Removing large amounts of water from interior

jarred767

jarred767

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Woke up this morning and got a not so pleasant surprise on my way to work. Somehow my water tank valve got bumped yesterday and slowly dripped about 15 gallons of water into my HHR. It was all contained on floor of the passenger seat and behind the passenger seat (there's no back seats so nothing went further then this and nothing on the drivers side).

I used the shop vac and sucked a ton out and it's feeling pretty dry, considering there was about two inches of standing water in there when I got in this morning. I know the best thing is to remove all the carpets, but is this a must? Anything I can do to avoid going that route? I've got fans and heaters going on it right now trying to dry it out as much as possible. Any tips/ideas woukd be greatly appreciated!
 
If you plan on keepng this vehicle awhile, yes, you'll need to pull the carpet. I would. It's not that hard.
 
At the very least, pull back the carpet where it sat in water and try and direct the fans under that area of the carpet. If the whole carpet didn't get wet, just pulling it back in the wet areas might do it.
 
There is electrical connections and insulator of some sort under the carpet. Remove the carpet and make sure those are dry, some electrical connections maybe prone to corrosion
 
The padding and carpet wick water so you probably have water elsewhere. I would also take the 2 seats out and the carpet to dry.
 
jarred767 said:
Woke up this morning and got a not so pleasant surprise on my way to work. Somehow my water tank valve got bumped yesterday and slowly dripped about 15 gallons of water into my HHR. It was all contained on floor of the passenger seat and behind the passenger seat (there's no back seats so nothing went further then this and nothing on the drivers side).

I used the shop vac and sucked a ton out and it's feeling pretty dry, considering there was about two inches of standing water in there when I got in this morning. I know the best thing is to remove all the carpets, but is this a must? Anything I can do to avoid going that route? I've got fans and heaters going on it right now trying to dry it out as much as possible. Any tips/ideas woukd be greatly appreciated!
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Happens all the time in my transit maybe 20 times so far,running a hose to my tank and overflows everywhere water from the deepest part of the floorboard to the door sill.just keep a eye on the carpet when you think you've sucked it all up with the vac,the next day you may have more water.pull your door sill trim off and make sure there is no water on the wire harness.
 
Pull seats and carpet get everything dry dry dry, you will regret not doing so later with mildew funk and corrosion.
 
Wow, what a project!!!! Took about four hours out of my day taking the seat out, pulling the carpet out, and sucking as much out as possible. There was a TON of water after I figured most was sucked out before removing the carpets. Probably 15 gallons emptied out of the tank and it was all in there still, at least it's all out now.

To make it worse, I had my biggest job since last summer on a huge @ss truck today. Gonna be a long night, but the water is out and now it's just drying; better than dealing with fir months and years down the line. Thanks for making me do the right thing guys!
 
Good for you man! Do you have an extractor or have you been just using a shop vac? You may want to "clean" the carpets once they dry too.
 
So, i noticed a little more water in the back cargo area so did some more investigating, found it it definitely got to more than just the passenger side. After further investigation, the entire interior had decent amounts of water under the carpets, so I took everything out!!

What it used to look like:
watermark.php


What it looks like now (and dry):
23923621073_cc94b35fcc_c.jpg


What I have to figure what goes where on Sunday night after its aired out for the weekend:
24443065952_0530ca3279_c.jpg
 
gsbell said:
What a nightmare
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it was s nightmare, but once I decided to go all the way with it, I felt much better about the situation being resolved.

BrutalNoodle said:
Worth the trouble.

When it comes to water & oil/transmission fluid, I don't think there is any other way than gutting the interior.
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Yeah, I figured that the more work I did now, the less I'd have to do later, and cleaning up water is sooo much better than cleaning up the mold that it would have turned into.
 
Since you have everything out, spray some undercoating on the floor. Stays warmer and less noise.
 
alphacharlie65 said:
Since you have everything out, spray some undercoating on the floor. Stays warmer and less noise.
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Interesting, hadn't thought of that, but not a bad idea. I'm guessing I'd need to wrap/covered all wiring and electrical stuff under the carpets before applying? Have you (or anyone) done this before, how much if a difference does it make?
 
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