carpet cleaning help!!!!

[J]

I had a city sewerage backup into my basement.I used a wet vac, and then I
rented a professional carpet shampooer from home depot. I shampooed the
carpet 5 times. I then sprayed the carpet with a Clorox and water solution.
How can I make sure that this carpet is safe.

[Suzie-Q]

In article <%uWnc.105866$WA4.100642@twister.nyc.rr.com>,
"J" <jmjm1214@somewhere.com> wrote:

> I had a city sewerage backup into my basement.I used a wet vac, and then I
> rented a professional carpet shampooer from home depot. I shampooed the
> carpet 5 times. I then sprayed the carpet with a Clorox and water solution.
> How can I make sure that this carpet is safe.

This happened to a friend of mine and his homeowner's
insurance paid for new carpet. There's no way I know of
to ensure that all the sewage/bacteria is out of the
carpet.
--
8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
~~~~~~
"I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson

http://home.earthlink.net/~sme617

[DrClean]

"Suzie-Q" <sme617x@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:sme617x-A1DD4B.22403810052004@news1.west.earthlink.net...
> In article <%uWnc.105866$WA4.100642@twister.nyc.rr.com>,
> "J" <jmjm1214@somewhere.com> wrote:
>
> > I had a city sewerage backup into my basement.I used a wet vac, and then
I
> > rented a professional carpet shampooer from home depot. I shampooed the
> > carpet 5 times. I then sprayed the carpet with a Clorox and water
solution.
> > How can I make sure that this carpet is safe.
>
> This happened to a friend of mine and his homeowner's
> insurance paid for new carpet. There's no way I know of
> to ensure that all the sewage/bacteria is out of the
> carpet.
> --
> 8^)~~~ Sue (remove the x to e-mail)
> ~~~~~~
> "I reserve the absolute right to be smarter
> today than I was yesterday." -Adlai Stevenson
>
> http://home.earthlink.net/~sme617

I agree, use your insurance company to get the money off their insurance
company. There's no reason for you to keep the carpet.

If you rent then use the landlords insurance.

--
DrClean
www.DrClean.co.uk
The Best Fabric Cleaning Resource on the Web

[Phisherman]

On Tue, 11 May 2004 02:02:35 GMT, "J" <jmjm1214@somewhere.com> wrote:

>I had a city sewerage backup into my basement.I used a wet vac, and then I
>rented a professional carpet shampooer from home depot. I shampooed the
>carpet 5 times. I then sprayed the carpet with a Clorox and water solution.
>How can I make sure that this carpet is safe.
>

Remove the carpeting. Vinyl tiling is a better choice for areas prone
to sewage backup.

[Vox Humana]

"J" <jmjm1214@somewhere.com> wrote in message
news:%uWnc.105866$WA4.100642@twister.nyc.rr.com...
> I had a city sewerage backup into my basement.I used a wet vac, and then I
> rented a professional carpet shampooer from home depot. I shampooed the
> carpet 5 times. I then sprayed the carpet with a Clorox and water
solution.
> How can I make sure that this carpet is safe.

I agree with the others. There is absolutley no way to adequately clean the
carpeting. In addition, the padding under the carpet is saturated and will
rot and mold. Even if the you don't get sick from the initial flood, you
may become ill from the mold growing in the wet carpet and padding. In
addition to calling you insurance company, you should call the sewer
distric. They may provide some financial assistance. They may also help
with some insight into the cause of the problem. It makes a difference if
the entire neighborhood got flooded or if it was only your house.
Furthermore, sometimes people illigally connect their gutters to the sewer
system and overload the system causing a back-up into the house. In any
event, you can count on heavy rains periodically and should try to have the
problem corrected.

[Michael A. Ball]

On Tue, 11 May 2004 02:02:35 GMT, "J" <jmjm1214@somewhere.com> wrote:

>I had a city sewerage backup into my basement.I used a wet vac, and then I
>rented a professional carpet shampooer from home depot. I shampooed the
>carpet 5 times. I then sprayed the carpet with a Clorox and water solution.
>How can I make sure that this carpet is safe.

I had to clean up a sewer leak on non-padded carpet in a room used by
toddlers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The gunk that leaked
was very black, as though from a trap of some sort. . I used a
professional carpet extractor, and the carpet was not replaced.

Although carpet padding presents a really tough problem, I think your
situation sounds worse than it might actually be. I just wish you had
access to a better carpet extractor.

Once the carpet dries, there won't be sufficient moisture [or warmth] to
support microbial growth. Mycobacteria and other bacterial pathogens
should die out. Viruses? Will remain viable, but deep in the padding.

Given I have a pretty good professional carpet extractor, could I live
with it? Probably. Would I feel better with new carpet? Absolutely.

Michael
When I die, I want to go where dogs go!

[J]

I want to thank everyone for their advice on this problem. I had a
professional carpet cleaner come and check the carpet, and all is ok. He
told me that if I would have had padding the caret would've been garbage.
But because it was a good commercial grade carpet without padding it was
safe to keep.