Carpets are an investment. They can last a lifetime if cared for properly. However, carpets can also become dirty and smelly if they aren’t cleaned regularly.
If you want to keep your carpet looking clean and fresh, then you should try using a steam cleaner. Steam cleaners use hot water and steam to remove dirt and stains from your carpet.
However, steam cleaners leave moisture in the carpet after cleaning. So now you’re left with the question “How can I get my carpet to dry faster?”
The first thing you should know before doing anything else is how long it takes your particular type of carpeting to dry out completely.
How Long Does It Take for Carpet to Dry Out?
It depends on the type of carpeting and humidity levels in your home, but generally, if you do not let the carpet dry out completely, it will take a few days to fully dry.
Normally, carpeting takes 6-10 hours to completely dry out after being professionally cleaned. If you find that your carpets are still damp 24 hours after your carpet clean, it’s time to call back the carpet cleaner who did the work.
Flooding or other extreme cases can take days or weeks to fully dry without any intervention.
However, you do not want your carpets to get wet for more than 48 hours. This is to prevent concerns about having stinky carpets or developing microbial growth. Over-wetting or wetting for a long period of time can also cause carpet buckles or ripples. Carpet water damage restoration is both costly and time-consuming, especially if the carpet was heavily saturated.
In this case, something needs to be done to get your carpet to dry faster.
Read also:
5 Tips on Drying Carpet After Water Damage
How Can I Get My Carpet to Dry Faster?
Carpet drying is a very important part of the cleaning process. It’s also one that many people don’t think about until it’s too late, and then they’re stuck with wet carpets for weeks on end. Fortunately, there are some things you can do in order to speed up your carpet drying time.
Here are some tips to help you out.
1. Ventilate the Room
If you want to help your carpet dry, encourage good ventilation in the room by opening the windows. This will allow fresh air into the room, which will help prevent any musty, damp odors that some carpets can develop in a closed room (such as a basement).
If you have two opposite windows, keep them open as this will create cross-ventilation that will help your carpet dry faster.
However, if the weather is rainy or cloudy, you may not be able to use any of those methods. In such weather, you should close the windows and use the other methods listed below to dry your carpet.
2. Create Wind
If you have ceiling fan(s), you are in luck. But if not, you can use any type of fan to circulate air in your home. You want to increase the circulation of air so that your carpet dries faster. So if you have multiple fans, that would speed up drying even more.
If you want to make sure your carpet gets dry quickly, place fans around your room and turn them on. Make sure the fans blow air directly at your carpet.
You can also rent or buy air movers to reduce the drying time. These are fans specifically designed to dry wet floors or carpets. These air movers blow large amounts of air into the wet carpet to dry it out quickly. Some are portable too, so you can use them to dry patches of the wet carpet.
Fans help when you can’t let airflow into a room due to humidity. They also help if you don’t want to open your windows (eg. when outdoor air pollution is high or it poses a safety risk to children or other family members).
3. Use Air Conditioner
If you don’t have enough airflow or a nearby fan, the next thing to consider is using an air conditioner to dry out your carpet.
Air conditioning is not as effective as fans or windows because it does not circulate air well. Also, it may increase your overall maintenance cost due to higher running costs of air conditioner units.
Due to a lack of air circulation, an air conditioner might also fail in providing fresh air. But when the weather outside does support carpet drying, you’ll find even using an air conditioning unit the best way. Also, try to reduce humidity levels further by turning on Dry mode.
If you choose to turn up the air conditioner, it may be difficult to tell if the carpet is really dry. You may think that the carpet is still wet, or is it just cool? As the carpet starts feeling dry, turn off the air conditioner. Let the carpet come down to room temperature before checking it near the padding.
4. Use Heater
You can also use a heater to dry out your wet carpet if it’s too cold to run the air conditioner. Heat can significantly help in the drying process, so using a heater is a good idea.
By turning on the heater, the air is being heated and expanded so that it can evaporate and dry faster. The carpet will dry faster (typically 4-8 hours) if the temperature setting is set at and around 72 degrees.
Make sure to supervise the heater, though, as it can be dangerous to leave it on for too long.
5. Use Dehumidifier
If you live in an area where it rains a lot, you may find that your wet carpeting is slow to dry because of the high levels of humidity. You can solve this problem by using a dehumidifier to remove the excess moisture in the air.
A dehumidifier is a device that removes humidity from the air. It does this by using a fan to blow air over a coil of metal wire. As the air passes over the coil, it picks up water molecules. When the air is blown back into the room, the water molecules are removed and the remaining air is drier. You can buy a dehumidifier from most hardware stores.
6. Groom the Carpet
Carpet grooming uses a tool called a carpet rake or brush. The tool moves the carpet fibers back and forth to realign them. This helps pull moisture from the carpet backing and padding, which speeds up drying time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does carpet dry faster in heat or cold?
Carpet dries faster in hot weather because the air is warmer and there are fewer water molecules in the air. When the temperature drops, the air becomes colder and there are more water molecules in the air, so the carpet takes longer to dry.
Therefore when drying carpets, it’s better to turn on the heater than an air conditioner.
How do I know if my carpet has dried enough?
When the carpet feels like it’s completely dry, check the padding next to the floorboards. If the padding looks damp, then the carpet isn’t fully dry yet. Wait until all the moisture has been pulled away from the padding.
Should you sleep in a room with wet carpet?
You should not sleep in a room with a wet carpet because the warmth and dampness in the carpet are ideal for mold to grow and spread in as little as 24 to 48 hours.
Mold is a fungus that grows on damp surfaces like a wet carpet. It produces microscopic spores which float in the air. These spores can be inhaled and enter your body causing illnesses such as asthma.
This is why it is important not to leave the carpet wet, and more so not to sleep in a room where there is one.
What’s the best way to dry carpet?
The most effective method of drying your carpets is by using an air mover and a dehumidifier at the same time. The air mover will blow moisture out of the carpet into the air and the dehumidifier will remove the moisture from the air. This process continues until all moisture has been removed from the carpet.
