After a hurricane, we see all kinds of damage, ranging from broken windows, bad pipes and leaky roofs. But what most people still don’t understand is what happens when your carpet gets wet. If this happened to you, please be concerned and act quickly.
When your carpet floods with water from a storm, for instance, contaminated water drags bacteria into your house along with it. This means your house is at risk of the worst kind of mold if you don’t dry up and treat the water damage in as little as a few hours. After 24 hours, water damage is subject to mold, potentially threatening your walls, too.
Before 2015, all water damage and mold removal companies were authorized to just extract the water especially if it’s a new carpet to treat the wet carpet. But the NORMI Standards have changed. The National Organization of Remediators of Mold Inspectors updates their mold treatment procedures and standards every 3 to 4 years. As of 2015, NORMI now requires all mold removal and water damage restoration companies to completely remove the damaged carpet area.
Consequently, whenever we get calls for carpet drying after water damage caused by flood we advise the following:
- Assess the situation and determine how long has the area been wet.
- Measure how much humidity is in the impacted area.
- Extract the water from the carpet if possible. We use a special extracting vacuum to pull the water away from deep into the carpet.
- Test for mold, check if it has spread across the floor, and look for water damage across the walls.
- If water damage is evident, toss out the padding underneath and potentially even your carpet if it is severe.
The cost to completely restore the damage carpet area really depends on the square footage, but it can range from $1,500 to just over $2,000. This can come as a shock to many homeowners because it is a sudden expense. It’s not a matter of simply going out to your home to dry and clean up your carpet. I remind you that a wet carpet is not something you can simply dry, clean, and walk away from.
Especially once you hear that throwing out the carpet is the only true fix to prevent mold, people get scared. I want to remind you though, this is probably the best thing you can do. When your home’s carpet gets wet the padding underneath is the biggest of our concern. It creates serious humidity for days even if the surface of the carpet feels dry. The padding underneath then begins to create a bad mold situation and this is when costs begin to rise.
In other words, throwing out the carpet and having it replaced is actually a proactive solution to what could become a very costly home restoration project. I always say think about the kids laying on the carpet or the air spores spread around after vacuuming.
