Does steam carpet cleaning get the padding or sub-floor wet, causing mold, mildew, or even damage the carpet?

Absolutely not. While I do use the most powerful deep cleaning procedures to clean your carpet, it does only that; clean the carpet. If you were to use a cleaner who had broken/cheap/out-of-date equipment or a lack of knowledge in carpet cleaning procedures it is possible to over-wet the carpet. My high-end equipment offers the most powerful truck mounted vacuum system available, so your carpet dries in hours not days. Also, if a cleaner is claiming that they clean the pad of the carpet with their standard cleaning, they are either uninformed or just lying to get your business. There are restorative procedures for cleansing the pad of urine and other local contaminants, but those are not accomplished with the industry standard carpet cleaning and are not recommended to be done to your entire carpet.  more