How Long Will Carpets Take To Dry After Cleaning?

One of the most asked questions I’m asked about carpet cleaning is ‘how long will my carpet take to dry?’

After all, that’s really important right? The sooner its dry, the sooner you can get back to normal again and enjoy using your home or workplace.

Unfortunately, who you have to clean your carpets will affect the drying time A LOT!

Many carpet cleaners have never undergone training or education about drying.

A well trained, experienced carpet cleaner, using the right techniques and equipment can have your carpets pretty much dry in around half an hour. I’ve also heard from people who had their carpets cleaned by let say, someone less capable, and their carpets have been wet for 4 days! And due to the prolonged dampness, the smell became unbearable.

So I’ve put together this short video to explain what affects carpet drying, and how both you, and you carpet cleaner can get your carpets dry in the shortest time.

To be very precise, your carpets are never dry. Natural moisture and humidity means that your carpets are usually around 3 to 4 percent moisture. This is normal. After any kind of cleaning, your carpets may be 5 or 6 percent moisture. You probably won’t ever notice. When I talk about dry carpets, please bear this in mind. When I say dry, I mean ready to use and no appreciable dampness.

Of course, if your carpet has stains, or odours, these may need lots of water to flush them out. These spots may take longer to dry. I’m talking about drying times for normal carpet cleaning.

Obviously the first thing that affects drying is the amount of water that’s put onto your carpet in the first place.  Some new super-powerful machines can spray as much as 15 gallons of water into your carpet every 10 minutes! Clearly, that amount of water is going to take some getting out! The carpet cleaner may also use poor technique and just pump gallons of water in, without realising it. Saturated carpets take a long time to dry. And this will damage your carpets.

Your carpet cleaning technician should be experienced and trained enough to know that they should use as much solution as necessary, but only what is needed, where its needed. Understanding this will drastically reduce carpet drying times.

Drying is also affected by the type of carpet. A wool carpet holds more moisture than a man-made fibre. A thick pile carpet holds more moisture than a thin pile.

Also the cleaning product used will affect drying. Cheap detergents will require more to do the job, and will dry slower. High quality carpet cleaning solutions may cost more, but they’re designed to evaporate faster, and because they’re so effective, less is needed. The result is your carpets dry faster.

To dry carpets naturally, a flow of air is needed. Usually, this can be achieved by opening a window. A couple of inches is often enough. This will help to remove the moist air from the room and replace it with drier air which will allow more moisture to move from the carpet into the air, and out of the room again in the drying cycle. A little heat along with ventilation will speed things up even more.

If you have a dehumidifier, you can place it in the room, and shut all the doors and windows. The dehumidifier will draw out the moisture from the carpet and trap it in the water tank. However you must keep all doors and windows closed. The opposite of what you should do if drying your carpets naturally.

Lastly, many people don’t realise that carpets can be dried. Sadly, many carpet cleaners don’t know that carpets can be dried either! 

Although this may cost a little more, these amazing new driers can have most carpets back in use almost immediately. It’s usual for most carpets to be dry before the carpet cleaner leaves. This equipment uses natural methods to increase the flow of air at the correct angle across the surface of the carpet. Most carpets can be virtually dry in only 20 minutes using these super little machines.

Whoever you use to clean your carpets, make sure you know, in advance, if, and how they’ll dry your carpets. Get it in writing on your quote to avoid being left with carpets wet for days and days.