Stains, foul odours, and pet urine are all perfectly good reasons to invest in quality cleaning for your beloved carpets. Water damage, however, is particularly nasty since it can have immediate and/or long-term effects that can pose a hazard to your respiratory health from black mould.

What’s the best way to remediate water damage from a carpet? Most carpet cleaning professionals agree that hot water extraction is amongst the best methods for dealing with water damaged carpet since it has the power to disinfect, deodourise, and fully sanitise the carpet deep in the roots in ways that simple vacuuming cannot.

Note that in cases of severe damage or if you’ve delayed your response to water damage, the carpet may not be salvageable under any circumstances. In such cases, replacement is often necessary. Carpet cleaning professionals can provide you with cost-effective and safe solutions based on the scale and scope of the damage your carpet has sustained.

Call an Insured Professional

The first thing any responsible homeowner should do after discovering water damage to the carpet is to contact a professional. We’re not talking about a spilled glass of water, but rather full-blown water damage from a broken pipe or after a severe rainstorm, for example.

The best time to call a reputable carpet remediation business is right away after finding that your carpet has been flooded. It is not recommended to do it yourself.

Hot Water Extraction (Steam Cleaning)

The reasons why hot water extraction, commonly called steam cleaning, is the most effective method of remediating water damage to carpets include:

• Sanitising: the combination of high heat and agents used for the pre-spray are capable of achieving a truly deep clean at the very roots of the carpet, where stagnant water, bacteria, mould, and soil accumulate.
• Effectiveness: constant vacuum pressure can effectively break up and suction away soil, bacteria, and contaminants from the carpet and out of the home. This method also leaves behind nearly no residue since it is essentially mostly heat and water (pre-spray agents aren’t always necessary).
• Warranty: dry cleaning and other treatment solutions may void the warranty of your carpet, should you have one. Steam cleaning is almost always in line with the manufacturer’s warranty and will not void it.
• Does not cause damage: steam cleaning, when executed with the correct techniques by a trained professional, will not damage the carpet more than it has been already damaged. It will leave behind some dampness afterwards, which will subside within a few hours (about 4-24 hours maximum) with proper ventilation. Furthermore, steam cleaning does not damage the backing of the carpet even if it achieves deep penetration to the roots of the carpet.

Things to Keep in Mind After Steam Cleaning

After being steam cleaned, be sure to give your carpet some time to get back to ‘normal’ as it may be damp for a few hours. If dampness persists longer than 24 hours, you should act immediately to improve ventilation and to remove the dampness or else the carpet can be damaged again from the stagnant water.

Also avoid placing furniture on the carpet immediately after cleaning. Wait until the carpet is completely dry before placing furniture over it again.

Electrovac

If your carpet has sustained water damage, contact the professionals at Electrovac and we’ll bring it back to life safely and in a cost-effective manner.