How to Extract Water From a Carpet

Water in a carpet can eventually cause mold and mildew to build up and lead to the carpet rotting. You can't expect the carpet to dry out on its own; you need to extract the water. How you remove the water depends largely on how much water there is. Water from small spills can be simple to extract, but water from flooding might be serious enough to require professional help.

Paper towels
Cloth towels
Washing machine
Clothes dryer
Wet/dry vacuum

Instructions

- 1
  If there is only a small amount of water in the carpet, lay paper towels on the damp area, two to three towels thick. This is a good practice if you have just washed stains out of the carpet and need to remove the residue.
- 2
  Instead of paper towels, use cloth towels and rags if there is a large amount of water in the carpet -- a common occurrence if you have a leaking roof. You may also need to stack the towels, in this case.
- 3
  Remove the towels from the carpet once they have absorbed all the water they can hold, then lay down new towels if there is still water. If needed, wash and the dry the wet towels quickly to ensure you have a rotating towel supply.
- 4
  Plug in a carpet cleaning machine or a wet/dry vacuum. Run the machine over the carpet in even passes and watch the water collecting. Stop when the machine is nearly full or when no more water is entering the machine.
- 5
  Run your hands over the carpet to see how much, if any, water remains in the carpet. Repeat the above steps, depending on the amount of remaining water.

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