SOS..carpet water damage..washing machine overflowing..Help!

So there I was feet up on the coffee table, soccer on the TV….ahhh I love Sunday mornings.  It is my one day off for the week and now that the weather is warming up, my weeks are getting busier and busier.  Not that I am complaining mind you, but I really do look forward to day off with the family.

Help..carpet water damage emergency!

Then it happened….the phone rang… with some trepidation, I answered.  It was of course a job, but not just any job, a carpet water damage emergency!!

Emily from Prahran, Melbourne lives in a share house and unfortunately the washing machine sprung a leak and they were now up to their knees in water – well maybe their ankles, but there was quite a lot of water on the carpet.

Keep calm and throw down the towel!

I told Emily not to panic and I would be there in about 30 minutes. She asked what she could do to while she was waiting, so I advised her to throw down some towels and soak up as much of the water on carpet as possible and avoid further carpet water damage, but not to stand on the towels.  “Whoops” she said, she already had stomped all over them attempting to soak up the water!

Do you do that too?  As soon as there is a spill throw down some paper or towels and stand on them? This is the worst thing to do as it forces all the liquid down deep into the pile and through to the underlay. “Never mind” I told her, “just try not to walk on the area until I get there, oh and open a window if you can.”  Ventilation is important to help speed up the drying process, so a fan positioned opposite an open window is ideal in this situation.

Sometime later……

Of course it was just my luck, that Emily’s Prahran apartment was on the second floor! So once I had lugged my trusty portable water extraction machine up 3 flights of stairs, I got to work, extracting the water from her carpet.

Luckily for Emily and her friends, the water hadn’t soaked through so there was no need to pull up the carpet and replace the underlay. Once the water was extracted, I sprayed 2 treatments, one was an antimicrobial treatment to prevent mold and bacteria and the other was an anti browning solution. When carpet becomes very wet, the backing often causes a brown discolouration of the carpet, which is common in carpet water damage situations and is, not surprisingly called “browning”! I also applied a deodouriser to ensure the carpet smelt fresh like oranges and not wet dog!

All’s well that ends well

I left a couple of blowers there to dry the carpet as quickly as possible and told Emily I would call to check on them tomorrow.  When I followed up with Emily the next day, the carpet was dry and she was very happy! No stains, no smell, just nice clean, dry carpet with no sign of carpet water damage.

It is important to contact a professional carpet cleaner with experience in water damage restoration, to ensure the appropriate steps are taken to minismise damage.

For more information please follow this link to our water damaged restoration page.