3 important steps for repairing wet carpet

The carpet in your home is a big investment. So it's frustrating when flooding or leaks soak your carpet. But, solving these problems yourself isn't difficult. Here're three important steps for repairing wet carpet that can also help increase its life and save you some real money.

• When carpet gets soaked, you have to act fast.
• The longer it stays soggy, the more likely it is to stretch out, discolour or get mouldy.
• If a large area is waterlogged, complete replacement may be the best option.
• But if only a corner or a small room is soaked, you can save the carpet.

• Go to the corner nearest the wet area, grab the carpet with pliers and pull the carpet off the tack strip.
• Continue pulling the carpet off the tack strip by hand until you can fold back the entire wet section.
• Run a fan or two to dry the carpet.
• Wet carpet pad is like a big sponge, so the best thing to do with it is get rid of it ASAP.
• Cut around the wet area with a utility knife.
• Make straight cuts so you have straight seams when you patch in the new pad.
• If the pad is glued to a concrete floor, scrape it up with a floor scraper.
• If the pad is stapled to a wood subfloor, just pull up chunks of pad and pry or pull out the staples if you have just a few.
• For faster removal on a larger area, use a floor scraper.
• Have garbage bags handy to prevent drips on the carpeting.
• Wet pad is heavy.
• Don't fill the bags so full that you can't haul them out without straining your back.
• Wipe up any water on the floor, then flop the wet carpet back into place.
• Drying it flat and in place helps the carpet retain its shape.
• Run fans until the floor and carpet are completely dry.
• This can take a couple of days.

• Measure the area of pad you need to replace and take a piece of the old pad to a flooring store or home centre to find similar replacement pad.
• Pad costs about $4 per 0.8 square metres (1 square yard).
• Your new pad's colour doesn't matter, but the new pad must be the same thickness and density as the old pad.
• Some stores will cut the pad to the size you need, so having the measurements with you can be helpful.
• Fasten the new pad to a concrete floor with carpet pad adhesive ($10 per four litres/one gallon) and duct-tape the seams together.
• On a wood subfloor, all you need is a staple gun and 4/5 centimetre (5/16 inch) staples.
• Use a utility knife to trim off any pad that covers the tack strip.

• As you refasten the carpet to the tack strip, you need to stretch it toward the wall.
• If you're dealing with a corner or a small area, you can use a knee kicker alone.
• Starting at one end of the loose carpet, set the head of the kicker about 5 centimetres (2 inches) from the tack strip and nudge the carpet tight against the wall.
• Force the carpet into the tack strip with a stiff putty knife.
• Also tuck the edge of the carpet into the space between the wall and the tack strip with a putty knife.
• Continue along the wall, moving the kicker over about 5 centimetres (2 inches) each time.
• If you're dealing with a larger area of carpet or if the carpet has stretched out of shape, bubbled or wrinkled after getting wet, you'll need to rent a power stretcher to re-stretch the carpet (about $30 per day).

Follow these three important steps to help make repairing your own wet carpet that much easier.