Tallahassee is the ninth rainiest city in the contiguous United States, and it shows each year, all the showers and drizzles add up to more than 59 inches of rainfall, which in turn results in flooding.
Floods can be devastating, especially in the home, and if you have carpeted floors as it can leave your carpet in a soggy mess for several days if not quickly dried.
However, the extent of the water damage depends if drying your carpet is something that can be done on your own. It is best to take care of a wet carpet as quickly as possible to minimize the risk of mold and restore your carpet to the way it was. Here are a few effective tips to dry a carpet after flooding:
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1. START QUICKLY
Quickly starting the cleaning process can help limit the damage caused by the flooding. You could start by removing all furniture, electronics and, other movable items to the driest area available, to prevent severe water damage.
While doing this, there has to be a flow of air in the room; open up windows, turn on the ceiling fan and if possible put a fan on the floor and allow fresh air to do its work.
Putting into consideration the weather (in Tallahassee) as rainy and cloudy days could create a more humid environment, it would be better to keep the windows closed and try out other tips.
2. REMOVE WATER
The easiest way to get water out of your carpet is with a shop-vac. Even though they are mainly for industrial purposes, they are mostly preferred for their powerful suction and lifting capabilities. Some of these vacs are usually called wet/dry vacuums.
We recommend however that for high volume water removal look for a heavy-duty model with a large drainage system like the Nilfisk Multi II 22T but for more domestic water removal the Vacmaster Power 30 is a better choice.
If you are struggling to clean your carpets at home, then check out the Home Carpet Cleaning Tips by clicking HERE.
3. TOWEL DRY
After using the shop-vac to remove as much water as possible, using a towel to dry your carpet is also a good option. To do this, just place a few dry towels over the wet areas on the carpet.
Using a towel to dry the wet carpet, however, would require some sort of physical effort like walking and/or jumping on the towels covering the carpet as it helps the towels to soak up water from the carpet. You should repeat this process with dry towels till the towels feel dry even when you walk on them.
4. AIR AND HEAT
5. EXPOSE THE PADDING
In a situation where the floor and carpet padding is soaked in water as well, you would have to expose the carpet padding to also dry. You would need to remove the carpet over the wet area and this can be done using a pair of pliers or carpet puller and pull it away from the padding.
Once the padding is exposed, you can use the shop vac here also to extract as much water here as possible after which you can go ahead to towel dry to completely dry the padding.
6. USING AIRFLOW AND HEAT
In Tallahassee, the use of fan, heater, and dehumidifiers cannot be overemphasized in drying your wet carpet and in turn the carpet padding too. In the process, a dehumidifier or air mover may be used to keep the room dry as well as a fan, box heater, or even an air conditioner can be used to get good air circulation in the room.
It is important to note that in drying a carpet you would need to dry it for a longer period as it takes a minimum of 48 hours dry time to dry a carpet pad.
For more general air quality tips, check out the professional cleaning services, which will keep your home indoor air quality clean.
7. CLEAN AND SANITIZE THE FLOODED AREA
In as much as the floor area might look clean after all the necessary cleaning, it is essential to clean and sanitize the floor area to prevent the growth of mold and/or mildew.
In doing so, firstly clean the surface using soap and water before you using a cleaning solution of one cup of bleach and a gallon of clean water to deep-clean and then allow the area to dry.
8. CARPET INSTALLATION
Once the carpet and pad are dry, you can go ahead to put them in place. However, carpets tend to shrink when dried, this shouldn’t cause you to fret as all you would be needing is a carpet knee-kicker which are relatively straight forward to use.
Drying your carpet after flooding or spills can be a tough task but can be made easy with the required skill and effort, however, if you feel it might be too much to handle, don’t hesitate to call professional carpet cleaners like Tallahassee Carpet Cleaning Company as we have the right kind of cleaning equipment that does the job well.
