Carpets are an excellent flooring choice for most homes, but they have one significant disadvantage: they’re vulnerable to water. A wet carpet can cause water damage to the floor below and can grow mold, which will affect the health of anyone living in your home.
Carpets can take an extremely long time to dry by themselves, so if you’ve suffered a flood or standing water from a leaky pipe, you’ll need to figure out how to dry wet carpet fast. Below, we’ve compiled some suggestions of how to dry out wet carpet to prevent further damage or mold growth.
Remove Excess Moisture
Once you’ve identified and repaired the source of the leak, you should focus your attention on getting rid of any excess water in the carpet. Professional carpet cleaners use wet vacuums that have much stronger suction power than a regular vacuum.
These wet vacs are great at sucking up lots of standing moisture, and you can rent one from a hardware store or cleaning shop. In extreme cases, you may even need to get a submersible pump to get rid of all the water.
Whatever you do, don’t use your household vacuum on a wet carpet. Most home vacuums have low suction power and can’t handle excess water. You can do a lot of damage to your vacuum if you try using it to dry a wet carpet.
How to Dry Wet Carpet Without Vacuum
If you don’t have access to a wet vac but still want to know how to dry a wet carpet quickly, we’ve got some tips that will help speed up the air-drying process and prevent more damage.
Fans
Air-drying is only as effective as the amount of air flowing over the carpet. The more air movement you get, the faster the carpet will dry. Ceiling fans are the best, but you can also use desk fans or box fans for maximum effect.
Dehumidifiers
Dehumidifiers work great with fans since they remove moisture from the air. The less humid the air, the more water it can absorb from the carpet. A good dehumidifier can help dry a room-sized carpet in 12 hours.
Baking Soda
Baking soda can suck up a lot of water, making it the perfect way to get water out of a carpet. You’ll need a lot of baking soda to sprinkle all over the carpet, but within half an hour, you should see it change to a cakey texture. You can then vacuum it up and enjoy a significantly dryer carpet.
Heaters
Hot air is better than cold air at drying out a carpet. However, all the evaporated water will go into the air, so be sure to pair heaters with a dehumidifier for the best results.
Replace the Padding
No matter what method you used to dry your carpet, chances are the padding under the carpet is ruined. Even moderately damp padding can cause mold growth and water damage, which will spread to the carpet and ruin it as well. It’s better to save yourself the hassle and replace the padding as soon as you can.
Contact the Professionals
If you don’t have the equipment or skills to dry out your carpet, your best bet is to work with professional carpet cleaners. They know how to dry wet carpet quickly, resulting in less water damage and mold. They also have the experience to know when a carpet is really dry, instead of just feeling dry. Contact us today.