Restoring Carpet After Water Damage

A flood in your home can cause extensive water damage. Whether you have a busted pipe or damage from a natural disaster, certified water restoration specialists can work through the cleanup process to restore the structure and the items inside so that they’re functional again.

Many homeowners fear that everything will have to be torn out and thrown away, but that’s not necessarily the case. Carpet restoration after water damage is certainly a possibility. Depending on the extent of the problem, there may be several steps involved in cleanup.

Step 1 – Assessment

As soon as you know you need remediation, call your local specialists to secure their services. Technicians can often arrive within hours of your call to assess the situation. It’s a good idea to take pictures and video of the original damage while you wait for their arrival just in case the damage progresses in the meantime.

Once they arrive, they will look at the whole problem and come up with a plan of action for addressing it. At this point, they can provide an itemized list of the work that needs to be done and a general estimate of the expected cost.

Step 2 – Extraction

Before any repairs can be made, the excess water needs to be removed from the affected area. If you have standing water in your home, technicians can use industrial pumps to remove it quickly and efficiently. The possibility of carpet restoration after water damage depends largely on how long the carpet has been submerged and the extent of the damage to it. Once the majority of the water is gone, technicians can get a better idea of what is needed to restore the flooring.

Step 3 – Removal

Sometimes, materials in the structure of your home can be cleaned and dried without having to remove them. If the water damage is significant, however, materials must be torn out and replaced. Specialists look for signs of irreparable damage:

• Softened, bowing drywall
• Wet insulation
• Buckling floorboards
• Mold growth

If they find any of these signs, the materials in question will need to be removed before the process can proceed. Carpets that are removed can often still be cleaned and reinstalled, but if they are too damaged, they’ll have to be thrown away.

Step 4 – Cleaning Carpet After Water Damage

Not all flood water is the same. The contamination category determines how much cleaning must be done before restoration experts can start to rebuild what they had to throw away:

• Category 1 – clean water from a pipe or supply line
• Category 2 – dirty water from an appliance
• Category 3 – contaminated water from outdoor flooding or sewage

If the flooding happened after a burst pipe and you caught it quickly, the area may not have to be disinfected. In this case, technicians may be able to move on to the next step. Even clean water, though, can become dirty if it sits for too long or comes into contact with contaminants. For example, if water from a pipe burst on the second floor leaks through the floor and into the ceiling of lower level, that water has likely moved into Category 2 contamination and thus will require cleaning before restoration can begin. Any water damage from a sewer backup or storm flooding must be cleaned with disinfectant to remove bacteria and microbes the water left behind. Carpets may be able to be steam-cleaned with disinfectant, but if germs are heavily embedded in the pad or floor underneath, it will have to be replaced.

Step 5 – Drying Carpet After Water Damage

Before your carpet returned, rebuilt or replaced, technicians must make sure the area is completely dry. If materials are left damp, mold is likely to grow and cause bigger problems down the line. Once the area is dry and the humidity is returned to a favorable level, the restoration process starts.

Step 6 – Restoration

The goal of restoration is to make your home look like there never was any damage. Any walls that were taken out must be rebuilt, but the process isn’t complete until the aesthetics of the rebuilt area matches the wall around it. Carpet restoration after water damage works the same way. The part that cannot be saved must be cut away, but if no match can be made, you may consider replacing the whole carpet in order to fully restore your space.

When you have a lot of water damage after a flood, you may think everything will have to go. Certified experts may be able to restore your carpets or other items with quick remediation, though.