My house Flooded yesterday WHAT SHOULD I DO
 

Man I guess it must not have been my day yesterday. We had our sink drain cleaned out two days ago and then yesterday for some odd reason the new toilet in the bathroom kept running and overflowed. This was going on all day and when we got home the carpets and everything was a mess. I purchased the largest shop vac I could and we vacumed for hours but the carpet pad is still soaked. I also cranked the radient floor heat to the moon hopeing that would dry things out faster. I was going to run out and get a dehumidifier today but was wondering if anyone had any other ideas. I called up my insurance co. and I am waiting for a reply from them. I just am afraid of mildew. Are my carpets and pads now junk and have to go?????

Jon

If it was clean water you might and I stress the word might be able to save them. Get everything up off the floor by whatever means, and go buy some twelve dollar box fans crank them up on high and let them go to work. Keep a couple of windows cracked, one open a bit with a box fan set up to blow out and get the humidity out of your house otherwise wallpaper might start peeling, or whatever. Air flow is what is going to dry them out faster than anything else and that is the key. If it was "dirty" water, don't even bother, junk them. Been there, done that. Outlaw

Shop Vac and a dehumidifier. Easy on the heat, if you try and dry it too fast you will start cracking and warping. Crank the a/c. Dave

Sorry to hear this!

I always run my dehumidifier when I clean my carpets and paint rooms and it does seem to dry everything alot faster. Lowes has them pretty reasonable.

Hmmm Outlaw, sounds like you've been through a storm.:D :D :D I have had my share of water in the house. When we cut the roof off the house for the second story, we had not had rain for 6 months, the day I cut it off, it started to rain every day. We actually lived in the house with tarps for the roof. Talk about being tough on a marrige !!!!:D :D Dave

Box fans will dry them out infinitely faster than a dehumidifier. I've done this 12 maybe 15 times in both work and personal. Like I said, AIR FLOW works the fastest, and like Dave said easy on heat. The fans should dry them in less than a day if you wet-vacced good.

The pros who clean and dry water damage on carpets have these "turbo" fans that blow air along the floor at a high rate and volume.... They even pull up the carpet in a acorner at times to blow under it ... You may want to call a pro and have them come out. Also look at claiming it on you home owners and have a pro do it, they may cover it.

You need to get the water out of that pad. The pad is a sponge and will just soak it up. That will keep the water against the wood floor which will mildew. The carpet is shot. Rip it out. Run the a/c if you can, because it will dehumidify the air. If you can, run the heat too. The higher temps will help evaporate the water. A dehumidifer works great for these applications. The unit puts the dry air directly infront of the unit, so move it once or twice a day.

Thanks for all the advice. We have the windows open now, and there is a bit of a breeze so the air is moving through. You really can not crank radient floor heat, what you get is more of a warm floor. It was like 75 in the house this am. All the windows are now coverd in moisture. We called up a clean pro place and I am waiting for a call back. If they do not call soon I will get some of those fans that you guys suggested as they rent them up the street from me. I am on a slab so that is not helping other then the fact that at leaste the water can not go into the wood of the floor and cause problems there.

Jon

Floods on slab construction, floods on built-up floors, floods on particle board with linoleum, floods on hardwood over plank- I've had it all.

Junk the pad. Pull the carpet up over the entire perimeter and yank out the pad. Pad collects nasty crud anyhow and adding water to the mix is asking for serious issues related to health stuff. Stick some cereal bowls around under the carpet as "spacers" and buy, borrow, or rent one or more (depending on room size) commercial blowers (like they use on those jumping bubbles for kids). You gotta get the carpet dried out, and also the bottom plates for the stud walls - the carpet has to be off the edges for the plates to dry well. Be happy you are slab in that area.

Crank the A/C wide open for dehumidifying. If you have radiant heat, run it too. A big dehumidifier is a good idea if you have a large area (last flood for me was a 1700 sf space and the industrial dehumidifier pulled 5 gal of water out every 6 hours for about a week.