Water from a faulty air conditioner dripped onto a small area of the fitted carpet in our bedroom. The patch is no longer wet, perhaps slightly damp, but the smell is horrible. Any advice please. Changing the carpet is not an option.
pull the carpet up in that spot and make sure its dry underneath and the padding is dry also. Spray ammonia (super cheap in the detergent section) onto the wood subflooring and also on the padding and the carpet underside and top. Prop them up with books or something and sit a fan in that area to dry it. The smell is mildew and it will get worse unless you can be certain the wood and padding and everything are dry. The ammonia will kill the mildew and the smell. I've done this before successfully. Good luck
If you have decided to let the carpet dry in place you can get borax powder and work it into the pile of the carpet and then let it sit for a few hours. Then you can vacuum it up. Most of the smell should be gone. Any residue just helps fireproof the carpet. Lysol spray disinfectant will stop further mold formation. Febreze will help. A portable fan directed on the area will help a lot.
If you have a carpet cleaner (or can borrow or rent one) I would do it. There are special carpet cleaners that are heavy duty and for mold/mildew/pets and will get rid of most smells. We had some flooding in a carpeted room, and it took a couple of cleanings, but you can't smell anything funky any longer. We used regular cleaner the first time and the heavy duty stuff the second time. As a temporary solution, you could out some baking soda on the carpet, leave a day or so and vacuum it up. But, if the smell is in the carpet pad, it won't do much.
