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Water damage when it happens, is both sudden and dramatic. Recognizing that one moment everything at home is apparently fine and the next, you have an enormous water problem on your hands. When carpet gets soaked, you have to act fast. The longer it stays soggy, the more likely it is to stretch out, discolor or get moldy. Water damage can happen very quickly as in the case of a broken pipe or a flood from outside, The wet carpet can get moldy and smell bad. Water damage can vary from simple water damage issues such as broken water pipes or water heaters to bigger and more devastating water damage from flooding and heavy storms.If you are considering repairing the carpet once it has been subjected to flooding, it is first important to consider whether or not it is possible to do so. This will basically be determined by carefully evaluating the base cause of the flood that initially damaged the flooring. If the water source was from environmental conditions, such as rain or lake flooding, it is often safe to attempt restoration. If flooding resulted from pipes in the home, it is safe to restore just so long as those pipes are not related to sewer and/or toilet plumbing If your home has recently been subjected to water damage due to flooding, one of the first things that you take into consideration is carpet restoration. Water normally results in some level of damage when it meets with the carpeting in your home. While many are likely to completely replace this aspect of the flooring, there are many others who would rather repair the carpet that they have. This is generally quite possible, and can be easy to do. WHAT TO DO: Tear out the soggy pad First, go to the corner nearest the wet area, grab the carpet with pliers and pull the carpet off the tack strip. Continue pulling the carpet off the tack strip by hand until you can fold back the entire wet section. Run a fan or two to dry the carpet. Wet carpet pad is like a big sponge. You have to get rid of it ASAP. Cut around the wet area with a utility knife. Make straight cuts so you have straight seams when you patch in the new pad. If the pad is glued to a concrete floor, scrape it up with a floor scraper. If the pad is stapled to a wood sub floor, just pull up chunks of pad and pry or pull out the staples if you have just a few. For faster removal on a larger area, use a floor scraper. Have garbage bags handy to prevent drips on the carpeting. Wet pad is heavy. Don't fill the bags so full that you can't haul them out without wrecking your back! Wipe up any water on the floor, then flop the wet carpet back into place. Drying it flat and in place helps the carpet retain its shape. Run fans until the floor and carpet are completely dry. This can take a couple of days. Patch in the new pad Measure the area of pad you need to replace and take a piece of the old pad to a flooring store or home center to find similar replacement pad. The color doesn't matter, but the new pad must be the same thickness and density as the old pad. Some stores will cut the pad to the size you need. Fasten the pad to a concrete floor with carpet pad adhesive and duct-tape the seams together. On a wood sub floor, all you need is a staple gun and 5/16-in. staples. Use a utility knife to trim off any pad covering the tack strip. Reattach the carpet As you refasten the carpet to the tack strip, you need to stretch it toward the wall. If you're dealing with a corner or a small area, you can use a knee kicker alone. Starting at one end of the loose carpet, set the head of the kicker about 2 in. from the tack strip and nudge the carpet tight against the wall. Force the carpet into the tack strip with a stiff putty knife. Also tuck the edge of the carpet into the space between the wall and the tack strip with a putty knife. Continue along the wall, moving kicker over about a few inches each time. If you're dealing with a larger area of carpet or if the carpet has stretched out of shape, bubbled or wrinkled after getting wet, you'll need to rent a power stretcher to re stretch the carpet. For more helpful information on this topic, check out our main page here: Auckland carpet repairs
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