Wet carpet in motorhome

[PABEAV56]

Has anybody had to deal with wet carpet in their motorhome? What is best -- to go ahead and change it or just give it a good cleaning?

[Butch39]

We have had wet carpet(s) in our motor home, due to leaks in a slide, leak in the windshield, and we used a wet vac to remove the liquid. At this point our carpet is just damp, and now we used a small electric fan to total dry the area. It does take some time with the fan but it did work for us.......good luck.....

[NWJeeper]

Buy, borrow or rent a dehumidifier and start looking for where the water is coming from...

[wolfe10]

Buy, borrow or rent a dehumidifier and start looking for where the water is coming from...

I agree. The bigger issue is not the wet carpet that a fan or dehumidifier (if in humid climate) can correct, but where is the water coming from. AND is the sub-floor damaged. Many coaches use interior grade plywood/particle board floors. You need to get them dried out and then check for structural integrity.

Let us know the source and extent of damage to the sub-floor.

Brett Wolfe

[tbutler]

If you have found the carpet immediately after it has become wet, use a wet vac, towels or other absorbent materials, heat and ventilation or a dehumidifier depending on the ambient weather to dry out the carpet. I prefer ventilation unless you have to do this during very cold weather. You can move much more water quickly with ventilation, particularly if the outside air is low humidity. Even if the outside air is cold, even cold and damp, warming it will dry it out and make it very effective at removing excess water using ventilation. Open the windows and vents and let the air flow through the coach to remove the moisture. After you have dried the carpet as best you can, have a carpet cleaner come in and clean the carpet. Let them know that the carpet was wet and they should be able to treat it to take care of any potential mold problem. They will also give you instructions for drying the carpet after they finish. Follow their instructions carefully and you should be fine.

If the carpet has been wet for some time before you discovered the problem, you likely have a mold problem already and should have the carpet replaced once you are certain you have identified the leak and had it fixed.

[PABEAV56]

Thanks for the info. the source of the water was a busted water line by the hot water heater in back of the unit. I discoverd it that afternoon

and soaked it up with a wet/dry vac. and let the heaters on over the week. I went back the next week and it was still damp. i then thought of putting a fan ininside overnight. The next day it was dry. i will rent a carpert cleaner this weekend and clean it. Sould i be concern with any mold under the carpet?

[NWJeeper]

Thanks for the info. the source of the water was a busted water line by the hot water heater in back of the unit. I discovered it that afternoon

and soaked it up with a wet/dry vac. and let the heaters on over the week. I went back the next week and it was still damp. i then thought of putting a fan ininside overnight. The next day it was dry. i will rent a carpert cleaner this weekend and clean it. Sould i be concern with any mold under the carpet?

Since you seem to have caught it quickly I don't see that you should have to be to worried about mold having formed. We had the same thing happen in our rig one time. A pinhole leak developed in the brass check valve on the back of the water heater and soaked the floor. On another rig we had a fitting pop off the cold water side of the bathroom sink faucet. We have learned to turn the pump off or turn the water supply off if connected in a park when we leave the rig for an extended time. Actually was thinking of installing an electric solenoid valve on the city water inlet with a switch near our door so that when we leave the rig we can flip the switch and turn off the water supply, would also be a good emergency shut off if a leak occurs during the evening.

[Guest BillAdams]

Based upon how quickly you were able to deal with it I would suspect that all is well. If it were me (and it was not!) I would have called a carpet cleaning company with truck mounted equipment and requested an emergency call. The next best thing would be to get some good rental carpet cleaning equipment and just keep sucking until you and the carpet couldn't take it any more. I don't recommend turning on heaters but rather open all windows and turn on all exhaust fans (no rain I am hoping) to suck out the moist air. The faster it drys the better and a sealed hot box will not dry nearly as fast as an open container.