Extraction is the cheapest part of drying. A truck-mounted unit removes far more water in an hour than any dehumidifier can pull from the air in a day, so the drying plan starts with how much water can be lifted out of the carpet, pad and floor first. In split-levels and finished basements, that usually means working from the lowest room up.
Truck-mounted, portable or pumped
The extraction crew picks the tool by depth and access. Inches of water across a lower level call for submersible pumps first, then wands. Carpet over pad gets weighted extraction tools that squeeze water out of both layers. Upper floors and townhomes without a close driveway get portable units.
- Submersible pumps for standing water deeper than an inch or two
- Truck-mounted extraction for whole floors of carpet and pad
- Weighted stand-on tools that pull water from under the carpet
- Squeegees and wet vacuums on tile, LVP and bare concrete
What happens to the carpet and pad
Clean water caught early often lets the carpet stay: the crew extracts it, lifts it, pulls the wet pad and floats the carpet on air movers. Pad is cheap and holds water, so it usually goes. Anything touched by sewage or river water is removed, not dried, under the IICRC S500 rules for Category 3 water.
The EPA's flood cleanup guidance makes the same point: porous materials that cannot be cleaned and dried quickly should be discarded.
Why extraction comes before the dehumidifiers
Dehumidifiers and air movers are sized to the water left after extraction. Skipping the extraction step means more equipment for more days, higher humidity in the rest of the house and a longer stretch inside the 24 to 48 hour window when mold can start. A thorough pass also shows the tech who does the walkthrough where water has moved under baseboards and into wall bottoms.
Before anyone walks through deep water, the power to that area has to be off. Ready.gov's flood safety page covers the electrical risks.