Hey Nestor or Any One With Carpet Knowledge

House Repair Talk

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Wuzzat:
Yes, but the only carpets that are made of natural fibers are real wool carpets, which are very expensive. Oldog/Newtrick's carpet doesn't look like one made of wool anyhow. I expect it's a synthetic fiber, just like 95 percent of the carpets that are made today.

Oldog/Newtrick:
What you need to do ASAP is to get as much water out of that carpet as possible. If you have a wet/dry shop style vaccuum cleaner, just apply the end of the suction hose directly to the wet area of the carpet, and lift as much water out of the carpet as you can. (Maybe wash off the end of the suction hose so that you don't get the carpet dirty with it trying to get the water out.)

Also, if the suction of the vaccuum will lift the carpet up an inch or so, then try to draw air through the carpet so that water in the carpet pile will leave the carpet as a mist in the air stream.

Then, I'd say to let the carpet dry and see if it leaves any stain. If you get the water out before there's too much bacteria or mildew growth in the moist carpet, then it shouldn't leave any stain.

Both bacteria and mildew need food to grow, so if you've been vaccuuming your carpet regularily, there's shouldn't be enough food in it (dead skin cells, hair, dust from cloth and paper fibers, pollen and other airborne organic matter) to support much of a population growth of bacteria or mildew in your carpet.
 
Well, its not my house, belongs to a friend who moved out of town and is trying to sell the house. Real estate agent found the leak and I thought that if we could clean the stain we'd save having to put new carpet in. House is empty and don't know how long it's been leaking.
 
No, you probably won't have much problem cleaning the carpet.

You see, "water stains" are most commonly caused by a water leak that drips through a drywall or plaster ceiling, or maybe down a drywall or plaster wall. Gypsum and/or calcium carbonate from the drywall or plaster (respectively) will dissolve in that leaking water. Then, when the leak is fixed and the water evaporates out of the carpet, that gypsum or chaulk that was dissolved in the water will be left behind in the carpet nap. That's why they tell you to use vinegar to clean it up with; cuz it's a mild acid and will dissolve the gypsum or chaulk that remains behind.

In this case, however, what I'm seeing is that the water is coming UP THROUGH the backing of the carpet, not dripping onto it from above. You might get some whitish staining of the carpet just cuz of the stuff dissolved in the water, but any dirt in the water (as you might expect if there were a roof leak) would be filtered out by the carpet backing, and so the most you might get inside that carpet would be those gypsum or chaulk deposits, and they're relatively easy to remove with a weak acid.

So, it shouldn't be hard to get the carpet clean once it's dry.

But, I'd say to contact your neighbor and see if this has happened in other years. In the mean time, use a wet/dry vaccuum cleaner to remove as much of that water as you can.

PS: Where I live, they'd never put a water supply or drain pipe in an exterior wall because of the concern that it could freeze (and burst or clog with ice, and also burst). Would they do that in Tennessee? When the guy left the house, did he shut off the water to the house and drain the lines?
 
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The leak was from around the chimney flashing. We removed the old flashing and installed new step and counter flashing. Leak has been stopped. You are correct in that the water leaked at the top corner of the brick chimney, ran down the framing of the exterior and was stopped by the floor framing of the 2nd level. The water did come up from the padding and it was not a drip from the ceiling.
 
If you have one, a dehumidifier would help dry out the carpet.
 
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