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Elizabeth
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| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 8:31am | IP Logged
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Only in my house could we have a flood during a drought! Patrick watered the herb garden and he aimed the sprinkler directly into the window well for Michael's bedroom. The water filled and then ran through the window into Michael's room. Michael was in New York and so no one noticed until the next morning. Mike's out of town. 
The carpet is wet to about the center of the room. I've pulled it back and pulled the pad back. I have fans running. And I have sprayed liberally with Tilex. It still smells pretty damp.Someone told me that there is some powder that I could sprinkle after everything is dry to inhibit mold growth. Anybody know what it's called?
Any other advice?
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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JennGM
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I'm so sorry, Elizabeth. I don't know what that powder is called. I have run the fans with the pads pulled up, because that's the main source of the moisture. And then when dry I sprinkle with baking soda and vacuum up.
I think I now need a dehumidifier for part of my basement, though, because I keep smelling the mildew.
I was just thinking of you yesterday, because I've noticed in my neighborhood these window well covers that look like greenhouse windows (see through). That would keep the water from running into that well (since you've had this problem before.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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chicken lady
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If you can get a child to run a shop vac on that carpet and pad. You want to get as much water out of the rug as possible.
Not sure about the powder, I would use a generous amount of straight bleach in a squirt bottle.
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JennGM
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chicken lady wrote:
| If you can get a child to run a shop vac on that carpet and pad. You want to get as much water out of the rug as possible. |
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Oh yeah, shop vac. We just recently acquired one of those! I hope i don't have to use it for those purposes. If you don't have a shop vac use towels and stomp on the wet padding to absorb as much as you can.
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
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teamgriswold
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I'm sorry! We'll be praying! I know we've used a product called Damp Rid before. It comes in a plastic container, you just open it up and put it in the corner of a room. It soaks up moisture in the room.
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X-Hail
Wife to Mark '97 Mommy to Robby '98, Patrick '01, Abigail '03 and John-Paul '08
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guitarnan
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Damp Rid is good...get several of the containers, though, for a disaster of this size.
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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KellyJ
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Someone hired to do some work in our last home put a couple holes through a drainage pipe. When different folks came to clean up the damage (I think this was padding & carpet over cement slab), they pulled back the carpet and pad, and had huge fans going for at least a day or two. The folks who handled the damage were from ServPro, which specializes in water damage. I can't remember whether they replaced that section of pad, or if was useable. The carpet was fine to stay. Oh, also, this water problem was going on for weeks longer than yours without having been detected and consisted in good part with much dirtier water than you are dealing with. I have great hope for you!
Hey, if you are still concerned, you might even call your local ServPro or other water damage/restortation service to ask them whether you're doing everything you should.
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mary theresa
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If mold or mildew does grow, or if the smell stays I know that you can rent or buy (but they are $$$ to buy) an ozonator -- puts out pure O3 and kills all mold, fungus or mildew, and hence, the smell of dampness.
Ozone is the smell that you smell after a thunderstorm and it's really fresh and good smelling. You can breathe it mixed with oxygen, but it's bad for your mucous membranes (I think?) if you breath it straight.
Also, it's not good for animals or plants either, so you would have to remove any animals or plants from the area and close the basement door and put a rug against the crack (tho Ozone is heavier than air, so I doubt it would come up). Run the ozonator for 24+ hrs without entering the basement then after go down holding your breath and open windows and doors and air out the basement for a bit b4 using again. I'm sure that whereever you rent it from would have instructions.
Check drycleaning or carpet cleaning places to see if you could borrow/rent. It gets rid of any kind of bad lingering smells like magic, so I know that they sometimes use them.
I don't know if this helps at all, but if you have long term dampness or smell this is the BEST way to get rid of it!
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Mary Theresa
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Karen T
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We were gone for 2 weeks while our house was on the market, and right after we accepted an offer, the basement toilet malfunctioned and water (clean fortunately) ran out of the bathroom and into the hallway toward ds's bedroom. it was probably running at least 24 hours, possibly 48 before my realtor found it. We had no shop vac, so she got as much up with towels as possible, then pulled up the carpet and took the wet padding outside, then put fans on it. I have a dehumidifer also, so we kept that running for about a week down there, and everything dried wonderfully. The carpet is fine and could be put back down over a new piece of pad (only about 6 x 8 ft was wet) but since we were out of town, the buyers asked for carpet allowance for that room as part of their repair request.
I'd get a dehumidifier and let it run full time for awhile until you're sure no mold is growing.
Karen T
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Topic: Wet basement
