Drying Out Wet Carpet

[Alex_225]

I'm hoping this is the right place to post this. I'm looking for any tips and advise on drying the passenger side of my Saab 9-3s carpet.

I found the passenger footwell very wet the other week. After some investigation I found that a drain was blocked and in turn water had been making it's way in via the cabin filter. I have now fixed the issue and a variety of potential other spots in that area so that should be fine.





But it has left me with a very wet passenger carpet. The passenger footwell was very wet so I set about mopping it up and using a fan heater to dry. It turns out the carpet has a plastic backing so moisture that's underneath isn't getting through. The carpet actually felt dry!

I've managed to get the front carpet up and mop up the water. Then prop up the carpet to let air underneath.



All seemed to be going ok, but taking time until I found my rear footwell as bad!



I would take the seat out but two of the torx bolts rounded the moment I tried to undo them so I'm stuck with the passenger seat in.

Do I just continue with the heat and dehumidifier approach I've been going with? I've been doing this the majority of the week and still not close to being dry!

[BlindedByTheLights]

get yourself a £39 Titan vacuum from Screwfix as it can be used as a wet vac. I’ve used it to clean our fabric sofa and they are pretty powerful so you should get most of it out and then dehumidifier for the last bit.

[BlindedByTheLights]

get yourself a £39 Titan vacuum from Screwfix as it can be used as a wet vac. I’ve used it to clean our fabric sofa and they are pretty powerful so you should get most of it out and then dehumidifier for the last bit.

[Alex_225]

Thanks mate. I've actually got a wet and dry vac albeit a Karcher one. So I took the vacuum bag out and used it to see what water I could get out of the car.

Not tonnes but it did get a decent amount out of from under the carpet.



Also the water is clear but the inside of the vacuum wasn't hence the state of the water in there haha

[Deep Thought]

I'd similar with a Focus ST.

I did eventually get it dried by doing what you're doing but it took weeks to get it dry and it did take a lot of time propping up carpets and running fan heaters, etc.

Not helped by the fact that there seemed to be water trapped in places, so a day or twos driving soaked previously dried areas

I feel your pain...

[CoolHands]

I’ve done it in the past, I raised the carpet off the floor and put items under it eg some 2x4 wood off cuts or whatever to allow the air to circulate. You must create a large air gap or it’ll never dry.

[Darkslider]

Used to do loads of these when I worked in a VW garage, Passats and A4s were bad for blocked scuttle drains leading to soaked carpets like yours.

Once the incoming water was stopped the only way to get it all dry in any reasonable time frame was to whip all the seats out and get the carpet out in its entirety, not what you want to hear I'm sure but I don't think you'll ever get all of the moisture out otherwise.

[Grenadier_45]

Having had this problem more than once over the years, the most effective way by far is to use a dehumidifier and a fan.

Once the bulk of the water's out is to prop the underlay away from the floor, and the carpet away from the underlay (be careful as the underlay can be remarkably fragile when it's sopping), and get a fan blowing air into it (cold fan - don't want to set fire to anything by accident). Combine this with a dehumidifier set up somewhere else in the car, and you'll be bone dry again in there after a few days. Expect to empty the dehumidifier tank daily.

The problem with using a fan heater aimed under the floor, apart from the fire risk, and the risk of softening/melting plastics, is that unless you leave the windows cracked open, the warm air saturates with moisture and no more comes out. If it's really cold, you might need a black heat tube suspended in there too because most dehumidifiers don't work well at low temperatures (<10C).

Edited to add - by a black heat tube, I mean something like this

Edited by Grenadier_45 on Saturday 7th January 21:47

[Alex_225]

Thanks all, knowing others have gone through the hassle of this is something.

I'm certainly getting there but it is slow progress, made all the harder by the bloody weather.

The best results I've had so far are having either the fan pointed underneath and then the door open. It's on a warm not hot setting so it's not getting everything too hot.

For the rear footwell, I've got the carpet up and dried out with the fan heater. Been running a dehumidifier but where I can, I've let the car idle, fans on and windows half open. By the moisture hitting the windows it seems to be drying out. It's just slow.

Annoyingly I went to remove the passenger seat, it has torx bolts holding them in place. Two of them rounded the moment I tried to undo them. With the tools I have, no hope of getting the seat out.

[Pica-Pica]

Grenadier_45 said:

Having had this problem more than once over the years, the most effective way by far is to use a dehumidifier and a fan.

Once the bulk of the water's out is to prop the underlay away from the floor, and the carpet away from the underlay (be careful as the underlay can be remarkably fragile when it's sopping), and get a fan blowing air into it (cold fan - don't want to set fire to anything by accident). Combine this with a dehumidifier set up somewhere else in the car, and you'll be bone dry again in there after a few days. Expect to empty the dehumidifier tank daily.

The problem with using a fan heater aimed under the floor, apart from the fire risk, and the risk of softening/melting plastics, is that unless you leave the windows cracked open, the warm air saturates with moisture and no more comes out. If it's really cold, you might need a black heat tube suspended in there too because most dehumidifiers don't work well at low temperatures (<10C).

Edited to add - by a black heat tube, I mean something like this

Edited by Grenadier_45 on Saturday 7th January 21:47

I had done all this in the past, but I did not have a de-humidifier. A dehumidifier will be much better than using heat (well they do give out some heat anyway), expensive to buy, unless you already have one or can borrow one.
(As an aside, We bought an old damp house, that is why we have a dehumidifier. I have also now re-plastered with lime plaster which is the proper thing for old houses, no more damp)

[Pepperpots]

I suspect the only way to dry this out properly would be to completely remove all the seats and then carpets on a hot day. Assuming they come out with the stubborn fitments of course.

Also, I'd remove and discard all those rubber grommets that hold moisture around the drain holes even when the rest is dry thus promoting rust.

Edited by Pepperpots on Sunday 8th January 14:09

[Panamax]

Yup, been there and done that. Identical problem in a Mercedes.

Blot with kitchen paper.
Prop up carpets.
If possible, stick a fan heater in the car (not too hot) and leave the windows open a bit.

Can take a long time to dry out, especially at this time of year.

if you're lucky you won't get mushrooms growing out of the carpet....

[TwinKam]

Old newspapers are an excellent (and essentially free) blotting paper.
Place under the carpet and renew regularly, daily, hourly if necessary. The wet newspaper can still be put in the recycling bin, so win-win.

[Belle427]

Old towels can help as they can be dried and used again.
As said probably better to pull the carpets back as far as possible.
I'm just going through this now on a skoda fabia but will wait until summer to pull the seats out etc.

[anonymous-user]

Cat litter?

I had this in my boot and then after mopping and vacuuming as much as possible I left a container of cat litter in for a few months to dry it.

The other thing you can do for damp cabin carpets if it’s cold is drive with the heat and fan on max and recirculate mode on, every 5 minutes open the windows to dump the hot moist air out. Rinse and repeat (well don’t rinse obviously…)

(Make sure you’re dressed in T shirt and shorts though)

[vikingaero]

I know we're not having a lot of sun, but if it is sunny, park it in the sun with all the windows cracked open a little.

[Novexx]

Get the trox bits & get the carpet / liners out - seems like a marathon, but it's guaranteed to work & the drying process is far quicker. Main things to watch out for are seat wiring (disconnect the battery before starting) & fiddly centre consoles fittings. The carpet shouldn't cause an issue, but sound deadening material is often laid before the dashboard is fitted & may be impossible to get out - it can be cut where required without issue.

Doing this also gives you the oppertunity to hose test the car & 100% ensure that the the identified ingress point is the only one (it's a bit depressing doing the work to rectify only to find out it's still leaking).

Stripped out sodden cars more times than I care to remember & in almost all cases carpet out is the easier, quicker & most effective option.

[glennjamin]

Wife left the passengers window down on our car ! Following day was absolutely soaking seats,carpets doortrims. Put dehumidifier for 2 days dried out totally.