It usually starts with a squish. You're walking to the coffee maker in your socks, and the hallway carpet is soaked from the water heater closet to the bedroom door. Now you're looking up wet carpet removal in Boise at 6 a.m.

Here's the short version. Wet carpet can't sit around for long, but tearing it out shouldn't be the very first thing you do either. There's an order to this, and getting it right can make your insurance claim easier and help keep mold out of your subfloor.

We've pulled a lot of waterlogged carpet out of homes in Boise, Meridian, and Nampa. This is what we'd tell a friend.

Can wet carpet be saved, or does it have to come out?

Sometimes. More often, it has to go. It comes down to where the water came from and how long it's been sitting.

Restoration companies sort water into three rough groups:

Clean water, like a burst supply line under a sink or a leaking water heater. If you catch it fast, the carpet can sometimes be dried in place.
Gray water from a washing machine overflow or a dishwasher leak. The carpet might make it with quick cleaning and drying, but the pad usually won't.
Dirty water, meaning a sewage backup, a toilet overflow with waste in it, or groundwater seeping into a basement. Carpet and pad both go. No debate.

Then there's the clock. The EPA says to dry water-damaged materials within 24 to 48 hours so mold doesn't get a start. The Treasure Valley's dry air won't save a pad pressed flat against a cold basement slab.

The pad is the real problem. It's basically a sponge, and it can hold water for days even when the carpet on top only feels damp.

Pull back a corner near the wall and press down on the pad. If water comes up, it's coming out.

What to do in the first 24 hours

Whatever you end up doing, start here:

✓Shut off the water at the source, or at the main if you can't tell where it's coming from
✓Flip the breaker for that room if water got near outlets or cords
✓Take photos and video of everything before you move a thing
✓Get furniture off the wet carpet, or slide foil or plastic under the legs so the wood doesn't stain
✓Pull out boxes and anything cardboard, since they wick water up fast
✓Call your insurance agent before any carpet leaves the house

That last one is the step people skip. You're stressed, the room smells musty, and you want that carpet gone by lunch.

Totally fair. But if you rip it out before your insurance company hears about it, the claim can get harder.

Heads up: Before you toss anything, cut a sample about a foot square with the pad still attached and put it in a bag. Adjusters often want to see the carpet type and quality, and once it's at the landfill you can't show them.

Plenty of homeowners policies in Idaho cover sudden and accidental water damage, like a supply line that let go overnight. They're a lot less generous about slow leaks that dripped for months, and water coming in from outside usually needs separate flood coverage.

Every policy is different, so ask your agent what they need from you. Usually they'll tell you to go ahead and start drying things out, since nobody wants a mold claim a month from now.

If more than one room is wet or the water sat overnight, get a water restoration company out. They bring the big fans and dehumidifiers, and plenty of them pull the carpet and pad as part of the job.

If they're doing it, let them. We usually come in when the restoration crew isn't hauling it away, or when the leak was small enough that you're handling cleanup yourself.

Why wet carpet removal is heavier work than it looks

Dry carpet is annoying. Wet carpet is heavy.

The carpet and pad from one soaked 12-by-12 bedroom can run a few hundred pounds. You can't roll that into one big log and carry it out like a normal flooring job.

It has to be cut into narrow strips and rolled tight. The pad gets bagged so it doesn't drip a trail across your dry floors on the way out.

Don't forget the tack strips. They're thin wood, and after a real soaking they can hold moisture and start to stain or grow mold, so we usually pull them with everything else. We covered how that part normally goes in what happens with tack strips and staples.

So what does it cost? Our standard range for carpet removal in Boise runs about $0.75 to $1.75 per square foot, pad and haul-away included. Wet jobs tend to land toward the top of that because of the weight, the extra cutting, and all the bags.

A 400 square foot basement family room that might run $300 to $500 dry could end up closer to $600 or $700 wet. The regular numbers are broken down in how much carpet removal costs in Boise.

Where does it all go? Not to Idaho Youth Ranch, and not to a recycler. Soaked carpet goes to the landfill, which means the Ada County landfill at Hidden Hollow, or Pickles Butte if you're out in Nampa or elsewhere in Canyon County.

Can you handle wet carpet removal yourself?

Sometimes, yes. We'd love the job, but honestly, if it's a closet or a short stretch of hallway, you don't need a crew.

A utility knife with hook blades, heavy gloves, a pry bar, and a box of contractor bags will get it done. Cut the carpet into strips about three feet wide, roll them, and bag the pad.

Wear long sleeves. Tack strips will open up your forearm if you get careless, and wet ones are dirty on top of that.

So where does DIY stop making sense? A finished basement is the big one, because hauling soaking wet carpet up a flight of stairs is a quick way to hurt your back.

Sewage is the other. If that's what you're dealing with, call a restoration company first and worry about the hauling later.

Also check what's under there. A concrete slab can dry out with fans. A particleboard or OSB subfloor in an older house can swell, so have someone look at it before new flooring goes down.

The bottom line

Stop the water, take pictures, call your insurance, and get the pad up within a day or two. Carpet from a clean water leak caught early might be saved. The pad almost never is, and anything sewage touched goes no matter what.

If you'd rather not drag a few hundred pounds of wet carpet up your basement stairs, give us a call at (208) 593-2877. We'll tell you straight whether it needs a crew or just a Saturday and a sharp knife.