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Well a long story short. I was cleaing a tank I am setting up and forgot I left the hose on. Hour later squishy carpet and pissed wife. Asking for advice on what to do next. I bought a shop vac and sucked up as much water possible. Should I call a flood company and have them do more? Pull up carpet? Buy 20 fans?

Call Flowerseller and Jared (Galleria of Jewelry), if you're covered by insurance a flood company might be a good idea. If you have a sealed (no windows, doors type of basement) fans aren't going to help that much, and what you really want are the big industrial blowers. A steam vac is a can be an essential tool as well, especially early on to prevent growth of mold a mildew.

I guess I better double up my Valentines day order. Thanks. I'll try to get back to get a big blower.

Pull the carpet back and dispose of the padding. A good flooring store can relay new pad and stretch the carpet back.

this should stop issues with molds. And it's not expensive.

 

David

I will have to wait until tommorrow on the fans. I was afraid I'd have to pull the carpet up.

I'd watch out for the drywall at the base, too. The water will have seeped into the walls and the drywall will suck the moisture up below the baseboards. I'd get a few dehumidifiers in there as well as your blowers will only move the air around facilitating evaporation but it won't help to actually remove the water. Sooner is better than later...

(edited)

I'm sure theres a few Steelers fans that have some tear soaked terrible towels you can have. :laugh:

 

Kidding aside, good luck getting it cleaned up, I think all of us have had a flood as some point in time.

Edited by FearTheTerps

If it were me, I'd make a call to one of those flood damage companies if it's a lot, even just for a quote. I don't think it's terribly expensive. Definitely not worth risking missing something and having to yank up carpet or drywall down the road.

 

And since I'm a wife, I can tell you your best bet is to bite the bullet and make sure it goes away for good quickly. Any lingering issues are sure to come back and haunt you. :biggrin:

Ive done this more than once. The first time, the bill through ServPro was almost $1200. That didnt include the drywall repair to the ceiling.

 

I'd at least run to Home Depot and rent a couple of their huge blowers and a dehumidifier. Padding will be trashed and from what Ive read you have 48 hours or so before you can have mold issues.

IME: The key to flood recovery lies in a de-humidifier. I used to live in a house that's basement would flood about once a year, if not more. Also, my main water line burst and flooded my basement for 4hours before I got home to deal with it. Pulled all the furniture upstairs and shop vac'd the heck out of the carpet with the carpet squeegee attachment. I must have emptied the shop vac 15-20 times. Then flipped on the de-humidifier and emptied the bucket every hour or as often as I could. It still took about a week to fully dry out, but the carpet wasn't ruined and there is no mildew smell.

 

fwiw: Mildew likes cool damp places, so make the room as warm and dry as possible. Also, I walk around barefoot so I could feel the dampness and wouldn't track much / grind much into the carpet.

 

Good Luck.

  • 10 months later...

Pull the carpet back and dispose of the padding. A good flooring store can relay new pad and stretch the carpet back.

this should stop issues with molds. And it's not expensive.

 

David

Man i totally agree with you....you are 100% good...this is not costly...

a good flooring store can relay new pad and stretch the carpet back...

ahh flooding the basement is something I'm sure many of us can relate to. Me personally I've done it 3 times in the past and each time was just the same when it came to how upset the wife was! if you don't mind doing the work yourself get some blowers pull up the carpet and run a dehumidifier. Last time I did it I hired a flood restoration company and they took care of it for me in 2 days like new... but they cost around $600 total, well I guess in my case I had a large basement area that flooded with 2" of water above the carpet! lol good times.

Pull the carpet back and dispose of the padding. A good flooring store can relay new pad and stretch the carpet back.

this should stop issues with molds. And it's not expensive.

 

David

 

Best advise above.

Dehumidifier too.

I hope BigWyll's carpet came out OK. It's been 11 months since the spill....

if yuo dont have a dehumidifier try damp rid (home depot or lowes) basically calcium salts that act to pull in moisture...ive actually heard of people using it in their tanks.

 

dehumidifier, fans, pull the carpet, check the drywall if its not bad you can probably cut the bottom two inches and if needs be just put up some new molding...

 

sorry tohear about the woe's

and good luck

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