Carpets have been common in our family for thousands of years, and we all know that wet carpets can cause mildew and mold. Over time, it will raise your family’s health risk. If you put them under the sun, of course, they will gradually get dry. However, that is not the most efficient way.
I am here today to instruct you on how to dry carpet fast after cleaning with all my experience, more ways that help you do the work faster. With the tips and tricks below, you can even do the cleaning at home by yourself. Let’s get started!
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How Long Does It Take Carpet To Dry?
The drying time varies depending on the factors like humidity, climate, and carpet size. After cleaning, you will let your carpet dry for around 6 to 10 hours. Some types of carpet can take a long time, up to 24 hours, based on the moisture level in the air.
In bad conditions like flooding, or rain, it can take the carpet days to dry. But don’t worry! If you are in a hurry to use your carpet, there are different methods that you can try to dry them up. Let’s move to our next part to find out what they are.
How To Dry Carpet Fast After Cleaning-The Ultimate Guide
I would call the below methods magical tricks as they can make your carpet dry faster. From my experience, these solutions were helpful.
Create A Sufficient Air Flow
We all know that when we hang our clothes outside, they will get dry quickly under the effect of the sun. Having a similar idea to this, we will create airflow from the sun to dry the carpet. All you have to do is open all the windows and doors to let the fresh air get into your room.
Therefore, you have created a strong air circulation that goes through your room, making the drying process faster. Also, this method helps you to avoid mildew growing and accumulating within the house.
I also have a quick tip for you. If your room has two windows opposite each other, you can try to open one of them fully while keeping the other one slightly closed. By doing so, you somehow create a strong crosswind that helps to make your carpet dry faster.
However, this method only works in sunny weather conditions. A rainy or cloudy day will worsen the situation because high moisture is a perfect environment for mold to develop. In this case, the only good thing you could do is have all of your windows and doors shut.
Using Fan
You might wonder what if the weather is humid, and you need a dry carpet. Utilizing a fan is a perfect choice for you in this circumstance. My first suggestion for a fan is the ceiling one.
According to its features, ceiling fans will blow the wind all over your carpet from above. It creates an air funnel and a ventilation system within your room. Therefore, your carpet gets dry faster.
An alternative option for a fan is the standing type. Although these items also create much wind to your carpet, standing fans work less effectively than the ceiling ones.
However, if you don’t have a ceiling fan, use two standing fans, putting them on opposite sides. This way will create air circulation and make your carpet dry faster.
Air Conditioning
Another method you can apply to dry carpets is using an air conditioner. This solution is less effective than the first two methods as the air circulation made by the air conditioner is not as strong as using a fan.
In addition, this method can cause you to pay a higher electricity bill. You should still try this method when the weather doesn’t support you to dry your carpet or when you can’t find a fan anywhere.
During the time of use, you might find it is difficult to differentiate your carpet in cold or dry conditions while using it. So what do you have to do?
Turn off our air conditioner right after you feel your carpet start getting dry, and let the room temperature do the rest. After a few hours, check the carpet part near the padding to see whether it gets dried or not.
Expose The Padding
If you own a large carpet, exposing the padding to make the whole item get dried faster is a should-do thing. You can try to spend a bit of time following the below steps:
– Expose the padding part from the corner
– Utilize pliers to pull all the fibers of the carpet. Remember to do this step gently; otherwise, you may take off the fibers.
– Pull back the fibers. Don’t worry if you hear the crackling sound of the tack strip. It is the part that keeps the carpet with the padding.
– Blow air into the space between the carpet and padding part. If possible, apply a dehumidifier to capture all the moisture from the carpet. Don’t forget to keep the sides of your carpet a bit raised while doing so.
– Also, put the carpet over the vacuum hose before connecting this hose with a vacuum cleaner. The airstream will help the drying process faster.
Towel Dry
Once I tried towel drying, and it worked fine. This method is also simple for you to do at home. All you have to do is to spread a dry towel over the wet area of your carpet. Over time, the fibers of the towel will absorb the water from the carpet.
Although it is simple to implement, this method requires patience as you have to move forth and back to set the towel on the carpet. Then walking over the towel is the best way to help it absorb the water. Don’t forget to check whether the towel gets wet enough. If so, it’s time for you to replace it with a new one.
As mentioned above, this work will require a lot of effort. And doing it once doesn’t help you to dry the carpet right away. Therefore, do this step again and again until you feel your carpet is dry. Also, check the padding part, and make sure you don’t leave it wet afterward.
Shop-Vac
I would say shop vac is not a common item in every household. It is mostly used at woodwork shops or on building areas. This item stands out from other regular vacuums by its strong suction power that can remove a big amount of objects.
In case you don’t have this unit at home you can rent it from a local shop if it is possible.
The shop vac I want to mention here is wet/dry vacuum type. Its strong motor and filter designed in a special way help it handle water quite well. Also, the filter should be made from a sponge instead of paper to avoid disintegrating.
The great feature of a shop vac is it has a wide range of attachments for you to choose from. The size of the attachment depends on the area you need to clean. Therefore, I suggest you try the largest one first, then work down to the smaller ones. Let’s see which one is the most suitable for your work.
And last but not least, to make the carpet dry faster, you will have to put the attachment into the carpet. Strong ventilation will be created within the area, especially at the padding part, which carries a lot of water.
How To Dry Carpet In Winter
Indeed, drying a carpet in the cold weather is a big challenge, especially in snowy countries. Some of my above methods might not work well with this weather condition as you don’t want to suffer the cold inside your room.
In this case, I applied the combination of a dehumidifier and a fan, and it worked pretty well. If you don’t want to apply this method, you can let the carpet dry naturally with a heater. Try once and see how it works!
The Bottom Line!
Drying a carpet is not a difficult job. But not many know how to dry carpet fast after cleaning in the right way. The article above aims to give you different methods to do the work at home by yourself.
Don’t hesitate to share them with me if you know some of the other drying carpets fast. Good luck!
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