You should post this over in the kitchens forum, people there are very active and nice, and anything you could ever want to know about kitchens can be found there. Design help, experience with big box stores, contractors, cabinets, etc.

I am a few weeks in to research for our kitchen project, time TBD, and have learned an unbelievable amount of helpful things from the friendly kitchen forum regulars!

HD hires sub contractors to do the installation work the store sells.

Kinda hit and miss as far as I am concerned.

The installation amounts are low---so the store can quote lower labor prices than competitors. That translates into lower quality installers, IMHO.

I agree with handymac in that it is a complete crapshoot.

Thanks to all who replied. Useful info, all of it.

It seems to me that hiring a contractor, any contractor, is always a crapshoot. I've hired some contractors who seemed to be competent, but who turned out to be near-total idiots (and I am NOT an especially demanding consumer).

It seems to me that Home D (Lowes etc) are more interested in their reputations, and probably more professional, than "Joe-in-biz-10-year-General-Contractor". Not only that, but it seems to me that subcontractors who work for these big-box stores will be especially interested in keeping their (presumably) high reputation with the big boxes stores, since the latter are responsible for a lot of their business.

OTOH, the big-box stores probably have had more time and experience to "sharpen their pencils" and figure out how to cut corners--and perhaps cut customers down to side.

I did some Google research, and in general, the big-box stores do not have great feedback as contractors--at least, certainly not the feedback I'd expect.

Optimist take off your rose colored glasses, most of the contractors that work for HD or Lowes do so because they have FAILED in finding and keeping their own clients and work. Do you really think a good GC with a good reputation is going to want to work for the crap box stores will allow them to make. This may not be true with everyone of them but I will be willing to dam near guarantee that this is true for the majority if them nationwide!

Big box stores don't care about their reputation. They are only interested in keeping the lowest price possible. That means subcontracting to people who will work cheaply. And why will they work cheaply? Because they don't do good work.

MILLWORKMAN:

I am not arguing, but there are some things I do not understand about your remarks, and I hope you will address my confusion.

All companies desire to get good feedback from customers, and to avoid bad feedback. Everything I read tells me that companies are especially sensitive to negative comments in social media; presumably this includes Lowe's & Home D.

So if dissatisfied customers start making negative comments about subcontractor X, or the company's subcontractors in general, wouldn't that lead the GC to drop those subs?

As well, everyone in business wants to concentrate on generating new business with as few "bumps in the road" as possible, and not spend time addressing unpleasant, distracting problems like poorly-performing subs.

So wouldn't these big box stores have plenty of reason to drop poorly-performing subs (or, if they are not actually poor performers, those who generate disproportionate amounts of dissatisfaction)?

Sure, drop one contractor after two poor jobs and try another for two poor jobs. Unfortunately it is a vicious and never ending cycle. You may get fortunate and get a good one and then again you may not.

Millworkman:

I've concluded, based on sad personal experience, that no matter how carefully you select a GC, or even a sub, you're more likely to get bad work than good.

EXPL: when we re-did the bathroom some years ago, using a GC, of course there was some electrical work. The inspector rejected one aspect of the electrical work and it had to be redone. Now, ot1h, it was something simple and not especially dangerous. (I've forgotten exactly what it was.) Still, the fact that such simple work was done sloppily and not up to code, makes me wonder what is going on in the minds of some contractors.

your 100% correct, but in my mind there are ways to hopefully minimize potential problems and the contractors I have seen hired by HD and or Lowes for the most part I would consider a HOT MESS. And as such it would make me very leery about hiring them.

I've only seen the hvac side of HD
and it wasn't anything good to speak of.

millworkman has a valid point that if the
contractor was doing good work they
would not need HD to get jobs.

do you have a local lumber yard?
ask them for names of tradespeople.
it would be a starting point.

best of luck.

A friend of mine recently had a kitchen put in by L*we's. She was very happy with their designer and the installation. I didn't do my kitchen through a big box store (well, actually yes, Ikea, but I hired my own people) -- but I have had big-box subcontractors out for smaller jobs in years past and had no trouble. I think it just depends on who is working there.

I suspect the reports of bad contracting from the big box stores is just the result of many contractors who do remodeling work are flakes, regardless of whether they work for big box stores or contract direct. I have had a hard time finding one that wants to work with an itemized contract even.

I would also warn that many of the commenters saying things against big box stores are actual contractors themselves. They are biased against them because they take a cut of their business. It certainly would be better for contractors if the big box stores weren't in the contracting business.

Well Paul, since I am reading this and still here 3 years after the original post I will chime in. I have no dog in the hunt and never have had. I could care less who a HO uses. I am in commercial construction supply for 10 years now after having been in residential supply for 20 years. Were companies I worked for effected by box stores, absolutely and I have never tried to hide it.

But my question to you is what is your agenda digging up a years old post?

Just looking around for opinions on the pros and cons of using a big box store as a contractor. I know the post is years old but nothing ever dies on the internet. More to the point, I suspect most of it is still relevant though everyone has to judge that for themselves. My comments were simply to alert other readers that some opinions may be biased. I was not claiming that anyone was misrepresenting themselves. Having and opinions and being biased are really two sides of the same coin. There's nothing wrong with having an opinion but people have to also pay attention to who's giving it.

When renovating my late MIL's home, we were approached by someone at HD who wanted to give us a quote for kitchen cabinets. So we shrugged, why not? Well, the quote was accompanied by a lot of high pressure. Like you got this price if you signed today.... but it was a today only special. We let it go. We decided to just hire a pro to sand and paint the existing cabinets white inside and out. We were flipping that home, so it didn't really matter to us, but as all have said here, HD hires subs. HD does make money from these subs, so they are discounting to HD. For OUR own kitchen remodel, our GC took us to a cabinet maker where we chose exactly what we wanted. We got his wholesale price. He let us buy wholesale through him because he had an entire house remodel to do for us.

I work at a box store. You might be fortunate enough to get me as your designer, but honestly, if you want cabinet install services, RUN. Not only are they more expensive than the going market rate, they are usually incompetents who couldn't keep their business going on their own. If you want a whole house project done, you are majorly SOL from the beginning. Different folks are in charge of their little specialty area, and none work for an actual GC that can coordinate to make sure that the electrician shows up to get the new UC electrical done before the tiler shows up to do the backsplash.

Which box store do you work for, Paul? People here are really good about sniffing out SPAM posts here to promote their self interest.