How to Remove Nail Polish from Carpet

How To Remove Nail Polish From Carpet

Of all the things you could spill on your carpet, you might believe that nail polish is among the worst to remove. Fortunately, in many cases, there are do-it-yourself solutions to getting nail polish out of carpet. So, before you start tearing out your hair, read on.

How to Get Nail Polish Out of Carpet

Our preferred method for getting nail polish out of carpet is to use non-acetone nail polish remover. The non-acetone part is important since acetone will quickly destroy the latex glues in your carpet backing that hold all the fibers in. Don’t use acetone on carpet, ever!

Removing Fingernail Polish from Carpet Using Non-Acetone Nail Polish Remover

  1. If the nail polish spill is recent, try and remove as much as possible from the carpet using a paper towel or clean rag. Don’t do anything to spread the stain out, such as scrubbing it. If you’re working with dry nail polish, skip this step as well as step 2.
  2. Blot the stain with a clean area of the rag or paper towel. The more nail polish you can remove in this step, the less we have to remove later.
  3. Once as much nail polish as reasonably possible has been removed, apply non-acetone nail polish remover to the affected area. Blot with a clean paper towel or rag.
  4. Continue adding small amounts of non-acetone nail polish remover while continuing to blot with a clean area of cloth or paper towel. Continue removing the stain until it is no longer visible.

Other Alternative Solutions to Remove Nail Polish from Carpet

You may not have non-acetone nail polish remover on hand. If that’s the case, here are few other options to try that can work without damaging your carpet.

Window Cleaner

Common window cleaners contain cleaning agents that can break down nail polish and allow it to be removed. Follow the same steps as if you were using non-acetone nail polish remover.

Once you are done removing the nail polish, you’ll want to flush the area with clean cold water, blot up the remaining water, and let the area dry.

window cleaner spray used to clean nail polish out of carpet

Hair Spray

Apply water to the area stained by the nail polish. Once it’s damp, spray hairspray onto the nail polish stain. Using a small brush or a rag, gently scrub the area.

Alternate between scrubbing and spraying more hair spray back and forth a few times. Wet the stain with cold water, blot the remaining water and allow to dry.

Hair spray to remove nail polish

Rubbing Alcohol

Rubbing alcohol can sometimes be effective at breaking down nail polish and allowing for removal. Apply rubbing alcohol to the nail polish stained area. Blot with a clean cloth.

If nail polish is visibly being removed, continue to turn the cloth to a clean area as you apply more rubbing alcohol. If the rubbing alcohol is not working, dry a different process instead.

container of rubbing alcohol

Need More Help?

MSS Cleaning is here to help with all of your stain removal and general carpet cleaning and carpet repair needs in the Denver Metro area. If you’re still struggling to get that nail polish out of your carpet, please don’t hesitate to give us a call or book an appointment online.

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Or Call: 1-720-233-0761

Using Baking Soda on Carpet for Cleaning and Deoderizing

Baking soda has many useful purposes. Among these is using baking soda as a carpet cleaner and deodorizer. Baking soda is both inexpensive a well as widely available. It’s safe for you and your family, the environment, and for your carpets too.

How to clean carpet with baking soda

Regarding carpet cleaning, there are numerous applications of this useful powder. It can be used both as a cleaning agent as well as to remove odor and to deodorize without using harsh chemicals. Whether used on it’s own, or combined with other solutions like vinegar, this article will cover a wide range of uses for baking soda on carpet.

Baking soda to remove carpet odor

Perhaps the most straight-forward use of baking soda is to help deodorize carpet with baking soda.

Use it as a carpet deodorizer

To deodorize your carpet, you can simply sprinkle baking powder on your carpet prior to vacuuming it. You don’t need to overdo it. A light sprinkling should be enough to provide a nice refreshing deodorizing effect.

Removing baking soda from the carpet

When removing the baking soda from the carpet, simply vacuum the dried powder.

You’ll want to make sure you have a decent vacuum cleaner. In general, we recommend a quality vacuum that uses a bag. A bagged vacuum almost always provides better suction than one that doesn’t.

Your vacuum should also have a “beater bar” on it. This spinning brush agitates the carpet fibers. This loosens dry soil which allows you to vacuum more deeply and effectively.

removing baking soda from carpet with a vacuum cleaner
Using baking soda and vinegar to remove pet urine from carpet

Pet Odor Treatment

Baking soda can be effective in helping eliminate minor pet odor treatment. The good news is that baking soda is inexpensive and is an easy thing to try on a pet stain before calling the pros. You aren’t going to damage the carpet or set the stain in such a way that a professional can’t then remove it. So give this method a try and see if it works before you call the pros.

Pet stain carpet cleaning with vinegar and baking soda

  • The first step to cleaning up a recent pet urine stain is to remove as much urine as you can with an old towel (that you can then throw in the wash) or a stack of paper towels. Attempt to blot as much as you can. If this is a dried stain, ignore the first step.
  • Next mix an equal part white vinegar and baking soda to create a watery paste.
  • Apply the paste liberally to the carpet and then use a sponge to remove as much as possible.
  • If you have a wet/dry vac, use it to remove as much of the solution as you can.
  • Wait for the area to dry and then vacuum it.

There are plenty of resources online stating the baking soda and vinegar is a magic cure-all to remove pet urine and pet odor. Unfortunately, this is not entirely accurate. Usually this only works for minor pet urine carpet stain issues.

For more significant pet odor problems, you’ll need to call a professional for help removing the urine and odor from carpet. If you’re still curious as to why pet odor can be so hard to remove, this article explain removing dog urine from carpet in depth.

Removing general pet odors

Baking soda works great for general pet odor deodorizing. For example, if your car smells like your dog, sprinkle some baking soda onto the carpet and upholstery and allow it to sit for 20 minutes before vacuuming it up. This can work in the living room or on your pet’s bed as well.

Baking Soda on Wet Carpet

Wet carpet drying is a place where you should not rely on baking soda. When your carpet is wet enough that you need to do something about it, you don’t want to try and absorb the water with baking soda.

Carpet and pad that stays wet for more than 24-48 hours is going to be an invitation for mold and mildew growth. Baking soda is not going to have a significant enough drying effect. It’s not going to work at drying the carpet.

Suck up the water and move air across the area

Instead you’ll want to use a wet vac to remove as much water as possible. Then you’ll want to set up a fan to move air across the area. If this is more than just a little bit of water (like if your water heater bursts), you’ll likely need to have the moisture extracted and dried out by a professional.

In the long run, this will be a lot cheaper than improperly DIYing it. You don’t want to have to replace mildew covered carpet and pad.

Absorb odors 

We don’t recommend using baking soda to actually dry the carpet. However, as the wet carpet is drying, it’s not a bad idea to sprinkle some baking soda on top to help absorb odors. Once it’s dry, vacuum it up. As previously mentioned, a light sprinkling can be useful as a deodorizer.

Flood extractor removing water from carpet
Baking soda on wet carpet

Will Baking Soda Stain Carpet

Usually baking soda is safe to use on your carpet. It shouldn’t stain the carpet, nor will baking soda bleach the carpet. However, out of an abundance of caution, it always makes sense to spot test any solution on your carpet or upholstery in a hidden area.

Be aware, however of the amount of baking soda you’re using. Don’t dump the product on the carpet as you’ll have more work to do removing it. Instead, lean towards a lighter application to allow your vacuum to effectively suck it back up.

About MSS Cleaning

MSS Cleaning is a quality carpet cleaning company in Denver Colorado. We provide carpet cleaning services and advice up and down the Colorado’s Front Range. From Castle Rock and Castle Pines up to Boulder and beyond. If you need carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning, or carpet repair services in the Denver Metro Area, give us a call or book an appointment with us online.

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Or Call: 1-720-233-0761

I shampooed my carpet and now it smells like urine

Small brown and white dog

Among the more common things we hear at MSS Cleaning is some variation of the phrase “I shampooed my carpet and now it smells like urine”. We’re going to break down the reasons why this common phenomenon occurs. Then we’re going to give you some tips on what to do about it.

Did your carpet smell like urine before you shampooed it?

The first question to ask is did the carpet already smell like urine before you shampooed it, or only afterwards? Many times, someone may not even realize there is urine in the carpet until an effort has been made to clean it. That’s because during the cleaning process, hot water is typically used (or at least it should be if the job is being done right).

Reactivating the urine odor in carpet

Hot water reactivates the bacteria and urea that give urine it’s foul odor. Many times, if urine has been sitting in the carpet for a long time (perhaps even years) it has been dormant and the smell has gone away. Other times, a home’s occupants have just become accustomed to the faint odor. Lastly, a deodorizing agent is being used to disguise the odor.

Urine is in the carpet pad, not just the carpet    

Many people don’t realize that carpet pad acts kind of like a giant sponge. Many carpet cleaning methods, such a shampooing or encapsulation only clean the carpet surface. They don’t address problems with the underlying pad.

Even certain “professional” carpet cleaning companies do nothing to treat the pad. Store bought pet urine shampoos and sprays don’t remove that urine from the carpet. However, they can mask it’s odor with deodorizers.

Pet urine on the underside of carpet and in the carpet pad

Shampooing the carpet only cleans the surface

Within the carpet cleaning world, shampooing a carpet is considered an ineffective, old school method. The reason for this is twofold: it leaves behind a soapy residue. Also, it only really cleans the carpet surface, not what lies beneath.

Similarly, a Rug Doctor or other store rented machine doesn’t really apply enough solution to clean beyond the carpet and into the pad.

What To Do About The Pet Urine and Odor

How do you find urine spots?

You probably would prefer not to have to crawl around on the floor and use your nose to smell for pet odor and urine. We understand.

Use a Black Light

Instead, a black light is going to be your first tool in identifying where the urine is. Shine a powerful black light on the carpet and urine will light up. This is most effective at night but can be done during the day by pulling the shades or using a powerful enough black light.

Pulling back the carpet

Most carpet cleaning companies won’t pull back the carpet to truly identify the severity of the pet urine issues. This, however, is the best way to find out just how bad the problem really is. All of the technicians at MSS Cleaning frequently use this method to identify the severity of the problem. When they are done, they stretch the carpet back into place.

Removing the urine odor

Hot water extraction to the rescue

Since shampooing pet odor is ineffective, and store bought products mostly just deodorize the urine, what can be done to actually solve the problem? The answer is truck mounted carpet cleaning using a hot water extraction machine.

This powerful machine, coupled with the correct solutions can usually fully rinse and extract the urine from the carpet and the pad.

Depending on the severity of the urine issue, we treat each pet urine case differently. Dog pee and cat pee also require different treatments. 

Hot water extraction carpet cleaning truck mount effective in removing pet urine
advanced pet odor removal with a flood extractor
Basic pet odor treatment

Sometimes a topical solution applied broadly over an area, followed by hot water extraction will be enough to take care of pet odor and stains.

Advanced flooding pet odor treatment

In areas that are more saturated in urine, we will have to “flood” an area in solution. Then we extract it with a flood extractor before completing the cleaning.

Carpet pad replacement

Lastly, in really bad cases, it can make more sense for us to pull up the carpet, replace the carpet pad, then clean the front and back of the carpet. Once that is completed, we can reinstall the carpet again.

Hiring a professional

In our area, the sad truth is that there are a lot of Denver carpet cleaners. Many of them don’t know the first thing about properly treating pet urine. They may still even be using the old school carpet shampoo machines to try and remove pet urine odor. Similarly many people want an easy DIY carpet cleaning solution.

The truth of the matter is that unless you’re talking about a small, really minor pet urine spot or two, you’re going to want to get professional help.

We have effectively cleaned pet urine out of countless homes throughout the Denver area. If you need carpet cleaning services in Highlands Ranch, Littleton, Centennial, or anywhere in the Greater Denver Area, give MSS Cleaning a call. We’re experts that won’t just deodorize pet urine, we’ll remove it.

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Or Call: 1-720-233-0761

How to Avoid Sketchy Carpet Cleaning Companies and Shoddy Work

Avoiding Sketchy Carpet Cleaning Companies and How To Deal With a Poorly Done Cleaning

Have you ever dealt with a carpet cleaning company that didn’t do what they said they would? We get emails and phone calls all the time from customers who have been taken advantage of by unscrupulous or otherwise clueless carpet cleaning companies. They sell customers a bill of goods, only to come up far short of expectations and then refuse to fix the problem or offer a refund.

In this article, I’m going to call out a few common issues we see. I’ll also offer some advice on how to avoid dealing with a low-quality carpet cleaning company as well as what to do if you’ve already been taken advantage of by one of them.

Common Carpet Cleaning Company Types to Avoid

 

fishing rod and reel bait and switch

The Low Cost / Bait and Switch Hack

The old adage “you pay for what you get” could never be more important than in the carpet cleaning industry. Choosing a quality, reputable company is always going to produce better results. Yes, you’ll pay a bit more, but you can expect fair, honest service and noticeably better results.

Companies that charge bargain basement prices usually have the following reasons for doing so:

  • They have a fast and incomplete process. Expect these types to be in and out of your home in minutes, blasting through rooms with reckless abandon. Instead of taking their time and doing quality work, they make their money on volume. They’re often solo operators trying to fit in 4 or 5 jobs in a day by blowing through them.
  • They’re brand new to the business and don’t feel confident in charging what they should be. Do you want inexperienced hacks cleaning your carpet?
  • They are running junky equipment and don’t feel confident in charging appropriately.
  • They have an aggressive or sneaky upselling pitch. “If you want us to add the cleaning solution to our water, that’s going to be extra”. Or “Our maximum room size is 100 sq. ft. This room is 250 sq. ft. so it counts as 3 rooms”.

 

 

dog in hooded sweatshirt (pet urine specialist)

The Sketchy Pet Urine “Specialist”

This morning I received and email from someone asking for advice. Here’s a snippet of that email: “I contacted a cleaning company and specifically asked for heavy duty extraction of dog urine and shampoo of the carpet. He told me that was his specialty (…) In the weeks after he cleaned them, the smell has gradually gotten worse, to the point it’s like being hit in the face with a wall of odor when you open the door, it’s horrible.”  

The world of carpet cleaning is filled with fly by night operators and companies that have no idea what they are doing and consequently shouldn’t even be selling a carpet cleaning service. Unfortunately, while certifying bodies exist (like to IICRC, of which we are a certified firm), many customers don’t know to look for a certified firm when choosing a carpet cleaning company.

Where this becomes most obvious is during carpet pet odor removal. Proper removal of pet urine requires special solutions, special application methods, advanced training, and the ability to pull back the carpet to assess the damage and later to re-install that area. The clueless operator will simply clean the carpet just like he normally would.

Without breaking down the urine deposits in the carpet and pad, allowing for rinsing and extraction, the result is going to simply be activation of the urine. Thus, the carpet ends up smelling WORSE than before it was ever “cleaned”. At MSS Cleaning Denver Carpet Experts, we follow a 3-tier process for pet urine removal, depending on the severity of the issue.

Tier 1

The first tier is for small pet urine issues, a small accident here or there. Often a specialized pre-spray is effective at this level.

Tier 2

The second tier is for heavier but still isolated pet urine issues where areas of the carpet are saturated. Here, we flood the carpet area with a bucket of specialized urine neutralizing solution and then extract it with a flood extractor, getting deep into the padding. We then thoroughly clean the whole area.

Tier 3

Lastly, for a large area that has been hit with significant pet urine, often the most cost-effective method is to replace the carpet padding and then clean the top and bottom of the carpet before reinstallation.  

 

old beat up carpet cleaning equipment and van

Old, Junky Equipment

If the van and equipment your carpet cleaning company uses looks like it’s from the 80s, well it probably is. Even equipment that was state of the art 15-20 years ago doesn’t touch the modern equipment of today. Modern machines create more consistent heat, water   pressure, and vacuum. Take into consideration maintenance, too. Old beat up equipment is going to lose suction, heat, and pressure.

A Quick Story

A few years ago, we hired and employee who remarked at how nice it was to have trucks that produced hot water. Confused, I asked what he meant. He informed me that the company he was working at before (which is a relatively well known company in the area) had equipment that was so old and in such a state of disrepair that the heating mechanism to heat the water for the cleaning didn’t work and they’d been cleaning with nothing but cold water for over a year.

Try doing your dishes with cold vs. hot water and you should get an idea of how important hot water is to clean things properly! No surprise, this company offered bargain basement pricing.  

Fake reviews left on mobile phone

Clearly Fake Reviews

As a company that works hard for reviews from our customers, it’s always frustrating to see companies with piles of clearly fake reviews. We always recommend reading through reviews a bit before hiring and contractor.

Do you notice a strange pattern where 10-20 reviews all happened during the same few days and then they didn’t get another review for 6 months after that?

How about reviews from names like “Brad Pitt”?

Another thing to look for is repeats of the same words and phrases and obvious “keyword stuffing” where fake reviews are trying to manipulate search engines or the fake review writers are too lazy to come up with original content.

Look for companies with many reviews, a good variety in the reviews, and reviews that don’t look blatantly faked.  

uide unscrupulous companies to do the right thing.

Confused and disappointed woman

Improper Equipment

A few months ago, I was walking through the Denver Country Club neighborhood, when I witnessed a “carpet cleaning company” someone had hired pulling a Rug Doctor out of the back of their minivan. If you hire someone and they show up with a $500 piece of equipment (that they likely bought very used), turn them away.

The same goes for bonnet cleaning, antiquated shampooing methods and encapsulation cleaning. Hot Water Extraction (commonly incorrectly referred to as “steam cleaning”) done with modern, truck mounted equipment is what you’re looking for.

The exception to this is in places like a high rise where hoses can’t reach. In this case, quality portable equipment (NOT a Rug Doctor) is called for.

Improper Carpet Cleaning Process

At the bare minimum, residential carpet cleaning should include pre-spraying, agitation, and extraction with quality equipment. While our process is significantly more thorough, the above three steps should be the bare minimum of what to expect from a decent carpet cleaning.  

 

What to do if You’ve Already Been Taken Advantage of?

If you hired a company that did an awful job, our first recommendation is to call them up and complain. A quality company should walk the job with you when it’s complete to make sure it’s looking great. They also should have no problem with returning to fix reappearing stains, lingering pet odor or other issues.

If they refuse, ask them for your money back. If they still refuse, write them a negative online review on the major review platforms so that at least you can tell other would-be customers to steer clear. Sites like Google, Yelp, BBB and Ripoffreport.com are all fine places to post.

If the review prompts them to come out and remedy the issue or issue a refund, perhaps at that point you can consider taking down your negative review.

Smart companies understand that a positive reputation means growth and a negative reputation leads to business decline. Let the power of your words help other would be consumers avoid a company you had a poor experience with.

Brown Spots On Carpet After Cleaning

My carpet turned brown after professional carpet cleaning

You just had your carpet professionally and now you have brown spots on the carpet after cleaning. That’s not exactly the result you hoped for, right?

Typically there are two major causes for brown spots on the carpet after carpet cleaning

brown spots on the carpet after cleaning

Carpet pH left too high

The pH of your carpet was left too high after cleaning. This caused the carpet to turn brown, or to “brown out” as it’s called in the carpet cleaning world.

Deep stain wicked to the surface

The second case usually is that a stain wicked back up from the bottom of the carpet causing it to turn brown.

Let’s look at both as well as what you can do to fix it.

prespraying carpet with a high pH detergent

Brown Spots on Carpet After Cleaning Caused by Brown Out

Remember the pH scale that you probably haven’t thought much about since high school? It turns out that as an adult, this knowledge can come in handy.

When synthetic carpets are made, they come from the carpet mill at a pH of about 5 (remember, it’s a scale from 0-14 where 7 is considered neutral. Anything below a 7 is acidic and anything about a 7 is a base).

Carpet prefers a more acidic pH

Carpet likes to stay at it’s “happy place”, on the slightly acidic side of the pH scale. When it’s left at too high of a pH (usually 9-10+), it can turn brown. Most detergents range from a 9-13 pH. A professional will apply different products to adjust the pH depending on the soil level of the carpet.

The carpet looks dirtier after cleaning

During professional carpet cleaning, a basic solution is almost always used. High pH solutions do a great job of cleaning things. Soap, detergent, most household cleaners… high pH.

The way professional carpet cleaning is supposed to work is that a high pH detergent is applied to breakdown and release the grime and dirt. Afterwards, a low pH, acidic rinse is used to neutralize the high pH solution and rinse everything cleanly from the carpet.

The high pH wasn’t fully rinsed from your carpet

Sometimes, the high pH hasn’t been fully rinsed out of the carpet. This leaves the carpet at too high of a pH, which causes you to have brown spots on the carpet after carpet cleaning. Usually the brown spots are going to be pretty large, widespread, and may appear streaky with a brown out.

This is a common problem with low budget carpet cleaners, or those that don’t know what they are doing and rinse with only water (not with the proper slightly acidic rinse). It can even happen to the pros from time to time, too, but its rare.

The good news is that a browned out carpet is usually easy to fix.

MSS Cleaning employee rinsing carpet to avoid turning carpet brown

How to fix a browned out carpet

If your carpet has brown spots after cleaning, call back the company that you had clean your carpets. They should come back out and re-rinse the carpets with an acid rinse.

They should be able to get the remaining high pH out of the carpet, bring things back into balance, and get it looking great again.

For more extreme cases, professional browning treatment products exist as well. This is effectively a heavy duty version of a rinse. Rarely have we found this to be necessary. When you properly rinse a browned out stain with an acid rinse, it should take care of the problem.

Solving a reappearing stain on carpet

If you have a carpet stain that keeps coming back, it probably needs to be re-cleaned more thoroughly. There are other effective treatments to seal that area of carpet to keep the stain from wicking again.

Another option is to aggressively flood the area with solution and extract it via sub-surface extraction from the carpet and the carpet pad. Usually the latter is not needed. Click to read more about carpet stains that keep coming back.

Brown spots on the carpet from a stain below the surface

The other likely culprit to brown spot on carpet is that there was a stain below the carpet embedded in the carpet pad. You may have cleaned up a coffee spill, grease stain, blood stain or other brown stain at a previous point. This effectively made it disappear from the carpet.

Professional carpet cleaning uses hot water extraction to inject hot water and solution into the carpet and then suck it back out. Through this process, it’s possible to disturb a hidden stain that has previously saturated the carpet pad. As the damp carpet dries, the carpet fibers wick the stain to the surface making it now visible.

 

reappearing light brown stain on white carpet

Still have questions or need help with brown spots on your carpet?

If you are in or around Denver and you need your carpet professionally cleaned, please don’t hesitate to reach out or to book an appointment online.

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Or Call: 1-720-233-0761

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How Long Does it Take for Carpets to Dry?

Carpet cleaning a staircase

Wet and soggy carpet can be concerning. Understandably, you’d prefer your carpets to be dry sooner than later. Usually after a carpet cleaning, carpets are dry in 6-10 hours. For a flood or other more extreme amounts of water, we provide detailed answers to each scenario below.

In general, the answer to how long does it take for carpets to dry has a lot to do with how wet your carpets are presently, what caused them to get wet, and what external factors are affecting dry time. 

A General Rule of Thumb for Carpet Drying

In general, you don’t want your carpets to be severely wet for more than 24-48 hours. This is to avoid concerns about having smelly carpet or developing microbial growth. Carpets that are over-wetted or wet for a long period of time can also develop carpet buckles or rippling. Carpet water damage restoration can be both costly and time consuming. 

Typically carpets are wet for one of two reasons. Either they are wet from a flood or they are wet from a professional or DIY carpet cleaning. If you’d like to jump right to your relevant section, click the link below:

How Long Does It Take For Carpets To Dry After Cleaning By A Professional

When you have your carpets professionally cleaned, you should expect your carpets to be slightly damp to the touch after the service is completed. Your carpets should never be left wet or soggy after a steam cleaning process.

Typical dry times are 6-10 hours for residential carpet. Commercial carpet typically dries in 2-6 hours. The actual dry time depends on a lot of different factors. If your carpets are still wet 24 hours after your carpet cleaning, it’s time to call back the company that did the work.

Factors That Impact Carpet Dry Time After a Professional Carpet Cleaning

The Equipment Used

There is a noticeable difference in dry times between a high end, modern truck mounted system and a weaker, budget model. Similarly, the age of the equipment matters. A modern, well maintained machine is going to extract more water than a 25 year old beat up machine.

The best carpet cleaning equipment Prochem Everest

Quality of Carpet Cleaning Workmanship

A quality carpet cleaning service with a skilled technician is going to take extra steps that a budget provider will most certainly skip. Budget carpet cleaners need to blow through a lot of jobs in a day in order to make any money.

So, they rush by not taking the time to “dry stroke” with the carpet cleaning wand during the hot water extraction phase of the carpet cleaning. This extra vacuum-only stroke is important, since it sucks up a lot more water and leads to faster dry times. A knowledgeable technician also will set the machine properly so as not to over-wet the carpet.

carpet cleaning tan carpet near a dresser

Were Speed Drying with Fans and Carpet Grooming Part of the Process?

Higher end carpet cleaning companies use specific carpet cleaning fans to help speed up dry times. These fans are moved around as carpet cleaning is completed in each area.

Carpet grooming can also speed up dry times by aligning the carpet fibers. Aligned carpet fibers will help wick moisture away from the carpet backing and pad which will speed up carpet dry time.

MSS Cleaning employee using a carpet rake to groom carpet

How Long Does It Take Carpets To Dry After DIY Carpet Cleaning

For carpet to be thoroughly cleaned, water must be injected into the carpet. Professionals have a very powerful vacuum that extracts the vast majority of this water. By comparison, DIY carpet cleaning machines have a much weaker vacuum.

However, they also spray a much weaker spray of water, meaning there is not as much water to remove. Typical dry times will depend on how “heavy” you go with the DIY equipment. 6-10 hours would be typical dry time.

How Long Does Carpet Take To Dry After A Flood

If you have experienced a flood, don’t expect the carpet to dry on its own before damage sets in. We recommend you call a local water damage restoration company right away. Certainly, we’d love to be that first call.

Not taking care of water damage is a recipe for a much larger bill once the carpet, padding, drywall, and other surfaces develop mold. 48-72 hours is when mold typically begins to propagate, so you want to act quickly to avoid further damage and higher costs.

Professional Water Restoration and Drying Services

After you experience a flood you need a company to take initial moisture readings, extract the water, and remove any unsalvageable material such as drywall.

From there, they will set up fans and dehumidifiers to remove the remaining water. Next, they will also take daily moisture readings until the moisture reaches a normal range. Expect this to take at least a few days.

If the flood water is clean and the water restoration beings on the day of the flood, it may be possible to save the carpet and the padding. In this case, we can also repair and stretch the carpet as needed. However, If the flood was caused by grey or black water (such as a sewer backup), everything must be removed.

Don’t wait too long before calling a restoration service. Otherwise, much more work and a higher cost will be required to remedy the problem. Once mold is discovered, containment will need to be set up and mold mitigation will begin. This will skyrocket the price, the time it takes, and the hassle required for you, in order to get everything fixed.

What Can I do to Speed Up Carpet Drying Time?

If your carpets are only damp to the touch (not wet, like after a flood or a faulty carpet cleaning), these recommendations will help get it dried out quickly. If the carpets are truly wet, you are best off calling in a professional.

Open windows speed carpet dry time

Circulate Some Air Around

During any time of the year, turn on any ceiling fans you may have, and/or set up a few box fans. If it’s warm out, open up your windows and doors. This will help the moisture escape while allowing for circulating air to carry the moisture out of your home or office.

During the Summer or in a Hot Climate

Let the air conditioning run. Keep the HVAC fan running. Air conditioning pulls moisture out of the air as it cools.

During the Winter or in a Cold Climate

Turn the heat up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep your HVAC fan running full time to circulate air.

We’re Here To Help

If you have any other questions about how long does it take for carpets to dry, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d be happy to help. As always, if you need professional carpet cleaning services in Denver, give us a call or schedule an appointment.

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Or Call: 1-720-233-0761

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