Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.

I work in the carpet industry, so just maybe I can help...

1) Grab your oldest towels. The ones you use in the shop, on the dogs, etc.
You'll need quite a few.

2) Flatten several of them out over the affected area. Put a large rigid
flat piece of something on top of the towels. Plywood comes to mind.

3) Lay heavy things on top of the plywood so it pushes the towels down onto
the carpet. Alternately, you can walk around on the plywood.

4) When the towels are wet, get more dry towels and repeat the process.

5) Continue repeating the process until the towels are barely damp. You'll
probably go 3 rounds one evening with the final round going overnight.

6) After that, take everything off of the carpet and point a box fan towards
the area. Leave the box fan on for a couple of days.

KB

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.

Hi Kyle,

Thanks for the great reply! Do you think I will get any mold issue
later on? Or perhaps I could get the carpets professionally cleaner
after a few weeks once its all dry again?

Thanks again, I will go take your advice as soon as I get home tonight!

James


Kyle Boatright wrote:
I work in the carpet industry, so just maybe I can help...

1) Grab your oldest towels. The ones you use in the shop, on the dogs, etc.
You'll need quite a few.

2) Flatten several of them out over the affected area. Put a large rigid
flat piece of something on top of the towels. Plywood comes to mind.

3) Lay heavy things on top of the plywood so it pushes the towels down onto
the carpet. Alternately, you can walk around on the plywood.

4) When the towels are wet, get more dry towels and repeat the process.

5) Continue repeating the process until the towels are barely damp. You'll
probably go 3 rounds one evening with the final round going overnight.

6) After that, take everything off of the carpet and point a box fan towards
the area. Leave the box fan on for a couple of days.

KB

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.

http://www.cdc.gov/health/mold.html


wrote:
Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.

In article . com, wrote:
Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Lift the carpet, mop, suck, ventilate, heat... anything you can
to get it dry, AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

If you get it dry fast and there's no smell of mold or mildew
you're likely going to be okay. But if the dreaded odor is
present, that carpet (or that part of it) is toast and I'd
get it out of the house pronto.

--
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Malcolm Hoar "The more I practice, the luckier I get". |
| Gary Player. |
| http://www.malch.com/ Shpx gur PQN. |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.


If you are going to do it, do it right. Remove the carpet and padding. Let
it sit outside and dry. Reinstall and restretch. There is no way you can
wet a product that is walked on, that pets run on, that people eliminate on,
that pets eliminate on, that people spill all kinds of nasty stuff on, add
water, and expect it to dry out on its own. You will have issues of smell,
mold, or bacteria no matter what you do.

Choice one: replace
Choice two: remove, dry, reinstall
Choice three: blot with towels, wet vac, and hope for the best
Choice four: do nothing

I'd call my insurance company and see if you might be able to get a break on
some new carpet. If not, I'd replace it. You know what fish do in water,
don't you?

Steve

wrote:
Hi Kyle,

Thanks for the great reply! Do you think I will get any mold issue
later on? Or perhaps I could get the carpets professionally cleaner
after a few weeks once its all dry again?

Thanks again, I will go take your advice as soon as I get home
tonight!

James



I would guess the salt will reduce the potentially mold issue. Just get
it dry. If you don't see a difference in appearance of the carpet, then I
think you got it licked.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia 's Muire duit

Not a personal experience but something I heard. Perhaps others can
chime in.
A neighbor of mine had a leak and the maintenance staff recommended
pouring baking soda on the rug to act as an asorbant. Of course the
advice to dry everything with towels and fans makes plenty of sense in
addition to this.

Use your shop vac. If you don't have one Sears has them on sale. Get the
highest horse power they have. The vac worked for me. After vacuuming up and
emptying the Vac numerous times I opened the windows and turned on some box
fans to help dry it out the rest of the way.


wrote in message
ups.com...
Not a personal experience but something I heard. Perhaps others can
chime in.
A neighbor of mine had a leak and the maintenance staff recommended
pouring baking soda on the rug to act as an asorbant. Of course the
advice to dry everything with towels and fans makes plenty of sense in
addition to this.

look at this as an opportnity.. Head down to whatever local grocery store
rents out carpet cleaners, and wash your whole carpet......

-_JD



wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.

On 20 Nov 2006 15:54:36 -0800, wrote:

Hi there,

I had an sal****er aquarium (sold it last night because of this) and I
had a leak onto the carpets, not a major leak (about 3 foot by 6 foot
section) but the carpets were water wet to touch and I can kinda tell
the underlay is wet as well.

This happened sat night and so on Sunday afternoon after the fishtank
was gone I used a shop vac to suck up as much as I can. I was just
wondering what I should do now, it still seems wet. I did some
searching and I found two pieces of advice, pull out the carpet and
replace it because you will have tons of mold issues or pull up the
carpet and replace the underlay and retack it down when the carpet is
complete dry.

Advice? The whole room size is about 35 feet by 15 feet so this
affected a small part of it.

Thank you very much.

Wall to wall carpet is fundamentally evil anyway. And you
should dispose of it given any excuse at all.

Failing that, fill the room with about 4 of those rectangular
anti-moth blocks with the benzene in them, have it steam cleaned
by proessionals, and then run a dehumidifier until it dries.

Then get rid of the moth/mildew tablets, on account
of they cause cancer.

"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..
I work in the carpet industry, so just maybe I can help...

1) Grab your oldest towels. The ones you use in the shop, on the dogs,
etc. You'll need quite a few.

2) Flatten several of them out over the affected area. Put a large rigid
flat piece of something on top of the towels. Plywood comes to mind.

3) Lay heavy things on top of the plywood so it pushes the towels down
onto the carpet. Alternately, you can walk around on the plywood.

4) When the towels are wet, get more dry towels and repeat the process.

5) Continue repeating the process until the towels are barely damp.
You'll probably go 3 rounds one evening with the final round going
overnight.

6) After that, take everything off of the carpet and point a box fan
towards the area. Leave the box fan on for a couple of days.


I had a somewhat similar experience with some very dirty water spilled on a
central area of light colored carpet and used the procedure outlined by this
poster. It took most of the stain away. Then I flooded the area with clean
water,walked on it to provide a bit of deep scrubbing, and repeated the
process several times. Each rinse made a definite improvement until I
finally fatigued out and said good enough.

I don't have a shopvac but I think the process would be greatly facilitated
by using one to pick up the water. Perhaps the towel trick would serve best
for the final drying -- followed by ventilation with a large fan, of course.

It's a lot of work, and there will always be some remaining trace of the
contaminant. Your call when you've got it good enough.