How Long Does It Take Mold To Grow In Carpet?

The answer to this question is very subjective, as it depends on so many factors.

Most places will say mold develops within 24 to 48 hours, but remediation specialists will often tell you that those numbers are highly subjective and that mold often doesn’t start until many days later, sometimes as many as 18 days later!

In the Salt Lake Valley and Park City, we are blessed (depending on your perspective!) with a very dry atmosphere, thanks to our high elevation, desert location and high amount of salt, so damp is much less of an issue for us than for most of the US. Even when prevailing damp IS an issue, due to a pipe break or water spillage or some other reason, mold takes a lot longer to take hold here than it does in other places.

The bottom line is: if you’ve had a pipe burst in your home and your carpets have been flooded, you don’t need to panic that if they’re not bone dry within a day or two you’ll have vast alien colonies of mold proliferating with reckless abandon throughout your home. That simply won’t happen. The worst that will happen in that timeframe is that your home (and specifically the wet area) will smell damp and unpleasant, and the carpet itself may be damaged or stained. But destructive mold takes longer to develop, especially in the dry conditions we experience year-round in Utah.

That being said, mold development is not 100% predictable, so it’s worth getting the damp issue fixed as quickly as possible.  And the sooner you have your carpets professionally cleaned, the less likely it is that stains will permanently set in. Stone Surface Specialists are specialists in both cleaning and removing middling amounts of excess water from carpets. Give us a call today at 801 856 0164 to schedule your FREE carpet remediation consultation.