My washer overflowed and carpeting was soaked at doorways. Extracted clean water from basement and carpet. Used Cimex to massage water from carpet pad and then used air movers to dry carpet. Carpet is on basement cement floor. There is effervescence coming up in small areas of carpet. Do I need to neutralize the effervescence before encapping carpet to get rid of musty smell. What should I use to do so?

George Barnett
Owner: G & G Services
HydroTech Representative
www.webnow.com/HydroTech

The effervescense is likely suds from laudry detergent or possibly previous carpet cleaning. Neutralizng with a defoamer will help improve extraction. Rinsing it out with clear water to remove it will prevent any detergent resideu from becoming food for bacteria, mold and other micro-organisms.

Most importantly is to get the whole area dry. Concrete and other surfaces can hold a lot of water and still look and feel dry. Basements are not usually well ventilated so natural drying could be very slow. I suggest air movers and dehumidifiers. Use meters to determine when walls, concrete floor and carpe are thoroughly dry.

If you don;t have equipment for handling floods, your local distributor may have rental equipment.

Scott Warrington

Scott Warrington
Tech support Bridgepoint & Interlink Supply

When ever I onto a drying job, first thing I do when I open the door, is smell.

The nose can be a very good indicator if carpet is still wet.

Although not infallable.

Remember, wet goes to dry, so although your carpet may be dry when you measure it, any moisture in the concrete will continually migrate to the surface.

Instruments are neccessary to determine proper dry.

What I am getting at, is, if it smells musty, there is a strong possibility that an area is still holding moisture.

Granted the building structures overseas are different to down under.

Carpet construction and underlay (pad), could also be different. I believe most of your carpet is action back with little chance of cellulosic browning. Most of our carpet is still jute backed, and we get plenty of C.B.;

But a smell, is a smell, is a smell.

I am sure experienced WDR will know what I am on about.

If it has been 'musty' for some time, depending on conditions, you may even have fungi growing and off-gassing.

As Scott said, wall cavities and other areas/structures where moisture may gather or absorb into, must also be fully dried.

I would seriously contemplate full flushing of the carpet.

Lifting of the carpet and pad to allow air movement and drying, unless you have lgr dehumidifiers that will allow a top down dry.

Cheers,

Shorty.

Vacuumed the residue away. Should have tried it first. Encapped the area and actually stirred up the musty smell again.(must have stirred up the damp areas but it went away fast) Let the salesman convince me to get the better pad for the carpet when installed, believe that helped.

Actually was right on top of the flood when it started, about 1 1/2 hour worth of extraction. Still lots of water.

Thanks for the helpful replies.

BTW, there is a small tube on the tub of your washer, if it comes off, just won't stop filling.

George Barnett
Owner: G & G Services
HydroTech Representative
www.webnow.com/HydroTech