How to Lift a Matted Carpet

Place ice cubes on the affected area of carpet and let them sit overnight. The moisture puffs up the carpet fibers and as it dries, the carpet should begin to pop back up. In the morning, scrub the area with a dry towel to further loosen the carpet fibers.

Apply gentle pressure to a carpet rake and rake the affected area. The soft teeth on the rake work to loosen the matted carpet fibers.

Vacuum the affected area with the vacuum on the lowest floor setting. The rotating brushes on the vacuum fluff up the carpet. This method works best on areas matted down by furniture and is unlikely to help carpet that's been severely matted down in high-traffic areas.

Place an iron approximately 1 inch above the carpet and put the iron on the steam setting if none of the prior methods worked. Hold the iron there until the steam saturates the area, then brush the area with a carpet rake. If it is a small area of matted carpet and you don't have a carpet rake, you can run a butter knife across the matted carpet to fluff it back up.