Water extraction is the first thing we do on any water damage job in Spanish Fork. Every gallon a machine pulls out is a gallon the dehumidifiers don't have to pull out of the air over the next three days. So we take our time on it.
On carpet we use a weighted extraction tool, the kind you stand on, that squeezes water out of the pad as well as the carpet face. A regular wand only gets the top. For hard floors and concrete we use squeegees and a submersible pump if the water is deep. In a finished basement with an inch or more of standing water, the pump goes in first, then the extractor.
Water extraction also tells us what we're dealing with. Clean water from a supply line is Category 1. Water that sat for a couple of days or came off a washing machine drain is Category 2. Anything from a toilet overflow, sewer line or outside flooding is Category 3, and that changes what can be kept. Category 3 carpet and pad get removed, full stop.
Once the floor is extracted, we move to structural drying with air movers and dehumidifiers. If the carpet can be saved we float it and dry it in place, and we replace the pad. That process is on our carpet drying and pad replacement page.
Call us as soon as you see water. The first 24 hours matter more than anything else we do.
