What about the 4th option--find a new contractor on your own. Just because the guy is nice doesn't mean he'll be good. I've met many contractors who can sell their way into a job but then have shortcomings once they start. I'm guessing HD wants their share of giving you the guys name and supposedly managing him once he starts, though I can't believe they would actually come out and tell you they have a 65% markup on his labor. And yes, HD is probably more important to him than you are because they give him steady business where you are a one time deal. If they find out he's going to go behind their backs to do this job for you, they'll probably never hire him again. there are enough contractors looking for work right now, they could probably do that. Just my take on the whole thing.

Ouch!

Okay, let me start off with saying that I work with contractors/subcontractors from both points of view fairly often AND I've actually done design/install work with one of the install subs for Home Depot so I've got a bit of experience with this one from the other side of the fence.

I can tell you off the top that the contractor may not be returning your calls because it could ruin his entire relationship with HD to do so. He probably recieves dozens or more referrals from HD every year so taking business (and their mark up on that business) away from them is full of peril. I can tell you from my work with other GC's/Designers that if you take their client away from them by beating out their pricing you rarely get another job from them. It's true HD is a middle man... but they are for your cabinets too, and your counters and everything else. When you don't expect to pay them for their work (in this case having a cabinet guy available that's familiar with the job, the materials, the standards) and want to do the work around it's often the small cabinet installer that pays for it in the end.

For example, one of the companies I work with had a large job where the owner "direct contact"ed the electrician to see if he could get a better price and find out what the mark up was. Unfortunately the electrician did not CYA enough and went ahead and bid the job. Now the electrician, who made more than ALOT of money from them last year, has been removed from the bid list.

A second example actually came from HD itself. I went to a house to double check the HD designers measurements and after the measurements were wrong the clients decided they wanted to get a second person to look at the drawings... but it couldn't be by the company that hired me. That company wasn't willing to do anything that looked like it might be talking badly about HD or taking it's business in anyway. They did something like 3 kitchens a week with them and it wasn't worth it for one job to look at losing all of that.

If you opt not to use their installer that's totally your option but then you probably need to look for a different one altogether.

I would buy the cabinets from HD to get the discount, but then search for an independent contractor.

One thing that you need to check is to make certain that there are no limitations on any warranties if the install is done by another contractor outside of HD...as some manufacturer's will only honor warranties if the item was installed by a certified installer of that product.

In addition, in the event of a problem, often a lot of fingerpointing occurs..it therefore can help to reduce the number of parties involved.

We recently had a door with side lights installed through HD to replace our existing door with side lights.

I checked out the installer; they have been installing for HD for 15 years, so I assumed that they were most likely doing a good job.

There was a minor problem where the installer had to return to perform some adjustments. HD took care of contacting them to do so, scheduling, etc...and followed up with us to make sure that we were happy with the outcome. They took full responsibility for the installer's work...and called again a few weeks later to make sure all was well.

Hope this info helps your decision making process.

I'm with Sara - buy the cabinets from HD and find your own contractor. I can't see paying a 65% upcharge just because you like the guy. I really like one woman that gave me a price on cabinets - but they cost $14k, instead of the $6k I'll be paying from another cabinet guy. I like him too, but I like the $8k I'm saving a lot more.

My only question would be have you shopped the cabinets elsewhere? I had a neighbor who was all set to buy from Lowes when I told her about a local cabinet shop that sold better cabinetry at a better price (they had priced cabinets for me but I decided to go custom). She ended up going with the other cabinet place and got a huge savings and more bells and whistles in the long run. If you have until May 3rd to decide I would at least try that. Then you can make a more informed decision as to whether or not paying the extra to HD really is the best deal!

Good luck!

I got my cabinets from HD but had my contractor install them (we are renovating the whole house so we already had them.) To be honest, I would be more comfortable finding someone on my own - I've read mixed stories here on this site re: HD installers. If you did use one of theirs I'd want references, as I would for any other contractor.

Personally I agree with the others - order from them and then line up a contractor on your own. People are dying for work right now - at least in my area - you shouldn't have a problem finding someone who is available.

johnP..I thought I was reading my story. Tomorrow I will be ordering Kraftmaid from HD. I have been working on this for the past 3 months and have 4 different estimates for cabinets. Lowe's charges $99 per cabinet, HD here is $79. I found a licensed Contractor from Craigslist and I got this e-mail today... "We charge $40 per base/wall cabinet and $70 for full height cabinets.. There would also be some additional charges for molding/trim/crown.... depending on what you purchase, if any.. (usually between $30-$40) I think that I mentioned we are licensed, bonded & insured?? We can also provide several references if you wish." Guess who I'm going to use. Craigslist works for me. There are alot of good people looking for work. Just be sure and screen them and I only use licensed people.

In our last house, we did Thomasville cabinets from HD with our GC installing them. I made it clear from the beginning with HD who would do the install. We had no problems with HD or with the install.

This time we ordered Shiloh cabinets from a locally owned shop. We'd planned for our GC to install, but the bid we had from the shop was near the GC's fee, plus we had several tricky little custom issues and felt that the local shop's installers would be more in tune with how those had been built, so we went with their installers.

Both times everything worked out beautifully.

Are you sure it's a 65% upcharge? Are you sure it isn't 6.5%?

I have actually been a designer for Lowes. I will tell you why you are paying so much for the installation. HD says they are saving you on your cabinets, but they add it to the installation pricing.
I would definitely find another installer. You should only be paying from $20-$40 per cabinet to have them installed.
Good luck

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Cabinets Direct

johnp - can you say more about the savings/discount that you are being offered? I'm going to be ordering my Kraftmaid cabinets any day now from another dealer (Bradco), and I would love to be able to mention that HD is offering a deal (or is it KM themselves?). KD had mentioned a 5% sale, but said that it ended last Saturday, so I had to order by then. 5% on my order was only coming to ~650, and as much as I'd love to save even $650, it wasn't worth it to me to rush my decision. What makes it a special order? Just curious. Maybe I should check out HD . . .

Agree to ditch the HD installer, buy the cabinets and get your own contractor. Make sure he or she gives some kind of guarantee on the installation.

First off, 65% really isn't that much. WHen I was working thru a showroom for the last few years, the showroom was marking my labor up 100%. They just didn't tell the customer-- gave them a bottom line figure, and that was it.

Now, as far as hiring the guy directly, from what I understand, Home Depot has their subs sign a "no compete" contract, basically saying that they can't take customers away from HD who come to them as a result of going THRU HD. Also, that arbitration clause your state has-- I'm sure it would still cover you even if you have this guy do it thru HD. Only difference then is that your contractor is HD. Follow the money-- they pay him, so he's responsible to them. You pay HD, so HD is responsible to you for whatever's done, good or bad.

Lowes special is 20% off the KM and HD it depends how much you spend. I don't remember the break down. At Lowes I would save $2,000 of my $20,000 order and $4,000 of my $20,000 order at HD. Both offers exp 5/3. I think HD has a 0% financing deal too.

All-

Thanks for your suggestions. We're negotiating with HD to see if we can decrease the markup- plan B is to buy the cabinets (either there or at Lowe's, as I'm kind of upset with HD right now) and find our own GC.

Lovelilynne- HD is offering a tiered cash discount for special order (non-stock) cabinets. If you spend $15-$20k the discount is $3k. I've also been told that KM is hiking their prices by 7% starting May 4th.

John P

Hi - thanks for the info John and msgreatdeals. I went onto HD website and Lowe's site too, and I found the info about the $ off, 50% off finishes, and free kitchen base with order of 10+ cabinets. I sent these to my KD to see if they are honoring them.

It turns out that the deals they are offering are store deals, not cabinet manufacturer deals. My KD contacted her KM rep, and was told that they will be offering the 50% off the finishes starting on 5/8. That is good news for me because I am selecting painted cabinets, so it's a savings of 7.5% on everything.

KD also gave me some good information about how this all works - it seems I cannot price out apples to apples with her price vs. big box store because the BB stores contract for a lower per box price with the cabinet manufacturers, but their prices on molding, trim, toekick, brackets, specialty inserts, etc., are much higher. So, she gave me a price on one piece of molding so I could price it with a BB and see. Over $2k of my cost is in the moldings and accessories.

She did not mention a price hike on 5/4 - I would assume her KM sales person would have said something about it - so again, this may be a BB vs. other dealer thing.

Lynne

Hmm - one more thing to think about. There are benefits and there are drawbacks to dealing with HD and their install process.

When things screw up (and they always do) taking on a monolith the size of Home Depot/Lowe's/whoever is so expensive as to be a waste of time. Home Depot could not really care less if you are unhappy and you don't have enough money to make their lives difficult.

Joe the Independent Installer cares very much about whether you are happy because he/she doesn't have the time or the money to spend fighting you off if things get messy.

65% is the standard margin a retailer charges. It might seem high but that's what it costs to provide merchandise, staff, marketing and service for your shopping pleasure..

We tried working with Home Depot and got cold feet quite quickly.

If you are on a budget go talk to Ikea. They will sell you a nice quality cabinet and all the interior fittings you can dream of, and then they will provide you with a list of approved installers in your area. You deal directly with the installer. No Ikea mark-up, but the installer gets so much of their work from Ikea that they are going to make sure you're happy.

Good Luck !