When storms hit and flood your house, or when a water mains pipe bursts from the cold, or from old age, your basement gets flooded, or when you forgot to turn your tap off before you went away for the weekend, water flooding is a problem we unfortunately encounter time and again. This is exactly why there are professional water extraction teams and special water extraction equipment, as removing a large amount of water from your house and belongings is not an easy undertaking, as anyone who has spilled a bucket of water on their floor can attest. In many cases, water extraction is done ‘in place’, where water is extracted from both carpet and the pad at the same time, without moving the pad, which remains in the same place to dry out.

Extracting water from a house, furniture and carpets is a matter of the equipment used, and the experience of the technician doing it. Without the proper training and knowledge, an inexperienced team can actually end up causing more damage than the water did in the first place, which is why it is important that you ensure that the water extraction team you work with has training and experience, in addition to the equipment they use.

So what IS the equipment that a professional team use to extract water from a water damaged house?

The light wand water extraction tool has limited effect on the pad

Light wands are in effect tubes that suck up the excess water from carpets. They are extremely effective when used on commercial carpets, but they aren’t very useful when you try to extract water from the pad underneath, and leave a lot of water behind.

Drag wands are an excellent mid-way water extraction tool

The drag wand is heavier and clunkier than the light wand, which makes it more difficult to move around. Although more effective than the light wand at extracting water from the carpet and pad, it still leaves something to be desired, and is still not as good as the more heavy duty tools at extracting all the water as is necessary to avoid future water damage.

Water Claws are effective professional water extraction tools

The relatively new water claw is very effective at extracting water, even water that is below the surface, or in this case, from both the carpet and the pad. Although this is a manual tool, unlike the ridable machines in the next section, it is still a must have tool for any water extraction professional, as it enables them to fit into smaller spaces such as bathrooms, where the ridden machines won’t be able to squeeze in.

Ridable water extraction tools

There are also ride on tools, such as the Hydro-X and the Rover HVE, which, while not as fast as you might imagine, still do an excellent job at extracting all the water very effectively, and can usually be relied on to remove all the excess water from all levels after just the one pass.