Standing Water and Soaked Carpet in Cartersville, GA

Four ways a soaked floor stays soaked

• Waiting for the room to dry by itself. EPA and UGA Extension both measure the job in the first 24 to 48 hours, so the hour of the first look is worth writing down.

• Aiming fans into the room. CDC says to set them at a window or door, blowing outward, so damp air leaves instead of circling.

• Starting a gasoline pump in the garage. The CDC's re-entry page puts a gasoline engine outside, at least 20 feet from any opening into the house.

• Wading in to shift furniture. A plugged-in tool or appliance used while standing in water is on CDC's never list.

Around Cartersville

• Whose pipe it is can decide who to phone first. Cartersville's utilities page lists electric, gas and water among the city's services but prints no water number. Bartow County's water department takes water and sewer service problems at (770) 387-5170, and its page says after-hours calls are forwarded to county dispatch.

• Two public pages agree on the clock. EPA's moisture guide and UGA Extension's checklist both put drying at 24 to 48 hours for soaked areas and belongings. Jot down the hour you first saw the water.

• EPA puts the humidity line at 60 percent, with 30 to 50 as the target. A hardware-store hygrometer shows where a room stands once the fans are running.

On the visit itself

1. Call (678) 288-4775, say which rooms are wet and where the water started, and ask the contractor to set up a visit.

2. A walk through each wet room, with a meter or a flat hand on the wall, to find where the damp ends.

3. A look under the carpet at the pad, the subfloor and the base of the walls.

4. A check of the rooms below and beside, since water travels farther than the stain does.

5. A drying plan with fans and dehumidifiers, and a view on whether the carpet can be lifted and kept.

6. A frank talk about what to repair and what to replace, room by room.

Five questions, asked in this order

1. Is anything electrical wet, or is a cord lying in the water?

   Stay out. An electrician or the utility comes first, and the rest waits.

2. Is the water still arriving?

   Shut off the source only where you can stand on a dry floor, and write down the hour.

3. How many rooms are wet?

   Count rooms, then floors. One damp room and three soaked ones are different jobs.

4. Does a ceiling or wall below or beside show a stain?

   The wet has traveled. Say so on the call.

5. Did the water come up from a drain?

   That is a sewage question, not a carpet question. See backed-up drains.

What the public pages say about wet flooring

• Carpet and rugsCDC lists rugs among the things to throw away after floodwater when they cannot be disinfected; EPA says carpet may have to go once it stays wet
• Carpet padThe pages name no rule for pad; the contractor decides by what the water was and how long it sat
• Drywall at the foot of the wallCDC lists drywall with the throw-away items after floodwater; a clean-water leak is a case the contractor judges
• Hard floors and trimThe pages name no rule; EPA's finish line is a humidity reading under 60 percent, with 30 to 50 as the target

Pages that share a floor with this one

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  Wet basements and crawl spacesWhen the water sits below the first floor, or came in from outside

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  Split pipes and supply-line floodsWhen the source is a pipe in a wall or ceiling

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  Appliance and water heater leaksWhen the puddle spreads out from a machine