Water Damage to a Carpet Padding

Water Damage

• Carpet padding rests between the visible upper layer of carpet and the base floor. It cushions the carpet and provides much of the soft comfort associated with carpeted flooring. Water damage to the padding often occurs during some a flooding incident in your home; either a burst pipe or a leaky roof can do it. Water damage to carpeting is easy to see, but damage to the padding is hidden and can go unnoticed.

Consequences

• Water-damaged carpet padding can have serious consequences. Because it is in a dark, unventilated space, wet carpet padding provides mold an ideal environment to grow. This can cause it to smell musty and foul. Worse, mold spores can cause allergic reactions in family members if they are sensitive to them. Symptoms include respiratory inflammation and skin rashes. Because you can’t see mold growing in the padding, it can grow unchecked, eating into floor boards and spreading to other areas of your home, requiring costly cleanup.

Solutions

• If you have water damage in your home, blotting the top layer of the carpeting dry is not enough. Use an extraction machine to pull water out of all layers of the carpet, including the pad. Fans will dry the surface of the carpeting, but the extractor helps pull moisture out before mold growth can begin. To be safe, pull up carpeting at the corner of the room and check the padding beneath for mold growth. If you can’t do a visual survey, professional testers can test your home for elevated levels of mold spores.

Considerations

• If you have mold growing in carpet padding, you’ll probably notice the musty smell of it more when the weather is humid or when it rains. The smell might fade when the sunshine returns, but the mold is still there growing. If mold grows in only a small area of the padding, you can cut it out and replace it. If mold growth is extensive, you’ll need to replace all the padding. At that point, it is safest to replace the carpeting as well.