Wet carpet: can it be saved and how to dry it

Three questions that decide it

What kind of water?

• Clean water from a supply line or a tap: the carpet can usually be saved.
• Grey water from a dishwasher, washing machine or tub: saveable if dealt with quickly, with thorough cleaning.
• Sewage, or flood water from outside: discard the carpet and underpad.

How long has it been wet? Within 24 to 48 hours, the odds are good. After that, mold growth, odour and delamination of the backing become likely.

How much is wet? A patch from a spill is a household job. A whole room or more needs proper extraction and drying equipment.

Why the underpad is the real problem

Underpad is a sponge. It holds many times its weight in water and sits against the subfloor where air cannot reach. Carpet above it can feel dry on top while the pad and the floor beneath are soaked.

For anything beyond a small spill, the wet underpad is pulled out and discarded. It is inexpensive, and removing it is what allows the carpet and subfloor to dry.

What to do in the first hour

1. Stop the source.
2. Turn off power to the room if water is near outlets or cords on the floor.
3. Move furniture off the wet area. Wood stain and metal feet leave permanent marks on wet carpet. Put foil or plastic under legs that cannot be moved.
4. Lift curtains and skirts off the floor.
5. Remove rugs, books and anything that could bleed colour.
6. Blot or extract as much water as possible.

Drying a small area yourself

• Extract with a wet vacuum, working slowly and repeatedly
• Lift the carpet edge to check the pad. If it is wet, lift the carpet back and remove the wet section of pad
• Prop the carpet up so that air can move underneath
• Run fans across the area and a dehumidifier in the room
• Keep the room warm and the windows closed in humid weather
• Check the subfloor is dry before laying new pad and re-stretching

Do not use a household vacuum on wet carpet. It is an electrical hazard and will ruin the machine.

How professionals do it

• Truck-mounted or powerful portable extraction removes far more water than a shop vacuum
• The carpet is detached along one or more walls and the pad removed
• Air movers are placed to push air under and over the carpet
• Dehumidifiers pull the moisture out of the air
• Baseboards are removed and the base of the walls is checked, since water runs under them
• The subfloor and wall readings are monitored until they are back to normal
• New pad is installed, and the carpet is re-stretched and cleaned

What happens if it is left

• A musty smell within days
• Mold on the backing, the pad, the tack strip and the base of the walls
• Rusting tack strips that stain the carpet edge
• The backing separating from the face fibres
• Swelling of a wooden subfloor

Carpet on a basement slab

Concrete holds moisture and releases it slowly. Carpet on a basement floor takes longer to dry and is more prone to mold. If a basement has been wet more than once, consider replacing carpet with a flooring that tolerates water.

Insurance

Sudden leaks are commonly covered, including the cost of extraction, drying and replacing pad or carpet that cannot be saved. Photograph the area and the source before cleanup, and keep a piece of any carpet you discard if the adjuster has not seen it.

What kind of carpet, and how it is fixed

Stretched carpet over underpad is the usual installation in houses. It can be lifted from the tack strips at the wall, the wet pad removed, and the carpet dried and re-stretched over new pad.

Glue-down carpet, common in basements and commercial spaces, has no pad. It dries from the top, but water that gets underneath can break the adhesive bond, and the carpet may lift or bubble afterwards.

Carpet tiles can be lifted individually, which makes drying the floor beneath and replacing damaged tiles straightforward.

Wool and natural fibres hold more water than synthetics, can shrink and may release colour. They need gentler, slower drying.

Area rugs should be taken up and dried flat, off the floor. A wet rug left on hardwood or on carpet stains what is under it. Valuable rugs go to a specialist cleaner.

What long wetting does to carpet

Carpet is made of face fibres fixed into a primary backing, with a secondary backing glued on behind. When it stays wet for too long, the glue between the two backings breaks down. This is called delamination. The carpet wrinkles, the backing separates and it cannot be re-stretched. Seams can also open, and jute backings on older carpets shrink and stain.

This is why the time the carpet spent wet matters as much as the kind of water.

Furniture on wet carpet

• Move furniture off wet carpet as soon as you can
• Where it cannot be moved, put foil or plastic blocks under the legs
• Wood stain and metal glides leave rust and dye marks that often cannot be removed
• Lift curtains and bed skirts clear of the floor
• Take up anything with dye in it, such as books, magazines and coloured rugs

Tack strips and subfloor

The wooden tack strips around the edge of the room have sharp pins and rust when wet. They are replaced if they have been soaked for long or contaminated. Under the pad, a plywood or strand board subfloor needs to be checked with a moisture meter and dried before new pad goes down. On concrete, the slab has to be dry too.

After it is dry

A carpet that has been properly dried should have no smell. A musty odour that returns in humid weather means something stayed wet: usually the pad, the subfloor or the bottom of the wall. Have it checked rather than masking it.

More: water damage restoration.