Rugs, Carpets and Carpeting - Is restretching necessary? If so, how much $$$?

A couple of months ago, my sump pump failed during heavy rain, and some water got into the basement. It ran all along the outer perimeter walls under the carpet, but for the most part didn't spread more than about 2' from the wall. I pulled up the carpet and ran fans and a dehumidifier to get it all dried up, but now we're getting around to putting the carpet back down.

I got a quote from a local carpet store, and they say it's going to cost over $900 to restretch the carpet and put down new tackboard/grippers along the wall where we pulled the carpet up (about 38'). There's about an 8'x5' area that needs new pad; otherwise they said the rest of the pad is fine. The carpeted area is probably around 600 sq.ft. total.

Does the carpet actually need to be restretched if it looks like it could just be tucked back down under the wooden molding along the bottom of the wall and fit snug like before? And, whether or not it does need to be restretched, does $900+ sound like a reasonable estimate for the repair? Based on what they told me the materials would cost, I figure that's more than $800 labor.

that sounds crazy, to me.

Thanks condo-owner. Do you have any idea what a job like that should run? It seems like $900 is about half the cost of putting in brand-new carpet.

Why not do it yourself? You can buy your own tack strips if the others are rusted..and you can rent stretchers..

Either a knee kicker type or the wall to wall type (not sure what they are called) should be available for rent.

That labor sounds crazy even in a high cost area....are there any of those in Iowa?

what gunny said. just get a knee kicker, and take your time.

i think they are called "power stretchers", but not sure.

yes you need to retack [stretch] the carpet back on to the pins. if not you will get trafic wrinkles ,and ware the carpet faster. 1 concrete tack strip [liquid nail helps] 2. take pease of old pad to match hight. fold back carpet ,install tack strip 1/4 from wall , lay down new pad over old and trace edges with new ulity blade ,remove damged pad , tape down pad seams so there flush,fold carpet back in place and retack with knee kicker ,don't have to kick that hard, just enuf to put back on to pins, tuck under base borde

New carpet needs to be stretched with a power stretcher but we reinstall our own if we have to pull some up because of moisture problems (units don't leak but some tenants' pets do) and only use a knee kicker.