Most carpet manufacturers will recommend that you have your carpeting professionally cleaned at least once a year. In most cases, your preferred cleaner will use steam to do the job and that involves the introduction of moisture into the carpet fibers and backing material. But one of the most common complaints that you hear from consumers is the inability of the cleaners to remove all of the moisture in the carpet after the job is finished.
When that happens, even a small amount of water can have a tremendous impact on the health of the carpet. There’s the problem of some dirt and bacteria remaining in the carpet, so it’s never quite fully clean, as well as the potential damage that comes from moisture remaining in the carpet.
Depending on the surrounding conditions of the room in which the carpet is located, it could take up to half a day to dry wet carpet. The determining factors that play a role in that time frame are the levels of humidity that exist in the area. A humid environment makes it much tougher to get your carpet dried because there is so much moisture in the air.
The Impact of Humidity
Drying a carpet requires allowing the air to evaporate from it. However, that becomes very difficult to do when there’s an abundance of moisture in the air. There’s little to no room for that evaporate to emerge from the carpet and the moisture remains in the fibers, the backing material, and possibly even seeping into the padding underneath.
Too much moisture in the carpet can be detrimental, which is why it needs to dry as quickly as possible. How do you go about doing that? Reduce the moisture in the air.
The Impact of Air Conditioning
A great way to help with fast drying carpet cleaning is to use your air conditioner. Turning on the AC will reduce the relative humidity in the room and allow the moisture in the carpet to evaporate much faster. You can ask your carpet cleaner how they would prefer you to use your air conditioner to assist in the drying process, but a good rule of thumb to follow is to start running the air conditioning a good two to three hours before the carpet is scheduled to be cleaned.
Lowering the humidity in the room ahead of the cleaning gives you a head start on letting the carpet dry completely. Once the work is done and the professionals have steam cleaned and extracted the water out of your carpeting, you should continue letting the air conditioning unit continue to run for another six to eight hours. The duration can also depend on how warm or cool it is outdoors and how much carpet there is in the room to dry.
You can expect to run your AC for at least a good eight hours if you are dealing with wall to wall carpeting in the room. Placing fans in the room can also be of assistance to provide even air circulation.
