And if Leaving Carpet In A Structure, How Do You Dry It?
The correct answer for your contractor on this one is:

NEVER!

There is bad and good news when it comes to wet carpet...
The bad: Carpet is more than 50% weaker when it is wet.
The good: Carpet and pad are the most porous materials in a structure, they take in water faster and release water faster than anything else. (It will dry quickly!)

More good news: It does not hurt carpet and pad to get wet!

This information is critical. Because today we can remove so much water from the material through extraction, it is possible to restore & dry what once had to be replaced.

Carpet that is floated in this weakened state will stretch out because the bond (glue) that is holding it together is no longer taught.

The only thing that floating carpet can do is damage the product.

There is no good reason or benefit for floating carpet!

How SHOULD You Dry Carpet?

When carpet and pad is left in the structure on a water damage, the carpet and pad should be left in place and dried from the top.

If you use a good extraction tool and have adequate CFM on your truck mount, you will be able to remove the majority of the water from the pad (which is where most of the water is located) through extraction.

Today we can remove so much water through extraction, that once extraction has been performed, no matter how hard you squeeze the wet pad you cannot get any more water to come out.

In recent years we were unable to accomplish this, and that is why we had to replace so much carpet and pad.

This capability enables the contractor to evaporate the remaining moisture with airflow and restore the carpet, pad and other flooring components back to pre-loss condition.

If your contractor, for whatever reason, needs to remove the pad from the structure they should place the carpet back in place and dry it (From the top.)

This allows the carpet to dry back in the shape and form it should be.

The good news is that once this bond is re-established (the glue is dried), it dries back STRONGER than it was originally.