Rugs, Carpets and Carpeting - musty smell in carpet!

Hello,
About a month ago, we noticed a musty smell in our bedroom. Through the process of elimination, and some invenstigation, we have determined that the smell is in our carpet, and was caused by a wet towel that found it's way under our bed. We had the carpets professionally cleaned, have tried multiple methods of getting rid of the smell (baking soda, febreeze, etc..) but it remains (or keeps coming back).
Here is what I plan on doing next... looking for some advise...
I am planning in lifting up the carpet, and finding the underpad that is moldy, and removing it, and replacing it with new underlay. I have never removed carpet before and am a little unsure of what to expect.
I don't know if carpet is glued down or tacked down, etc.. and if I do lift it up, will I be able to put it back down again? Am I going to have to replace? I would not replace with carpet again (I hate carpet) and would put down hardwood or laminate... any suggestions? comments? advice?

I would pull the carpet and find the culprit, only after exausting all other possibilities.


Move your furniture. Take an ice pick, and starting it a corner. Stick the ice pick through the carpet and pull up, right in the corner. Slowly pull the carpet off the tackstrip. Becareful when you get to the seam. You will see a construction paper backing of the seam tape. Don't rip the seam apart.

Roll the carpet back.

Sometime a closet, even though it is not effected, will need to be pulled up and folded back into the room, so you can roll the carpet up. Cutting the carpet across the doorway can be avoided if you plan, but sometimes it is unavoidable.

Now to reinstall it, roll it back out and set and tuck walls, along with stretching others to make it fit right back in place.

thanks for the reply....
I dont' want to pull up any carpet if I dont' have to... I really don't, but with plans on selling the house soon, I don't want to have that smell/mold in the carpet either.

Is there anything anyone can recommend to try to remove the musty smell? Does a "musty" smell automatically mean MOLD? We have cleaned the carpets, put down Baking soda, removed all furniture for a couple of days, and put fans and a dehumidifier to remove any moisture, but that didnt' help. (we have an air exchanger which should help remove moisture from the house as well)
Is there anything else I can try before lifting up the carpet?

It sounds like the odor is in the pad under the carpet, and depending on the the volume, it may have went into the subfloor underneith, You said you had the carpets cleaned, was it by a profesional, or did you do it your self? If you did it your self, you might want to talk to a profesional cleaner, and make sure they a skilled in water damge, and let them know the problem