A car carpet can get wet for several reasons. If you put the car’s windows down and it starts raining without any notice, if by mistake anyone spills water or any kind of liquid in your car, or due to flood.
It doesn’t just ruin your car interior, but also your mood. Now you have to dry the carpet as soon as possible.
In case you don’t know how to dry car carpet, then worry not! I’m here to tell you some quick ways to dry it, all by yourself, without seeking anyone’s help or paying some expensive company to do the job.
Table of Contents
Here’s the Quick Steps on How to Dry Wet Car Carpet
Step One: Place Your Car in a Covered Area
1. Take the car into a garage, or in any enclosed area and keep the car’s doors and windows open. Good air circulation can help to dry out some moisture from the carpet.
If the rain stops, and the sun is out, you can leave your car open and let the sunlight evaporate some moisture out from the carpet.
2. If you don’t have a garage and the rain doesn’t stop, shut all the doors and windows of the car, switch on the AC and car heater. This can help to dry out some moisture from the carpet.
Step Two: Dry-out the Excess Moisture
1. Towels/Vacuum: Towels and wet/ dry vacuum are also good solutions to suck up some water. You can use a wet vacuum on the wet or damp area to evaporate 50% of the moisture.
If you don’t own a wet vacuum, use towels to remove excess moisture, press down the towel firmly on the wet area. Towels can also absorb water under the carpet in a car, just put them under the carpets and it will absorb an excessive amount of water.
2. Cat litter: Many people also use cat litter to dry car carpet. If it’s available in your home, grab it and cover the wet area with the litter. Make a thick layer of it and keep it like that for 2-3 days.
After that when the water is absorbed, just vacuum out the litter. Your carpet will be clean and stink-free, as this method helps to suck up extra moisture from the carpet.
Step Three: Prevent Mold and Remove Odor/ Stain
1. Detergent/ Shampoo: Use detergent or shampoo on the damp area, to remove the stain, to kill bacteria, and to remove bad odor. Whatever you use, pour it on the carpet then scrub with a brush and then rinse the carpet.
Use a towel to dry the carpet, put as much pressure as you can on the carpet with the towel to absorb the moisture.
2. Baking Soda: The Baking soda kept on your kitchen rack can also help to dry wet car carpet. All you need to do is sprinkle some soda on the damp area, let it sit on the carpet for an hour and then just vacuum it.
Baking soda not only helps to remove excess moisture but also helps to get rid of tough and bad odors.
Step Four: Dry the Wet Carpet
1. Fans: Fans are the safest and easy option to dry the car carpet. You will need as many fans as possible, depending upon the amount of moisture left in the carpet. Place the fans in the car in such a way that their air-flow reaches the wet area.
Keep the car’s doors and windows open for better circulation. You need to keep the fans on for 1-2 days until all the moisture has evaporated. A good dehumidifier will be better to speed up the drying process.
2. Hair-dryer: You can also use a hair-dryer to dry the wet area if there are no fans available. But this is not a common solution and may not be ideal in most cases. This process works well when the wet surface is small.
Bottom Line
You don’t have to panic when you face such problems. All you need to do is have little patience and follow these steps. Also recommend it to someone who doesn’t know how to dry car carpet, and save their day.
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Fran says
My body shop guy said that because my car got saturated on the entire passenger side, he would have to remove my car seats and rug and padding so as to not cause mildew. He said the padding and rug would have to be replaced
Justin says
Hello Fran,
Sorry to hear that. If it’s really in bad shape you might consider to replace those padding and rug.
But make sure that there no more leakage. Check carefully car door weather stripping and weather control gasket (underneath windshield water drain area) these are need to be sealed properly.
Also please check the ac drain plug is ok or not.
Thanks for sharing your experience with us.
Hoping you’ll get the solution ASAP.
This is also the reason you do not use kitty litter. When kitty litter gets wet it makes a paste and doesn’t allow the padding to dry out.
Do you put the AC on then switch from cold to warm?
Hello Colleen M Clark
Thanks for reaching out to us. Basically, you need to dehumidify the inside air and that’s a tricky part while you’re using Car A/C. I’ll say first of all try to get the moisture out as much as you can using microfiber towels and tissues. Later if you have a small fan you can also use it to get some moisture out from a specific spot. Lastly, you could turn on the car A/C set to universal temperature and close all the doors and windows. All of it might help you out therefore don’t forget to let us know the progress.
Regards
Justin
Hi Justin
There was a water problem in our car (wet carpet from a car roof issue) for about a month. The issue is fixed but should we pay $700 to get the carpet and padding detailed so we don’t get an issue with mold under the carpet?
Hello Denise,
I would really try the above-discussed procedures first, later I might consider the expensive options if it doesn’t work as expected. Hope you got my point.
Thanks.