In article , WM says...

On Sun, 14 May 2006 14:35:50 GMT, "Toller" wrote:


"Driz" wrote in message
roups.com...
I rent a small single floor appartment on the ground floor near my
college. A couple of days ago water started appearing around 11pm in
our bathroom tiled area. I soaked it up with towels and went to bed.
When I woke up the water had spread a little bit into our living room
making the squishy sound when you step on it.

Turns out the hot water heater in the Appt above us was busted and
leaking straight down into my roomates carpeted bedroom closet(where
our heater is as well) and spreading through the wall into our bathroom
area and into the living room carpet.

Well the landlord came and fixed their waterheater and the leaking
water has stopped. Its the weekend and everything is closed, i have
been left to fix the flooding myself, but Im in college and cant afford
to call a profesisonal and I don't know what I should be doing.

I have been soaking up the water with towels, then washing them and
soaking them again.

The carpets are now just damp, but now the musty smell seems to be
everywhere.

Im worried about the smell and the horror stories about mold and
mildew. Should I leave? What kind of company should I contact to test
for mold, or clean? What responsibilites does my landlord have to
helping me with this?

Sorry, Im alone and ignorant in all this, and learning a life lesson.

I don't disagree with anything anyone else has said, but...

A couple years ago the dishwasher drain clogged and a great deal of water
went through the floor and soaked my basement carpeting.
I should have pulled it up and disposed of it, but am way to cheap to do the
right thing. Like you, I soaked up all the water I could, but also put in a
dehumidifier and a couple fans. It took a few days, but finally dried out.
AFAIK, it is fine.
Maybe the electricity cost more than the carpet, and maybe there is mold
that I don't know about; but it seems to have worked out okay.

I've done the cleaning, bleaching, shampooing and drying three
times over the years after leaks and floods and each time I spent
about $150 and 10 hours of work to save my carpet (and padding).
That effort has saved me thousands of dollars each time. I actually
collected insurance money on one of them.

The only bad thing aboujt it is that I didn't get new carpet....
So now, I'm throwing out my old carpet and laying parquet on the slab.
It is much prettier than carpet, but I grew up on wood floors and
hated them.

??

Isn't parquet a wood floor pattern?

Or are you referring to a parquet-look vinyl tile or other vinyl flooring.
Which, BTW, is the best option. That or tile.

Banty


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