartments we pull the carpet up and remove the wet underlay. Then carpet clean the affected carpet. We put big fans under the carpet for a day then come back and install new underlay and put the carpet back down.

 

[earlyre]

You could also rent a carpet cleaner(rug doctor, bissell, etc) from your local grocery store or home center, and just use the extractor (suction) part, without spraying solution....

 

[Inspecktor]

Some carpet care companies, or clean up companies have large dehumidifiers that will pull moisture out of the carpet and pad. Don't wait too long, mold is a lot harder to get rid of than water.

 

[Rand]

Probably have to replace it.

you can keep doing towels and get a floor blower and have it blow under the edge of carpet.

something like
this

as a minimum.

 

[Bgallagher]

Originally Posted By: earlyre
You could also rent a carpet cleaner(rug doctor, bissell, etc) from your local grocery store or home center, and just use the extractor (suction) part, without spraying solution....


+1 that will suck up a lot of the moisture. if you can get a hold of a dehumidifier too that will help. Damprid will as well.

 

[Donald]

Professional carpet extracts can get out a lot more water because of a different design vacuum. They also have a special tool to attach the hose to that directs the tool to pick up water down into the backing and pad.

 

[Noey]

if you cannot suck the water out then you need to rip it up before you get mold and mildew. This can cost you thousands to remediate.

If the carpet and the pad have been saturated for a long time they're gone anyways, they cannot be saved.

 

[Drew99GT]

Pull the carpet back from the walls if it's by a wall and get some fans going in between the carpet and the pad. Once it dries, rent a carpet machine and spray the carpet with a Lysol dilution and then go over the carpet with the machine with just water and rinse it all out. That will help control mold. You can also use Borax to deal with any mold.

If you want it done right, cut the affected pad out and replace it. It's not too hard. Then smooth the carpet back to the walls and pull it tight and use a big spackle knife to jam the carpet in between the base boards so it sticks on the tack strip.

 

[stockrex]

I am in the process of taking out the baseboard trim to take the carpet off, to check the pad.
the towel trick worked, but I ran out of thick bath towels and my girls will kill me if I use their towels ;-)

I had to move my gun safe which was already on 1x2 wood strips to get it off the floor to dry some spots.

My humidifier (low temp basement model) worked well,
I am going to lowes to get another fan to speed up the air flow.

Yes, this carpet will be thrown out pretty soon, I am going to all tile with under tile heating in my basement office, I am not a fan of carpet.

I am going to cut out the pad later this week, and leave the carpet on top of the concrete,

Question:
the crazy installers put in 2 nails on the baseboard trim,
one on top and one at the bottom, the bottom one is too close to the carpet/floor, this is preventing me from taking the baseboard trim off and in turn the carpet,

any idea how to get the trim out, the bottom of the trim is wedged into the carpet wall seam.

I am ready to cut the nails with my recip saw!

 

[Drew99GT]

Can you pull the carpet off the tack strip and move it out of the way? That should give you an extra 1/2 inch of room to get those bottom nails.

 

[dblshock]

tear the wet pad out and rent a drum fan, re-install new pad and old carpet once it's dry.