How to dry out a damp carpet without a heater?

Do you have a large fan? And I wouldn’t reccomend salt. Maybe baking soda? Then carpet steam wash it.

If you can pry it off the floor in places, and put lifts under so a fan will blow underneath it would speed up the drying. It will need constant air exchange to move the moisture. Some carpets can be so bad they might not be salvageable. You need to be concerned if the floor under there is wood. That would be the worst damage, wrecking the floor itself.

When you say wash with water and carpet cleaner how did you do it? A carpet machine will vacume the water out of the carpet as it cleans and that usually dries really fast. It really doesn’t let the solution stay in the carpet so long as to let it become saturated it you do it right.

A fan will help. It sounds like you need a carpet shampooer that extracts the water too.

It also sounds as if it mildewed.

If it has mildewed you will have to take the carpet up and expose the mildew on the back to direct sunlight.

Putting in a dehumidifier may keep the air in the cabin dry so it does not recur.

I second @woodcutter‘s advice. Get the carpet off the floor (which in “a cabin”) I’m going to automatically assume is wood. Get it off today, now, and get it outside. You need to protect the floor first, and inspect it for mold, mildew and dry rot.

Once the carpet is outside, you can evaluate whether it’s worth spending time to clean, dry and bring back into the dwelling. (The best way to dry it at this point would be to drape it over a large tree branch.) Otherwise, just get a new one or use smaller area rugs that will be easier to maintain, should the need arise.

I would be concerned about why the carpet was wet in the first place.

If you can get access to a dehumidifier it might help significantly. I’ve been amazed at how well they draw water out of damp places.

thanks guys…i guess my best bet is just just dry it out as much as I can and try the bicarb. Only problem is its impossible to take up and I have no heaters to dry it with.

I suppose my question is, why is it possible to remove the carpet, what prevents you doing so?

@Adagio well its not my cabin. I am just renting it and its nailed down. I’d have to get permission and knowing the guy I need it from I wont get. If the smell really doesn’t go away I suppose I will have to take it out and just tell the owners I will replace it. Either the smell goes or I do.

Ouch.
So, one thing I learned the hard way is that those home carpet cleaners that are also vacuum cleaners are pretty bogus, because
they pump steam into the carpet (and the pad under it) but they don’t have enough power to really suck it back out again – for that, you need a commercial steamer. Don’t trust those little suckers.
Thank you for listening. And good luck to you, @noodle_poodle.

@noodle_poodle I understand your position. It’s hard to imagine a property owner not wanting to remove a carpet when it is damp and could possibly cause rotting floorboards, maybe you will get a different response from him than you think? If it is not a big room, perhaps you could get some second hand carpet that is still in reasonable condition, it would be preferable to living in a smelly environment, you would need to seek the property owners permission though. Good luck to you and in one way or another I hope your carpet issue gets solved satisfactorily.

I’ve had the misfortune to deal with carpets that have had significant amounts of water damage, and, at the insurance company’s insistence, were dealt with by professional water and fire damage restoration companies. Standard procedure, no questions asked, is to immediately remove and discard the carpet, and put commercial fans and dehumidifiers in the room. They run 24/7, and the restorer checks back every day to measure the moisture in the room air and in the wood of the floor. The priority was preventing mold, mildew, and rot damage to the house. Salvaging the carpet and pad was out of the question.

You may be able to mask the odor, but you’ll never be able to eliminate the cause without removing the carpet. You could suggest to the owner that it’s a potential health issue, and if there are wood floors underneath, that delaying attention could cause extensive damage to the floor structure.

oh right…shit. Thanks @bossob. Well i tried the bicarb and has helped slightly but the smell is still there so I guess its not really going anywhere.