On 16 Oct 2005 06:48:33 -0700, "grodenhiATgmailDOTcom"
wrote:

We have a finished basement in out house (about 700sqft), that took on
water this weekend (the torrential rain in New England got us). Only
about 1/3 of the carpet was actually exposed to some water. It was
squishly and water would seep up when you walk on it (but never
submerged... if that helps.). It's a berber carpet if that matters.

It matters to me. I don't think anyone should use natural fiber
carpets in a basement.

IIUC most synthetic carpets are certain to come clean and fresh after
the proper cleaning, whereas one of my neighbors complained that her
carpet was ruined.

Our clean up so far has been running a dehumidifier on high, 5 fans on
high, and a very strong wet/dry vac every few hours. We've got the

All this is good and the dehumid. is very important. I'm in Baltimore
and I was flooded too, when my sump pump was running full barrel and
couldn't keep up with the seepage.

The basement smelled a a little bit of mold 10 days ago, but I've been
away for a week and the smell is gone. My basement is too crowded for
me to remove the Persian carpet (old, used, frayed at one end,, and
free), and after vaccuuming with a wet/dry and running a fan in the
one window, I had to close the window before I went away.

But my basement is natually dry, and it's possible the carpet will
save itself.**

From another flood in my kitchen a week earlier, I had in the basement
a 3 foot stack of second hand phone books from the DC area and they
got moldy and slimy and I threw them away. But on another shelf was a
stack of three phonebooks that got a little moldy, but the mold
stopped growing. I may still throw them away, but it shows how dry my
basement is.

On another occasion 15 years ago, I had a a flood that left a bad
(moldy?) smell but little other problem. I got a 50 pound bag of ??
Calcium chloride?? I'm not sure but the stuff that people use in
little bags iiuc to dehumidify closets, from a janitorial supply
store. I put a piece of decorative pressboard/masonite? vertically
in a plastic bucket and the chemical in one side, and every day I
would pour water out of the other side.

This worked well for everything but the stair way. It smelled bad on
the stairs. The very bottom of the carpet on the stairs had gotten
wet, but it didn't seem to go higher than an inch.

That was really strange. I put the bucket on the 5th step, the middle
of the stairs, for about 3 days to a week.. Even though my nose is
more than 4 feet higher than the bucket, the smell went away from the
5th step, but not the other ones. I put the bucket on the 3rd step
and the smell disappeared from there, but nowhere else. Eventually I
had to put the bucket on each step for a few days, and then the smell
was gone. It's like missiles were launched vertically from the carpet
on each step. The smell never came back (except for a short while
after this flood, but that's not because of wet carpet on the stairs.)

I only used about 5-10 pounds and when I was done, I gave the rest to
a gas station.


**(I do expect that many asphalt tiles will no longer be glued to the
floor. A few became unglued at the last flood, and the ones most
used, at the bottom of the stairs and the other door, which were
cracked but I didn't know it, came loose in pieces. I'm hoping when
the carpet is up, I can just use the right stuff and stick them down
again.)

carpet to a point now where it's damp (feels like a carpet right after
a shampoo, not so much wet, as cool to the touch. No more squish what
so ever. Money is tight and we're really hoping to save the carpet.
Is there some kind of cleaner/solvent I can use to help prevent
mold/mildew? We're hoping to rent/borrow one of those carpet cleaning
systems and give the whole basement a once over oncde we deem the
carpet dry (or call Stanley Steamer or some place). Does this sound
doable to save us the expense of a rip/replace? Thanks for any help....


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