Well, I haven't been on as much, due to a drain backup I recently had. We had a bad clog, somehow the water backed up into the entire main line, and it ended up in my bathroom which is located in the rear of my office.

I tried getting all of the water with a shop vac and a Hoover Steam cleaner. However, it is so wet and soaked up, it actually got the drywall wet and such. I took the wood floor molding off, and I found were it was wet, and I got my SawZall and cut it up to about 8 inches. I got rid of that... damn did it stink.

So now, on to the carpet. I got my Hoover Steam Cleaner and I steam vacuumed that area... but it still stinks to all high heaven. It's gotta be in the foam padding. I'm sitting here in my office, drinking a beer, and I'm gonna vomit soon. Even the effects from the beer can't make me get passed the smell. Makes me almost want to snort the beer! Anyhow, I went out and bought like 4 boxes of baking soda, and got a small broom and I literally covered the effected area with baking soda. It still stinks!

I'm baffled as to what the heck to do next. If I don't get it resolved in a week, I'm getting new carpet... which is going to run me about $600...

So any of you guys got any suggestions?

 

I think that some of those fire/flood professionals may be able to help in your situation. The one that comes to mind is Blackmon Mooring
http://www.blackmonmooring.com/

If you are gonna tackle this yourself I would say that you are gonna have to pull that carpet up and get to the moisture trapped underneath. The steamer that you have isn't powerful enough to pull the water out of the pad. If you don't get the matter resolved it will only get worse, the stench will increase as the bacteria reproduce and you could possibly be looking at a dreaded black mold problem. If you have any dehumidifiers available to use, I would get those in place right away.

 

happened in my house also. I think we had big fans running and the windows open. We may have even pulled up the carpet and put the fan on the pad. It was NASTY!!! I know the smell you are talking about and it is BAD

 

It's only a small area... nothing more than about 8'x2' at most.

We got it contained very quick.

 

New carpet and pad.

 

x2. Nice neat job of cutting and removing the drywall.

 

bleh. Sewer backups suck!

So far i've been lucky the only leaks I had was with clean water. The kid filled up the shower and it flooded into the heater floor ducts and into the basement. Ceiling was leaking everywhere. Then I had the water feed line on that same bathrooms toilet start a small leak almost a week later resulting in more ceiling patching. Then a few weeks later (last spring) I go to turn on the outside faucet and there's little water pressure coming out. My kid runs outside and tells me there's water coming down the basement wall. I go inside and it's just pouring like crazy all over the carpet and finished walls. I had like 50 gallons of water there but at least it was clean. 3 shop vacs, 5 floor fans, big attic fan, 1 dehumidier, and 12 chairs under the carpet, and one week to dry that mess out. Then I had to tear the drywall out on top of that.

Then yesterday a guy down the road pregnant wife called me up with a busted water heater and water all over the basement carpet. That was bad she's like 8 months pregnant her husband is deployed to the middle east. I felt bad but I couldn't do anything and suggested she get a plumber to fix it. Then told her to have her 10 year old kid vacuum up the water. Then call the insurance to see if they would cover water damages. Figure she'll call me up in a few hours.


Far as odor. I used a rug doctor I bought with these steam cleaner chemicals from lowes. That helped some but that musty odor was still there. Then when i was patching the wall my kid knocked over a gallon of paint on the carpet there. I got it up with the rig doctor but it still smells like paint. I like it.

 

The paint thing is priceless! A few years back I had my faucet on in my bathroom and it went down through the floor and was leaking through the kitchen ceiling It was 5 min before we went on vacation too! We cleaned it up and just redid the drywall when we got back. Me and my dad built the whole basement ourselves, so thank gosh we know what we're doing because it would cost an arm and a leg is we didnt As for the water heater and that lady, that SUCKS! Hopefully she called a plumber, maybe you could go set up a couple fans for her or something to help dry up the carpet. A dehumidifier helps a lot too

 

I'd try it again with your carpet cleaner, or go out and rent a "Rug Doctor"... Only this time, run an enzyme digester (sometimes called "odor control") through the machine along with your regular carpet shampoo. Rug Doctor chemicals are available, usually at grocery or hardware stores and they have the compete line of chemicals there. Rug doctors enzyme product is listed as "Odor control".

Also get some air moving, maybe a couple of box fans.

Good luck.

 

x3...

Very rarely will one be able to completely dry out and get rid of the smell/mold/etc that is there. If you could lay the carpet out on your driveway under the hot summer sun and get a fan drying off the cement you may be fine. Then again, it's winter and you will still need to get padding.

Honestly, don't waste your time and money on cleaning it. Chances are you are just going to have a little mold factory growing over time. Just pony up and get some new rug and padding

 

Like a few have said, the carpet and pad will have to be replaced but there's more. You'll need to spray a biocide on the bottom plates and studs where it got wet. You'll also need to spray the biocide on the foundation where it got wet and it needs to dry about a week. Then you need to seal the foundation with a coat of oil based (not water based) Kilz where it got wet and out at least three feet. You need to paint the bottom plate and studs too. The biocide and Kilz should be available at the home centers. If you have insurance, they should be paying for this. Yes, I've taken remediation classes but never took the test for license. It was just something to do. Maybe you can benefit from my education.

 

^ good call... diluted bleach water on the concrete before killz would be a good idea. let dry and paint 'er on!

 

If I were to replace the carpet/cushion in the affected area, do you think I need to replace the entire room carpeting or should I just have that strip replaced?!

The people that did our carpets were contractors that only did carpet work. They had some pretty interesting machines. I remember one of them they could join two sections of carpeting together and make it in sense 1 piece of carpet. Would this be a viable option? This room by the way is 30x30. That's a LOT of carpet and padding for a little area that is 8x2.

What your call on this?

Thanks... I learned how to fix and install drywall about 2 years ago, and been excellent ever since. It's a good trade to know.

 

Carpet is colored in dye lots. The same color won't be the same from dye lot to dye lot. Finding the same dye lot as the one you have is next to impossible. If you have a closet that is close to the size of the damaged area, you can use the carpet from the closet for the patch and recarpet the closet with the same color but it will not be the same shade of color- it will be slightly different. The grain of the carpet also has to be the same. When laying carpet, you can't take a cut of carpet and lay it 90 degrees to another piece. It will appear as a different color because the light will reflect off of it differently. You probably need to get your carpet guy over to the jobsite and have him give you suggestions on what he can do. Some of these guys are magic with carpet and he might be one of them.

 

Not sure where exactly this area is but an option would be to run a piece of vinyl, laminate, tile, etc there - there is virtually no way to seam a piece of different carpet in without it looking mismatched.