Water Damage Carpet Cleaning, Drying and Restoration in Melbourne

Cleaning water damaged carpets is a complicated job. If you wait longer than 24 hours or do it yourself, it could make the condition worse.

There is a specific process to undertake a satisfactory result for water damage restoration which reduces the risk of bacterial growth in the future and eliminates any bad odour and stains.

Leading causes of water or flood damage, their categories and classification

Water damage can occur from several sources such as washing machine overflow, dishwasher leakage, burst pipes, clogged toilets or floodwaters. It can cause irreversible damage to electrics, floor, and structures of your home.

Water damage is categorised into three types depending upon the source of water.

Category 1: Broken pipes, sink overflows, or malfunction of appliances such as dishwasher and washing machine associated with water supply lines.

Category 2: The source of water that has chemicals or some degree of contaminants which are known to cause sickness or discomfort. This category is also known as a ‘greywater’. Water discharge from a washing machine, dishwasher, sump pump, urine from toilet bowls are all categorised as ‘greywater’.

Category 3: This water carries pathogenic agents, making it grossly unsanitary, causing severe distress and health risk to humans. This category is known as ‘black water’. Sewage and toilet backflow, ground surface water, medical waste, manufacturing waste, river or sea water are a few types of ‘black water’. (Please note: Category 2 water damage situation if not treated within 48 hours, it may transform to Category 3 which then should be treated as a Category 3 situation.)

Special Situation: If hazardous materials like arsenic, mercury, lead, asbestos, etc. is a part of water damage.

The class of damage is classified based on the rate of evaporation. Before proceeding to dry and clean the water damaged area, it is vital to determine the class of water damage.

Knowing the type of damage will help the experts to determine the amount of time to dry the structure and the nature of the equipment to be used.

Class 1: The rate of evaporation is slow, and the content absorbs minimum moisture. This type of exposure has little or no effect on carpet or underlay.

Class 2: The rate of evaporation is fast, and it may have wicked the walls between 12-24 inches. The water losses that affect the entire room or carpet and underlay.

Class 3: The evaporation rate is fastest, and water comes from the ceilings, affecting the insulation, timber structure, electrical conduits, carpet and floor. It virtually saturates the entire area.

Class 4: Special drying conditions and applies to materials with low permeance/porosity such as hardwood floors, plaster, stone, brick or concrete. To dry in this condition, it requires very low specific humidity.

Water damage carpet drying and restoration method

Our certified restorers follow the IICRC standard ANSI/IICRC S500 procedure.

a. A thorough assessment of a flood damaged property

Firstly, we take precautions to identify the safety hazards, if any and eliminate them. Then, our technicians inspect the affected and non-affected area and assess with specialised water sensing equipment, moisture meters and thermal imaging cameras.

We also determine the category of water and the class of water loss. Our water damaged carpet cleaners carry out a detailed assessment of wet carpet, underlays, subfloors, structure frames and plaster walls along with the levels of contamination it has caused.

The extent of water damage can only be justified based on a complete and thorough assessment. It will decide what items are salvageable and what not. If any content or structure requires to be cut and disposed of, our technicians will advise you accordingly.

b. Outlining the scope of work and estimate cost to dry flood damaged carpets

Based on the findings, we will develop a suitable restoration technique. At this stage, we will advise you of the estimated cost, and the time it will take to dry, clean and ultimately restore the flood damaged area.

c. Water extraction from a wet carpet

Using specialised extraction equipment, our cleaners will quickly extract excess water from a flooded carpet. This step is highly crucial in drying and restoring a water damaged carpet because the more excess water you remove, the faster and efficiently it dries.

d. Mould control treatment

Mould mainly grows where dampness is. Water damage can cause dampness, which helps mould growth.

Mould can ruin surfaces it grows on and the longer it sustains, the more damage it causes. By using antimicrobials and mould controls, we treat the affected area to reduce the spread of such bacteria.

The antimicrobial treatment begins with the wet carpet drying process and is used again after the completion of the water damage restoration to prevent and control mould growth.

e. Structure and wet carpet drying through air-movement and dehumidification

As soon as the water extraction is complete, we make use of heavy-duty industrial air movers to disperse water molecules faster to support drying.

Desiccant or LGR dehumidifiers are used to remove moisture from the air. We may lift the carpet to facilitate comprehensive drying of structure and subfloor.

f. Remove browning stains from water damaged carpets

Once the carpet is dry, our water damage carpet cleaning professionals will attempt to clean any cellulosic browning stains that are caused by water residues.

g. Carpet restretching, if necessary

If the carpet is lifted, we will re-lay and restretch it back to avoid any bulge in the carpet.

h. Ongoing moisture monitoring

We continue monitoring the moisture levels at all steps right from the beginning of the process until the drying and sanitisation to achieve satisfactory flood damage restoration.

We keep the air movers and dehumidifiers running on at your property and routinely check at regular intervals to control humidity and moisture content of affected materials.

The restorative drying job is considered to be completed when the instrument confirms that all affected materials are restored to pre-loss moisture condition.

i. Steam cleaning of flooded carpet with antimicrobial sanitiser

We steam clean the carpet along with the antimicrobial sanitiser for a deeper clean, to kill the remaining bacteria and remove unbearable damp odour.

j. Final reports

Upon completion of the water damage restoration process, we will provide you with a final report that you can use to send for insurance claims.

If you come across such a dreadful situation at your home or office, do not wait. Call our professional certified Master water restorer on 1300 887 131 to safely restore your flooded property.