Being on the floor, the carpet is always the first to get soaked when flood waters get in the home. If your home has been flooded then you may want to call in a water removal company to get the water out of your home and to clean everything. However, you may want to save some money and choose to do the water removal yourself.
If your carpet was ruthlessly damaged, you may not have any other option but to discard it. You will also have to discard a carpet that has been soaked in sewage water for over 24 hours. If the carpet can still be saved however, here are some useful tips that you can do to do water removal and restoration of your carpets and rugs.
The first thing you must do is to roll up your carpet and to get it out of your home so that you can clean it thoroughly and so that you can let it dry under the sun. You may rent a steam machine so that you can clean the carpet properly. If you can’t rent out a machine, you can clean the carpet with the regular garden hose and a good carpet shampoo. If you also can’t find carpet shampoo, regular commercial disinfectant such as Lysol will do. Just make sure you read the label of the cleaner so that you’re sure that the cleaner will work with the material of your carpet. Some commercial cleaners may cause damage to your carpet.
Wash the top and the bottom surfaces of the carpet and rinse it completely with water. To make the whole process of water removal and cleaning the carpet easier, work on a small section of the carpet before moving on to the next section. You can apply the carpet shampoo or the cleaner using a sponge. Make sure that when you apply the shampoo, you rub it in gently with the sponge to avoid causing damage to it. You can use a wet vacuum to suck out the excess water before leaving it out on the pavement to dry.
If you can not take out the carpet because it is glued to the floor, you will need a wet vacuum for the water removal process. A wet vacuum is the equipment that will suck out the water from the carpet. You can also use fans to dry out the carpet.
You need to make sure the carpet is completely dry before you can put it back in the house. If you put your wet carpet back in and just leave it alone, chances are your carpet will be ruined by mold growth.
Remember, you need to be able to remove the carpet from water within 24 hours of flooding otherwise you can expect some serious damage on it and you may have a hard time doing water removal and restoration. It is also best to just throw away the carpet padding instead of trying to save it because carpet padding is usually cheap and it is easier to clean and dry a carpet without padding.
