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Can A Water-Damaged Carpet Be Restored After A Flood?

If someone has experienced emergency home flooding, undoubtedly one of their primary concerns will be trying to save as much of their property as possible.  Water damage cleanup is expensive, and everything you can salvage will lower the costs of restoration.

Inevitably, a good Burnaby water damage restoration company will be asked whether damaged carpeting can be salvaged.  The answer is “it depends.”  In most cases, they will recommend replacing the carpet, but sometimes it is possible to safely dry the carpet out.

Why Does Water-Damaged Carpeting Usually Need to Be Replaced?

A couple word:  Mold and Sewage.  A wet carpet is one of the best possible homes for molds, including the highly toxic black mold.  A mold infestation creates genuine health hazards and can potentially lead to much worse damage to the property, or even to it being condemned. Sewage in the flood waters leaves no options.

That’s why it’s usually best to just replace a carpet that’s been saturated.  However, there are sometimes alternatives.

When Can A Water-Damaged Carpet Be Salvaged?

One of the biggest factors is time.  If the carpet was soaked for more than 48-72 hours, safely cleaning and restoring it will be virtually impossible because, by then, mold will have already begun to grow.

On the other hand, a carpet that was soaked for under 24 hours could potentially be saved.

Also, the type of water will make a difference.  It’s often possible to restore a carpet that’s been soaked with clean water, but if the water came from outdoors – or, worse, from a sewer line – the carpet is potentially contaminated and unsafe to keep using.

How Can A Soaked Carpet Be Saved?

If the carpet is potentially salvageable, a good water damage restoration company in Burnaby may be able to rescue it.  This boils down to three basic elements:

  • Heat to dry out the carpet,
  • Air-movers to increase the drying effect, and keep air circulating, plus
  • De-humidifiers to further dry the air blowing around.

Professional groups will have industrial-scale tools and equipment capable of drying out even a full room’s worth of carpet.  This isn’t something you can usually do on your own, at least not on a large scale.  You need bigger heat sources and blowers than most people typically have on-hand.

If you’ve suffered flood damage, don’t wait!  Time is truly of the essence if you’re going to potentially salvage your possessions.  Contact Malkin Cleaners ASAP – North Vancouver’s trusted choice in flood cleanup since 1923.