Licensed and Insured Independent Pros
You are connected with an independent, locally owned outfit that holds its own license and insurance. Ask at the door if you want to see the paperwork; good crews keep it in the truck.
If water beads up when you press on the carpet, the pad underneath is soaked and evaporation alone will be painfully slow. Real extraction gear pulls water out of carpet, pad and floor seams far faster than any fan can dry it.
Our referral line connects St. Hedwig callers with independent, licensed and insured contractors who run truck-mounted and portable extractors. The crew quotes the job in writing before the wand touches the floor.

Extraction is a pure equipment job: the power of the machine and the right tool head decide how much water comes out.
You are connected with an independent, locally owned outfit that holds its own license and insurance. Ask at the door if you want to see the paperwork; good crews keep it in the truck.
The estimate spells out square footage extracted, pad removal if needed and any equipment left behind. Many contractors bill the insurer directly once you have a claim number.
Carpet pad sitting in water begins to smell fast, which makes a quick response the whole ballgame. The dispatcher confirms an actual arrival window with a nearby crew before you hang up.
Expect a truck-mounted extractor with serious vacuum lift, and portable units for upper floors and apartments. Weighted and stand-on tools put a person's body weight on the carpet so water is squeezed out of the pad, not just the fibers.
Every gallon the extractor pulls out is a gallon the dehumidifiers never have to deal with. Extraction removes water in liquid form, which is many times faster than turning it into vapor with air movers. Skip that step and the drying phase drags on for days longer than it needs to.
A shop vac falls short because it only pulls from the surface and has a fraction of the lift of a truck mount. It also never reaches the pad, and that is where most of the water is hiding. Folks run one all evening and still end up with carpet that squishes.
Take a refrigerator ice-maker line that leaked into wall-to-wall carpet overnight. Since the water is clean, the crew can often float the carpet, which means releasing it from the tack strip, removing the pad and extracting the carpet itself.
Laminate is trickier. In a rental apartment where water seeped under the planks, it hides in the foam underlayment and against the subfloor. Meters and specialty mats show how far it spread, and any planks with swollen edges usually have to come up.
Field rule: clean-water carpet is often saved, while the pad below is usually tossed. Pad costs little to replace compared to carpet.
Time matters too: clean water left sitting for days in a warm house picks up bacteria, which shrinks the list of what can be saved. That is one more reason to get the extractor in early.

Carpet, wood, laminate and upholstery all trap water in their own way, which is why the tool heads change room to room.

The crew makes slow overlapping passes with a weighted tool until the wand stops pulling water. The soaked pad is typically cut out and removed, with the carpet reinstalled after drying.
For a clean-water leak, the crew can pull the carpet off the tack strip, slide air underneath and dry it in place. It keeps a perfectly good carpet from going to the landfill.
Flat panels sealed to the floor pull water up through the seams and out of the boards under vacuum. When caught early, it often stops solid hardwood from cupping.
Water slips under click-lock planks and sits on the subfloor where you cannot see it. Crews read moisture across the floor, pull planks where it is wet and extract the subfloor directly.
Sofas, chairs and rugs get extracted with smaller hand tools sized for fabric. Wool and handmade rugs usually get sent to a rug cleaning plant for full washing.
After extraction, the tech checks readings across the floor and up the walls to see where water wicked. That map decides where drying equipment goes next.
Let the dispatcher know the flooring type, the size of the wet area and the source of the leak. We connect you with the closest independent extraction crew and confirm when they will arrive.
Expect extractors, tool heads, meters and hoses, plus a portable unit if you live upstairs.
The tech checks the water category, maps how far it spread and decides what can be saved before writing the quote.
After extraction, the tech takes final readings, sets drying equipment if needed and walks you through what was done.

Our ice-maker line leaked overnight and the whole living room carpet was soaked to the wall. The local contractor from the referral line pulled the wet pad, stood on some kind of weighted tool for an hour and kept our carpet. No smell afterward, which I was worried about.
I rent an apartment and water came in under the laminate from the unit's water heater closet. Through the referral line we got a crew that metered the floor, lifted the soaked planks and extracted the subfloor.
I spent three hours with my shop vac and the carpet still squished. The extractor the contractor brought pulled more water in a few minutes than I got in an evening.
The washer drain hose came loose and water ran under the hallway hardwood while we were at work. The contractor we reached through the referral line laid suction mats over the boards and ran them for most of the day. The boards cupped slightly, then settled flat again once everything was dry.
Usually, when the water was clean and the carpet was extracted within a day or so. The pad underneath is usually replaced because it holds water and odor.
Carpet soaked by sewage or outside floodwater is almost always removed.
A shop vac only pulls from the surface and has a fraction of the lift of a professional truck mount. Most of the water sits in the pad and subfloor, which a wet vac cannot reach.
Professional crews pair a powerful extractor with weighted tools that squeeze the pad.
For one or two rooms, the extraction often wraps up in a few hours. Drying afterward is a separate step that can take several days.
After checking the size of the wet area, the crew can tell you how long it should take.
It should not, as long as the wet pad comes out and the carpet is dried fast. Odor usually means water was left in the pad or subfloor too long.
Ask the crew whether an antimicrobial treatment is recommended for your situation.
Extraction physically pulls liquid water out of carpet, pad and floors with powerful vacuums and tools. Drying is what follows, with dehumidifiers and air movers removing what is left behind.
The better the extraction, the shorter the drying phase.
The extraction contractors we refer are local, so the truck mount is not hours away.
For upper-floor apartments and condos, crews bring portable units since a truck hose will not reach. Houses and small storefronts usually get a truck mount parked right outside.

Call and we will connect you with a local extraction crew.
Call +1-877-637-9008Quick extraction saves carpet and shortens drying. Call now to reach a local crew.