Floods appear to be fun for kids as they are least aware of the havoc it creates. It is the adults who have to bear the brunt of water damage. Flood water carries things along with it. Furious flood water sweeps whatever it can and the water current takes household items, books, vehicles and even carpets. Getting back the wet carpet in the same condition after a flood is a terrible task.



Have you heard of wet vacuum? This is the machine that should be used to dry the wet carpet. Anyone who has used wet vacuum would know how efficient this gadget is in extracting the water from the water loaded carpet. Wet vacuum is tricky to use and do not underestimate just because you are used to the home vacuum. The wet vacuum works in a totally different manner and so you need to have prior experience in handling this special drying tool. Don't mess with it and learn the basics of operation from someone who has used to it and also go through the instruction manual.

Wet vacuum should be used on the wet carpet to remove the maximum possible amount of water. The more you run the more water is extracted from the wet carpet and it gets dried pretty fast. However, a wet vacuum need not always make the carpet paper dry. It can fully dry carpet only if the intensity of water damage is not that hard.

If the carpet that you have been using does not have padding, then you have to work only on removing water from the wet carpet. Some carpets have thick padding below it. This spongy soft material absorbs lot of water and the fluid is trapped inside the area between the carpet and pad. This water is relatively difficult to remove and the wet vacuum cannot do any magic here. Check for the pad edges and corners as water collects in these areas and remain locked that cannot be taken by wet vacuum.

There is an easy way to determine how much water is left inside the carpet and pad. Try walking on wet carpet and you can hear a squashy sound and a supple feel. If you feel that the water level is really high, it needs to be attended without waiting further. Lift the wet carpet by pulling the strips at the corner. Now you can see if the carpet alone is wet or the pad too is totally soaked. If the pad is stuffed with water, then only option left is to separate the padding from wet carpet.

The area beneath the wet carpet is also wet with flood water. The floor has to be dried and cleaned before laying the carpet back. It would be a total waste of time if you forget to dry the floor and just spread the dried carpet on the damp floor. The moistness from the floor would get transferred to the carpet and the entire drying process done before would be futile.