Water Soaked Car Carpet

You ll have mold and mildew growing within a few days and your car will stink.

Water soaked car carpet.

If your home has recently flooded this is most likely the reason for the unpleasant odor. You can t dry out wet car carpet until you first dry out the padding. If the area is smaller you can use large towels to soak up water from carpet as well. Remove as much water manually as you possibly can.

If your car has airbags disconnect the negative battery cable before you proceed. If you don t own a wet dry vac you can usually rent one from a local hardware store. Put a fan in your car to generate airflow and evaporate moisture. Trust me if you think you can vacuum out all the water with a wet vac you re just kidding yourself.

The carpet people could help with that too. When a carpet smells musty or smells like mildew it can be a result of humidity or spills that fell onto the carpet. You will still need to vent the car for a long time to get all the moisture out. Allow it to run continuously for at least 2 days or until the water in your carpet has evaporated.

When moisture gets underneath the carpet a musty odor will form. Remove as much water as you can until the carpet is only damp and excess water doesn t come up when you press down into the carpet. Run a wet vacuum over the wet or damp area of the carpet to bring up as much of the water as possible. Continue to run the wet dry vacuum over damp carpet slowly and carefully until no more water can be extracted.

Even if it s only water a funny odor can accumulate over time. Place a window unit or standup model fan either in the open car door or right beside it.