How To Dry A Carpet Fast After Cleaning-Effective Drying Tips

So you have been deciding on washing your carpet lately but aren’t sure about how long it will take for the carpet to dry after cleaning. Another version of this scenario could also be those times when your carpets fall victim to spills, splashes or at worst, floodings.

Wet Carpets, regardless of their originating incident, are always a major bummer on the nerves. However, Pro Flooring Guide has once again come up with a ton of useful info in this regard that will not just help you successfully cope with such times, but will also save your carpets from considerable damage.

So whether you’ve just got done with washing your carpet or there has been a spilling accident of some sort, the most possible pondering getting generated at this point is

Why Dry A Carpet?

And while this might seem a common sense concern and something that obviously has to be done under all circumstances, it does feature a number of hygiene related reasons to it. Here’s the most common one, feel free to either consider it a scientific justification or simply creepy enough to compel you on a carpet cleanup right away.

A wet carpet is easily prone to developing mold growth in as little as 24 to 48 hours.

This does imply the need for both watching out for spills and splashes ASAP and ensuring appropriate drying assistance for your carpets after cleaning.

Major Concerns Regarding Carpet Drying 

Now since we’ve got an adequate ground to never delay or compromise our carpet drying, let’s dig a bit deeper to this concern as there are multiple factors involved within. The first and foremost one of which is

How Long Does Carpet Drying Take?

Not too much if you consider doing it the right way. And in general, it’s merely a matter of up to 6 to 12 hours for a carpet to dry completely. Besides, rarely there are chances for a carpet to require up to 24 hours for drying. 

Again, this all depends on the surrounding factors of your wet carpet, that can either delay or speed up the very process of drying.

Factors Affecting The Drying Of Carpet 

Of course, these factors are going to decide how much you need to wait before utilizing your carpet again.

These factors can include:

• Temperature: Lower temperature will delay the process of drying and vice versa

• Humidity: Higher levels of humidity make the carpets take longer to dry and vice versa

• Surrounding Air Circulation: Carpet drying can be accelerated by increasing the hot/ cold air circulation in the surroundings.

• Whether or not any artificial assistance (equipment) is used: Fans, dehumidifiers and heaters can aid the process of carpet drying.

• Room/ Area Ventilation: If the room or area is well-ventilated, the carpets are likely to dry faster.

• Carpet Material: Very plush or thick carpets constructions and those with heavy face weights take more time for drying. Besides, this can include the drying time of carpet backing, too.

• Professional Carpet Cleaning Equipment: Drying equipment used by carpet cleaning professionals guarantees a significantly rapid carpet drying as compared to the DIY methods.

Things To Consider Before Drying Your Wet Carpet 

Take a look at what you need to be careful about, when there arises a need for carpet drying.

1. Clearing The Room 

The very area around your wet carpet needs to be completely vacant of all the furniture plus other surrounding stuff. This will help create the right amount of air flow and ventilation, besides, you won’t be needing to deal with any hurdles during your working this way.

2. Minimizing The Traffic

Clearing the area goes the same for foot traffic, as well and you need to ensure that the wet carpet does not come across any of the foot traffic, so as to not just limit the transfer of dirt but also to prevent the wearing out of wet carpet (which has become prone to damage by then).

3. Fixing The Source

That’s something which has to be done beforehand of you doing anything about your soaked or flooded carpet. Whether it’s a leaking roof, broken/damaged pipe or some sort of other problematic point, you’ve got to find and fix it in advance, so as to make the most out of your efforts and not to indulge in the entire mess again.

4. Exposing The Padding

This is, fair enough, the most crucial step that needs to be taken care of once you’ve begun with your carpet drying. Start by extracting the maximum amount of water from the padding, followed by peeling the carpet back. Besides, you can use pliers to make the job easier and then you can start exposing the padding from the corner. However, avoid pulling too hard, or you’ll end up pulling out the carpet fibers, too.

5. Caution With Electricity 

You’ll need to be particularly careful while making use of any of the electric equipment for drying such as dehumidifiers, fans, etc, i.e. keeping them at a safe distance from the wet parts of carpet, essentially from standing water. Moreover, the same goes for all the cords and wiring system, as well.

Easy And Effective Carpet Drying

Here is the simple yet efficient way of dealing with this very real problem, that too, while ensuring level best convenience, safety and outcomes.

Supplies And Tools Needed For Drying Carpet

• Towels

• Heater

• Air Movers

• Shop VAC

• Dehumidifier

• Baking Soda

How To Dry A Soaked Carpet

• If your carpet does not hold a lot of water, you’re most likely to fix the situation merely with the help of a large wet-dry vacuum.

• Get your accessories and filters right after thoroughly reading the instructions for dry-wet vacuum usage.

• Start by extracting the maximum amount of water out of the carpet, followed by lifting it and removing the padding underneath. At this point, you might need to tear out the padding, since it won’t get dry once it has been saturated. You might as well, need to replace the soaked padding. too.

• Make a dehumidifier run in the room and you can also speed up the process with the help of ceiling or freestanding fans.

• Remember this kind of carpet drying is meant to consume a couple of days since everything is getting done on a basic level and there isn’t any high-end equipment or pro-grade techniques involved.

How To Dry A Leakage Exposed/ Flooded Carpet

• Start by absorbing all the moisture from the carpet by placing thick and large towels for absorption, keep changing them regularly once they’ve completely been soaked. Alternatively, you can use a wet vacuum at this point, too.

• Bring about an air flow across the room and you can use either the ceiling fans or freestanding fans for this purpose. Besides, an AC will work with similar efficiency, too. Also, do consider opening all the windows for appropriate ventilation and also to get rid of any unpleasant smell, too.

• Next you’ll need a dehumidifier which you can either rent or buy, depending on whatever suits you the most. The dehumidifier will work by pulling out all the moisture from not just the carpet but also from the surrounding space, to boot, thus keeping any mold build up at bay.

• For ensuring the maximum effectiveness, you can go for the useful DIY hack of using Baking Soda. Moreover, this also brings about fresher and pleasant smelling carpets. All you need to do is sprinkle Baking Soda thoroughly over the wet spots and let it stay there for the next 30 minutes, followed by vacuuming the entire area carefully and you should be left with super fresh carpets. Alternatively, you can consider professional steam cleaning, as well, as the exposure to high temperatures guarantees the most hygienic cleanup.

• If you sense a huge amount of water to have been penetrated through your carpeting, chances are that it might have affected the padding, too. At this point, you’ll need to consider taking an expert’s opinion if the carpet padding needs replacement or not. You need to particularly take care of the fact that carpet padding shouldn’t be left wet at any cost, since that will later be a definitive breeding ground for mold buildup.

FAQs | Frequently Asked Questions 

How Long Should You Stay Off Carpet After Cleaning?

6 hours is the least time span during which you should avoid both using your carpet and also exposing it to foot traffic, after cleaning. However, walking over the just-cleaned carpet is unavoidable. You should better opt for safer ways of doing so, in order to not make the carpet dirty again. You can walk over the carpet while wearing clean socks, preferably the white colored ones and walking at least after 30 minutes since the carpet has been washed.

Do You Have To Wait For Carpet To Dry After Shampooing?

6 to 10 hours is the general time span after which your carpet should be totally dry. However, other carpets can take anywhere up to 24 hours for drying completely. Remember that the drying time always depends on the surrounding conditions and factors like humidity, temperature and air circulation around can either delay or speed up the drying time. However, you can achieve a faster drying by using certain artificial equipment or good ventilation.

Can I Vacuum The Wet Carpet?

Vacuuming is only for a dry carpet and never for a damp one. The first and foremost reason for this is that standard vacuum cleaners aren’t capable of vacuuming damp carpet and any attempt of doing so will only result in the damage of the equipment. Apart from that, going over a wet or damp carpet with a vacuum cleaner can cause the dirt from the vacuum cleaner to stick on to the carpet.

Does Cold Air Dry Carpet?

Colder temperatures and essentially cold air can actually dry out your carpets real quick, thanks to the basic yet incredible Physics being involved. That is, if there is dry and cold air outside, it will cause the inside warmer air to absorb all the moisture at a much accelerated rate, which would otherwise consume a lot of time. Turns out, drying your carpet with cold air is literally an incredible idea.

How Long Does It Take For Mold To Grow In A Wet Carpet??

As a fun, interesting yet disturbing fact, it only takes around 24 to 48 hours for the mold growth to take place within a wet carpet. This does apply to both your just-washed carpets and those that have been victims of spills and splashes lately and of course, haven’t been addressed yet. Therefore, a proper ventilation, blotting up or any other source of drying is particularly necessary for wet carpets.

How Do I Dry My Carpet Without A Vacuum?

Air-drying is the most common and effective solution in this regard and you can easily have your carpets dried out completely by pointing ceiling fans or any other fan towards them. In addition to that, you can also make use of Dehumidifiers or even heaters for this purpose. Another amazing hack is to sprinkle baking soda all over your damp carpet which will soak up all the moisture, followed by vacuuming the carpet.