How to clean and dry flooded car carpet

Did you leave the window open during a storm or at the car wash (oops!)? Leaving the window of your car open when you clearly shouldn’t is a common experience for many of us. Regardless, however it happened, having saturated car carpet is no fun at all, and needs to be sorted out as soon as possible.

“It’s extremely important to get onto this quickly – within a day or two – before mould sets in,” says Lachlan Thomas, owner of Glitz Detailing, on Sydney’s North Shore.

Here’s what you need to do.

If the weather forecast is fine and you’re expecting sunshine for a few days, park the car in the backyard and get started. If there’s any likelihood of a downpour (or if you’re worried about leaving your doors and windows open), head under a carport or into a garage instead.

Roll down the windows, open the doors, the sun roof, the roof, the boot, and whatever else will let some air and light in.

Remove the floor mats. Then press down on the carpet. Thomas’ top tip is that if the carpet squelches, you’re going to need a wet-dry vacuum to get rid of the water. You may be able to rent one or pick one up from an auto store for about $100.

You may as well wash your carpet at this point. “If there is no mould I use either an orange-based degreaser or carpet shampoo,” Thomas says.

If there is mould, Thomas says you can kill the spores by spraying a 50-50 mix of water and vinegar on the affected area, leaving it for five minutes, then hitting it with a steam cleaner.

You’ve now got to let your car sit for a day or two to dry out. Hopefully you’ve got lots of sunlight and airflow to make the process a quick one. To speed things up, put a fan in the car and set it up to blow on the carpets.

You can move it around to make sure the whole car is covered – or, even better, get more fans. The more you can do to soak up the moisture in your car, the better. So as well as the fans, use moisture absorbers (either tubs or hanging bags), or put a couple of open containers of baking soda in the car.

Speaking of baking soda, it can be a good idea towards the end of the process to sprinkle some of this on your carpet to soak up any lingering moisture. Leave it to dry for an hour, then vacuum up. This can also get rid of unwanted smells.

If everything feels dry now, hopefully the job is complete. However, if your carpet still feels wet after a couple of days of the fan treatment, Thomas recommends getting the expert detailers in, who can use their pro equipment to do a more thorough job. His business charges between $260 and $440 for this sort of work, including mould treatment.

And while some experts online recommend lifting up the carpet to check that everything is dry underneath (the carpet’s foam backing can hold a lot of water), Thomas believes this should only be done as a last resort, if all else has failed. “I would leave that up to a panel beater or a mechanic,” he says.

^Disclaimer

^{Viva Energy Australia Pty Ltd (“Viva Energy”) has compiled the above article for your general information and to use as a general reference. Whilst all reasonable care has been taken by Viva Energy in compiling this article, Viva Energy does not warrant or represent that the information in the article is free from errors or omissions or is suitable for your intended use.}