Flooded Carpets and Water Damaged Carpets- Must They be Replace? Some Practical Suggestions
One of the first things you need to do after your home has been subjected to water damage or flood damage, is to make real fast attempts to rescue and restore your carpets before they are damaged. If the level of water is high and this might affect the carpeting and endurance thereof in your house. Many people prefer to repair their carpets instead of buying new ones because of the cost involved. This is an achievable thing if you act really soon and it is not at all as difficult as it may sound when the emergency strikes.
One of our client's basements had some flooding, and unfortunately enough to get their carpet damaged. When they seeked professional help, the water damaged carpet cleaning company suggested that it was better just to replace the carpet than try to clean and dry it. My client, who was not ready for this big and unplanned expense wanted second opinion and so paid a visit to our office to sort out their flooded carpet problem.
We decided to examine their water damaged carpet physically by visiting their home and give them a detailed report to get a general idea about carpet repair and replacement issue. Further we decided to publish the same report in the form of an article to let help people get an idea about it. So here we are, hoping that this piece of information will help you get a better insight into the issue that when is it advisable to repair your carpet and when to replace it.
In many cases it would be better to replace the water damaged carpet than trying to clean it and dry it. And in the situations where the amount of water affected area or extent is small and one has been able to act quickly enough, say within 48 hours, one can clean and save carpet and the need to replace it in such cases does not arise. Also, if the flooded carpet is relatively new say, less than 10 years old, and if it is made of synthetic material, which cannot serve as a food source for mold can also stay, since such carpets do not make an ideal breeding ground for molds and other micro organisms that may cause health hazards
But if you observe that though your carpet is made of synthetic material and still mold has grown on such carpeting, it is because of the organic matter that has accumulated in it. If you apply deep extraction cleaning to your carpet, you can save a carpet even if it has already gone fuzzy. I know of a couple of such cases in offices and other buildings where similar carpeting problem was successfully resolved and thus the carpet was saved for few more years.
When water damaged carpet is cleaned after a flood, make sure that the professional flooded carpet cleaners you have hired apply a biocide as a final cleaning procedure. These usually work very well and post-cleaning airborne spore counts in this case are very low. It eliminates the scope for mold growth and human exposure. However, please be careful as some biocides may also pose exposure risks of their own. And in most cases it is not easy to tell whether a particular biocide will pose a threat to health of the families using the carpet or not.
So these were some practical suggestions from us and we do hope the information will help you act faster and make an informed decision whenever (God forbid) you face flooded carpet situation.
One of our client's basements had some flooding, and unfortunately enough to get their carpet damaged. When they seeked professional help, the water damaged carpet cleaning company suggested that it was better just to replace the carpet than try to clean and dry it. My client, who was not ready for this big and unplanned expense wanted second opinion and so paid a visit to our office to sort out their flooded carpet problem.
We decided to examine their water damaged carpet physically by visiting their home and give them a detailed report to get a general idea about carpet repair and replacement issue. Further we decided to publish the same report in the form of an article to let help people get an idea about it. So here we are, hoping that this piece of information will help you get a better insight into the issue that when is it advisable to repair your carpet and when to replace it.
In many cases it would be better to replace the water damaged carpet than trying to clean it and dry it. And in the situations where the amount of water affected area or extent is small and one has been able to act quickly enough, say within 48 hours, one can clean and save carpet and the need to replace it in such cases does not arise. Also, if the flooded carpet is relatively new say, less than 10 years old, and if it is made of synthetic material, which cannot serve as a food source for mold can also stay, since such carpets do not make an ideal breeding ground for molds and other micro organisms that may cause health hazards
But if you observe that though your carpet is made of synthetic material and still mold has grown on such carpeting, it is because of the organic matter that has accumulated in it. If you apply deep extraction cleaning to your carpet, you can save a carpet even if it has already gone fuzzy. I know of a couple of such cases in offices and other buildings where similar carpeting problem was successfully resolved and thus the carpet was saved for few more years.
When water damaged carpet is cleaned after a flood, make sure that the professional flooded carpet cleaners you have hired apply a biocide as a final cleaning procedure. These usually work very well and post-cleaning airborne spore counts in this case are very low. It eliminates the scope for mold growth and human exposure. However, please be careful as some biocides may also pose exposure risks of their own. And in most cases it is not easy to tell whether a particular biocide will pose a threat to health of the families using the carpet or not.
So these were some practical suggestions from us and we do hope the information will help you act faster and make an informed decision whenever (God forbid) you face flooded carpet situation.
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