Can wet carpet be saved?
Often it can, if the water was clean and it was removed quickly. Carpet that has soaked for a long time, or that has taken water carrying mud or sewage, is more likely to be replaced. The technician records the decision and the reason.
The carpet fiber can usually be cleaned and dried, but the backing and the pad are the parts that hold the most water. A carpet with a dry backing and a dry pad can stay. One with a wet pad often has to have the pad replaced, and the carpet is then lifted, cleaned and re-stretched.
The technician lifts an edge to check the pad, and the decision is shown in the readings. You can ask to see the pad before any carpet is removed, and the photographs are kept for your record.
Why does hardwood cup after water?
Hardwood cups when its underside takes up more water than its top, which makes the board curve upward at the edges. The wood then needs to dry evenly for the board to flatten, and fast drying can make the cupping worse.
Wood swells as it absorbs water and shrinks as it dries. When one side of a board gets wet and the other does not, the board bends toward the dry side. A floor that stays wet from below will often cup even when the top looks dry.
The technician dries the floor slowly and checks the boards at intervals. Many cupped boards flatten as they dry, but some do not, and the record shows which boards stayed altered so the flooring repair can be planned.
Should I lift the carpet myself to dry it?
Lifting a small edge to look is fine, but a full lift and pad removal is better left to the technician. Lifting the whole carpet can damage the tack strips and the seams, and it can make the later repair harder.
The tack strips that hold a carpet at the wall are fragile, and a carpet that is pulled up carelessly can tear or stretch. The technician uses the right tools to lift and re-stretch the carpet, so it returns to the room in good shape.
Moving furniture off the carpet and placing dry towels on any spot that is still wet can help while the technician arrives, but it is not a substitute for the readings. Keep the furniture off the wet area until the floor is checked.
How long does floor drying take?
Carpet over pad may dry in a few days if the pad is removed, while hardwood takes longer because it has to dry slowly. The length depends on the layers that were wet and the readings, and no completion date is promised on the phone.
A room with a wet carpet and a wet pad but a dry subfloor dries faster than one where the subfloor and the joists under it are also wet. A hardwood floor is dried more slowly on purpose, to limit cupping and gapping.
The technician gives an update at each visit, based on the readings. The schedule follows the floor, not the calendar, and the record shows the trend as it moves toward dry.
What affects the cost of floor drying?
The area, the number of layers that have to be removed, the type of flooring and the time the drying takes all shape the cost. No price is quoted on the phone, and the figure is explained and approved on site before work starts.
A small room with a carpet that stays is a different job from a whole level of hardwood that has to be checked and dried in place. Each piece that comes out, and each day the floor takes to reach dry, adds to the total.
Replacement flooring is a separate cost from the drying. The technician lists which boards or carpets are being replaced so that the flooring repair can be quoted by its own contractor.
