Advice please: Some flooding and wet carpet with musty smell

[Driz]

I rent a small single floor appartment on the ground floor near my college. A couple of days ago water started appearing around 11pm in our bathroom tiled area. I soaked it up with towels and went to bed. When I woke up the water had spread a little bit into our living room making the squishy sound when you step on it.

Turns out the hot water heater in the Appt above us was busted and leaking straight down into my roomates carpeted bedroom closet(where our heater is as well) and spreading through the wall into our bathroom area and into the living room carpet.

Well the landlord came and fixed their waterheater and the leaking water has stopped. Its the weekend and everything is closed, i have been left to fix the flooding myself, but Im in college and cant afford to call a profesisonal and I don't know what I should be doing.

I have been soaking up the water with towels, then washing them and soaking them again.

The carpets are now just damp, but now the musty smell seems to be everywhere.

Im worried about the smell and the horror stories about mold and mildew. Should I leave? What kind of company should I contact to test for mold, or clean? What responsibilites does my landlord have to helping me with this?

Sorry, Im alone and ignorant in all this, and learning a life lesson.

[jimmyd627]

I would make th lanlord clean up the mess. If you had the money you could get it done and take it off of your rent but you don't. Just tell him to get someone asap. You have rights.

[m Ransley]

Carpets are ruined if its been days unless ther are not wall to wall and can be removed and dried right away, There are maybe a thousand types of mold only a few are bad , unless you feel sick dont worry. The lanlord is responible for your issues. Cleaning professionaly if its wall to wall probably wont be enough since the carpet will be wet underneath for days. contact him demand nicely it is fixed now, you have renters rights. If its wall to wall best is remove carpet, wash floor with maybe 25% bleach to kill mold and new carpet.

[hallerb]

its the landlords problem, if he doesnt fix it tell him you cant pay your rent and will see hm in small claimns court

[KLS]

In New York, renters cannot legally withhold rent payment unless they can prove the landlord has violated the terms of the lease. If they have a problem with the landlord that they can't resolve directly, they need to report the landlord to the local health and building inspection service. If health and building codes are shown to be in violation on the property, then the renter can withhold rent, but only with the reports in hand as documentation of proof.

Your advice would create more problems for the OP if OP is a New York renter.

[bob kater]

[Banty]

At this point, the carpet needs to be removed and disposed of. (Earlier, the carpet would need to be removed and dried.) Your landlord is responsible to repair *all* the damages of flooding affecting the habitability of your apartment - not just fix the leak.

Contact a local renter's rights organization or Public Interest Research Group (PIRG, they're named "xxPIRG" where xx is the two-letter abbreviation for your state). Try a phone call to the landlord - use that word "habitability" - that's the legal term for his resonsibility to keep the place one that can be reasonably lived in.

That's assuming you've had a non-compliant landlord. Have you even notified him or her (or them) of the continuting problem?

Banty

[Toller]

I don't disagree with anything anyone else has said, but...

A couple years ago the dishwasher drain clogged and a great deal of water went through the floor and soaked my basement carpeting. I should have pulled it up and disposed of it, but am way to cheap to do the right thing. Like you, I soaked up all the water I could, but also put in a dehumidifier and a couple fans. It took a few days, but finally dried out. AFAIK, it is fine. Maybe the electricity cost more than the carpet, and maybe there is mold that I don't know about; but it seems to have worked out okay.

[WM]

I've done the cleaning, bleaching, shampooing and drying three times over the years after leaks and floods and each time I spent about $150 and 10 hours of work to save my carpet (and padding). That effort has saved me thousands of dollars each time. I actually collected insurance money on one of them.

The only bad thing aboujt it is that I didn't get new carpet.... So now, I'm throwing out my old carpet and laying parquet on the slab. It is much prettier than carpet, but I grew up on wood floors and hated them.

[Banty]

??

Isn't parquet a wood floor pattern?

Or are you referring to a parquet-look vinyl tile or other vinyl flooring. Which, BTW, is the best option. That or tile.

Banty

[RobertM]

Many slumlords are complete jerks. I lived in a below ground level apartment several years ago and after a heavy rain water began coming in through the wall. Saturated everything. I was mopping up and running the dehumidifier when the landlord arrived. "Well, I see your dehumidifier overflowed and ruined the carpet", he says. I showed him the wall and he said I caused the problem. I phoned the Housing Authority in the county and they sent an inspector. Next thing I knew the slumlord sent a check in the mail for my damaged goods, everything inside was fixed and there was a backhoe outside digging around the foundation. The county made him put drain pipes in to alleviate the drainage problem. Better to notify the agency in charge of housing than to sue. Go get'em.

Bob

[Norminn]

Rent a powerful shopvac and get the water up. Then keep fan running until the carpet and pad is dry. We did this with an area rug when washing machine hose broke. Area rug was dry in 24 hours. With carpet pad it is a little iffy, but unless it has been weeks, you probably have a chance of getting it before the dreaded mold sets in. College landlords aren't known for good maintenance and generosity, but I would send him the for the expense. I would also send him a nice letter, certified mail, informing him so he doesn't dock your security deposit for the damage. If the floor is wood, then you need time to dry out a lot of moisture. Keep window open when possible if weather is warm and dry. In his own interest, the landlord might loan a dehumidifier to help dry the area before everything rots.

[WM]

No, I now have the real pre-finished ultra-urethane wood parquet, put down a square foot at a time. Absolutely beautiful to look at, but I miss my soft carpet where I can lay in front of the tv without bruising.

[trader4]

I'd talk to the landlord about getting him to take care of the problem, as it is his responsibility. As to the carpet being shot, mold problems, I think folks here are jumping to conclusions. For mold to grow and become a problem, this has to have been wet for a relatively long time. If it's taken care of in a few days, that should not be a problem. Also, most carpet can be dried out without having to be replaced. The key is getting in done ASAP.

I'd also take photos and document any costs that you have incurred in case this becomes a bigger problem.

[churioz]

Well several days have already passed but it always amazes me how renters refuse to do anything that costs them some money. Maybe the landlord won't reimburse you but you still have to live there so $75 or so to fix the problem doesn't seem like much to pay. You could have bought a couple box fans for $10 each and used them to dry out the carpet. If you have a/c, you could have run the a/c for a couple days and that might have done it. Or you could have hired a carpet cleaning company for $75 and had them vacuum the carpets dry. For that matter, a $40 shop vac could have done the job. A few simple steps could have resolved the problem quickly. You still may want to hire a carpet cleaning company as they can probably treat the carpet to kill the mold and vacuum out all excess moisture.

As for your landlord, at the very least you need to document IN WRITING what has happened and what measures you have taken to fix the problem, and what you would like the landlord to do, in addition, to fix the problem or remedy the situation. Keep a copy for yourself. Send it in a way you can prove the landlord received it. Take pictures or video of the carpet to document its condition.

For renters rights in Ohio and all states consult