Exactly what is the Hazard by not Extracting the Water from a Carpet

LocalNet360- Water in Carpet and Pad – It’s What’s Left that Matters!
Water Intrusion—it’s not how much you remove, but what you leave behind. Beyond rapid response to water intrusion is the need for maximum extraction of water.

Water in Carpet and Pad – It’s What’s Left that Matters!

Water Intrusion—it’s not how much you remove, but what you leave behind. Beyond rapid response to water intrusion is the need for maximum extraction of water. Extraction involves removing standing, pooled, and migrating water as quickly as possible from hard surfaces, carpet, and other textiles. By rapidly removing water, it has less time to seek dry surfaces and sub surfaces, and less time to absorb into porous hygroscopic (water loving) materials. Water that is standing or pooled, as well as absorbed water is evaporating into the airspace at different rates. This evaporation increases relative humidity that directly relates to a damaging rise in the specific humidity and vapor pressure. This rise in vapor pressure creates tremendous secondary damage when the water vapor in the air absorbs into hygroscopic materials causing swelling (i.e. cabinets) or condensation on surfaces that supports mold growth.
Secondary damages are damages that occur after the initial water intrusion and immediate damage by the water. The value of the initial and continual extraction of water from hard surfaces and carpet until only a damp phase is encountered is crucial to reducing secondary damages. To support the importance of extraction, independent tests were enlisted to evaluate which extraction tool connected to the same vacuum extractor removed the most water. The carpets used were 24 oz. 100% Nylon Saxony over 7/16-bonded urethane pad. Those that used the conventional carpet cleaning wand with six passes removed 42% of the water from the carpet and pad. That means that 58% of the water was left behind. In 100 square yards of flooded carpet, water remaining after extraction measured 203 gallons. It is evident that the carpet wand was not designed to extract water from flooded carpet and pad. Unfortunately, too many companies still rely on that method for extraction. Leaving that much water behind to be evaporated required more equipment and more time.
Also tested were other extraction tools that were more efficient than the standard wand for removing water from flooded carpets and pad. Water Claws removed between 75-81% of the water, which equates to about 53-65 gallons of water still left in 100 square yards of carpet. The total time required to dry structure and content was decreased due to less water left in the carpet alone.
The self-propelled extractors realized the greatest water removal percentages. Both manufacturers of self-propelled units tested removed between 87-92% of the absorbed water from the "Extraction involves removing standing, pooled, and migrating water as quickly as possible from hard surfaces, carpet, and other textiles."
In most homes, the conditions are nearly ideal for mold to grow – there is only one requirement item that is missing – water. If you now add water from a storm, or other source, and you do not remediate quickly and correctly, then mold will grow. Following any water damage event, the very best way to ensure that mold will not begin to grow is to contact a restoration professional to remediate the loss, or, at a minimum, have a professional come out and do an inspection to confirm that there are no lingering (mold-causing) problems in the home. A restoration professional has a wide variety of professional tools and meters to evaluate a home quickly and thoroughly. If there are problem areas then he/she will be able to develop a plan for complete remediation and restoration of the property.

As you begin to learn about the dangers and prevention pertaining to Water, Mold, and Fire damage in your home or business, you will better understand what steps to take to protect your family, employees, pets, personal belongings, business records, equipment, building structure, landscaping and surrounding areas. More importantly, in addition to knowing what steps you can take to aide in prevention, many of these same techniques will help you to mitigate risks in case of an emergency related to fire, water or mold damages should they happen to you. As stated earlier in this series, the more you know about the dangers of Fire, Water and Mold, the better prepared you will be when disaster strikes and in addition to mitigating risks, you may one day help save the life of someone you love as well as yourself, because disaster can strike anyone, anywhere at any time and it is up to you to gain the knowledge to protect your family, home and business and know when to call the professionals who can only respond after the emergency strikes.
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