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Should I buy kitchen countertops at Home Depot, or are they terrible?
So while its a bit of a no-shit-ism that supporting a local business is the better thing to do, I'm remodeling a house in Joshua Tree CA which is pretty remote, and I want the installation of new countertops to be as seamless as possible.
I'm looking at corian as the material, but am open to other low maintenance, stone or stone-ish.
Has anyone had great or terrible experiences with Home Depot to help me determine which way to dig in?
THANKS!
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Home Depot just subcontracts out to someone local, so it is a bit of the luck of the draw. We had quartz kitchen counters done through home depot and I was really happy with their work. I think home depot really holds future jobs over their heads, so they try to do pretty good.
Pro: HD will be on your side, giving you far more power of the contract since they provide much more of their revenue
Con: You are getting guys willing to work for less, because HD is taking a cut. We had a bathroom done by HD, end result was good, but because I kept an eye on things, they were willing to violate code by sealing a live electrical outlet behind a shower all (paid an electrician to do an emergency rewire), and their first floor tile had about a 1/2" bounce when you walked on it, it wouldn't have lasted a week (they tore it out and redid it on their dime).
Also, the home depot (subcontractor) quote is never going to be the lowest, because it has the HD mark up. Still it is convenient, and their subcontractor near Seattle did a great job on our Corian countertops.
I found a local guy who charged half of what home Depot and Lowe's were asking for thicker granite. No issues. I plan to use them again in the future. I also got a few sinks from them and saved a bundle compared. Afterward, I noticed all these other granite places in town too I had never noticed prior.
Yep. My uncle is a carpenter who specializes in kitchens. When we remodeled, he told me the local cabinet shop to go to. The price was about the same as HD but the quality a notch above. The guy actually can usually beat HDs pricing. Where HD will always win though is financing. I have a relative (other side of the family) who just redid his kitchen through HD simply because he could finance it, despite my insistence that it would be cheaper if he went with the guy we used.
But this isn't r/personalfinance, so I'll step down from my soapbox now.
It's a good soapbox from this seat. Let's keep people in small business, especially craftsmen.
Same here, worked with local business and got a much better deal than I was going to get at Home Depot or Nebraska Furniture Mart.
Thicker granite, and the timeline from measuring, estimating to completion was a week and a half, compared to 10+ weeks from either HD or NFM.
I ordered mine from a local home store (we have a 2 location chain here that somehow competes with HD and Lowes) but looked around and did some homework, and I generally found that everyone agreed that the material is all the same. I went for quarts countertops and basically the only difference between any of them is the colors and patterns, they're all made by the same factories using the same machines and techniques, but more complicated designs will cost more.
The biggest difference will be in installation, which can be hit or miss. With home depot, you don't get to pick who installs it, you're reliant on home depot's power to control contractors (which in my opinion is pretty good, because no contractor wants to lose those easy jobs that come through chain stores). You have to decide if you're ok with that. IMO it's probably fine, as home depot will likely deal with any problems the contractors cause, though sometimes it takes a bit of a fight.
We just had quartz counters installed from IKEA. 2 week turn around time and installed correctly the first time. The only issue is they scratchee the new floors a bit but they're paying to have them repaired.
https://imgur.com/a/lzY7w
How were the prices compared to local shops?
Also, are those Ikea cabinets? We're they easy to install? DIY or professional?
I found this company, reformcph.com that has more selection in terms of Ikea specific cabinet fronts.
https://www.reformcph.com/us/stories/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ScandinavianInterior/comments/6hny9d/our_scandinavianinspired_california_loft/
Prices were much better, $69 sq/ft for the quartz. Those are IKEA cabinets and I installed them myself. They are definitely doable as diy but they aren't as easy as your typical IKEA stuff.
The assembly of the cabinet bases themselves was very much IKEA but the installation on the wall and leveling was much harder than typical IKEA, especially the island.
I redid a kitchen with IKEA, and more recently with a local wholesaler who used higher quality of materials.
...I liked the IKEA kitchen better. IKEA's standardized process resulted in very consistent construction of the cabinets, while the local dealer provided doors that would still leave a gap between them when both doors are closed, even after fully adjusting the hinges. Or pull-out drawers that weren't properly leveled so they'd slide out or back by themselves, or just plain stick, or fail to engage the soft-close mechanism.
Lots of problems that should have been tested and caught by the manufacturer as well as the installer, because they're a PITA to fix after installation. IKEA's cabinets need to be assembled on-site, but they all worked perfectly after assembly.
Though the local dealer used wood instead of MDF, the MDF IKEA cabinets looked better. We liked the higher quality material of the local dealer, but in retrospect, we had the IKEA cabinets for 7 years and they showed no signs of wear before we had moved out. IKEA was a little cheaper too on the cabinets. The local dealer definitely had better pricing/quality/selection on the granite though.
Is the $69 per sq ft cost materials only or labor as well? I'm replacing my kitchen and bathroom countertops with quartz, and the lowest quote I got from a local fabricator/installer of the three patterns I liked best (MSI Blanco Arabescato) comes out to about $93 per sq ft all in.
All inclusive.
Thanks! I tracked down the catalog and saw that a pattern similar to what I like is $89/sq ft. Do you know if these countertops are covered by the 15% kitchen sale? Also, are other Caesarstone patterns available through IKEA or only those in the catalog?
Did you have issues with non-straight, non-plumb walls?
Yeah, I shimmed the rail some and will be using the backsplash to cover the rest of the gaps along the wall and counters.
Bodbyn with Symphony Grey? We were considering that exact combo. Probably going with a darker color counter ourselves, but nice to see a real-life photo. Thanks!
You got it! We went with the lighter counter since our backsplash is going to be a bit darker.
Grain of salt this, but the sales rep at Arizona Tile told me that they supply granite to Home Depot, suggesting that the quality is just as good. Home Depot just sells the whole package.
Yeah I am in the dallas area and having them install right now. The slabs come from daltile. Nice selection friendly staff there. Installnis some Schmuck team. Paid for in April and still not installed. Hell to push the project forward
I'm in Richardson and using a local company, and it's been a two month process so far, still not installed. Is everyone around Dallas just getting new counter tops or are these guys all just slow af?
Construction is crazy busy right now in DFW. I've heard stories of contractors walking off jobs over lunch for better paying jobs.
with how the house market is going crazy here, i think everyone is trying to renovate and sell. I cant even get landscapers to show up after i get a quote. Like im in Hurst and the only landscaper i could get to show up is driving from plano to do it.....
It might be everywhere, I ordered quarts countertops and it was 6 weeks just to get someone to come out and measure, then 2 weeks after that for manufacture and installation. I live in Oregon and they said demand has been really high lately.
I had window done by home depot. It was promised as a one day job but took three. Contractor forgot windows on day one so he had to come out on day two to finish. He did the job alone and I helped him carry heavy stuff. Worked a solid 5 hours each day. Yup, I will never use home depot again.
That is hilarious. Showed up to replace windows without the windows.
Guy was full of excuses.
How... Nevermind, lowest bidder.
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I redid my windows through Lowes. The Pella windows were fine except for some mis-measured ones which had to be reordered, and the install crew was good enough.
But holy fuck was the installed sales dept full of retards!!! The whole thing was paid in full when ordered, and it took pulling teeth to get them to reorder the wrong windows. The last window was made wrong at the factory, and it took 6 months plus a yelling match with the manager at Lowe's to get it replaced!
The installed sales manager was demoted to a stocking position haha. It really depends on how well the store is run honestly, they have your money and its up to you to fight them to finish the job if they arent on top of things.
We had a similar situation with Home Depot on a kitchen renovation. The price seemed too good to be true and in fact it was. The price tripled when they came back to our house for the 4th time to measure. We called day after day for three weeks requesting the refund. It didn't happen.
I don't fuck around with retailers, though. I called Home Depot corporate and explained the situation. Within minutes they had the manager from the kitchens department on the phone conferenced in and forced her to refund us immediately right there on the call. She was obviously pissed but, so was I. We got our money back, though.
Then two weeks later our neighbor had his front door installed by the same Home Depot. The installer cracked that metal frame for the door when they re-installed their doorbell and the storm door was pitched a bit resulting in it scraping against their eave when it was opened. Resolution of that took months.
On the other hand, Lowes gave my parents the lowest bid on their roof. The contractor they used came, ripped the old roof off, put the new roof on and were done by 3pm. My parents have a 3000 sq foot expanded cape. They didn't leave behind so much as a single scrap. No issues at all.
Yeah, its a real crap shoot on who they will send out. They have a lot of good tradesmen working for them, but there are a lot of cheap guys who cant get work anywhere else too.
We went to 3 local places and HD when shopping for granite. Each place gave us brochures/flyers from their suppliers so we could look online at additional slabs not in stock locally but were able to be shipped. Our cabinet guy at HD wrote down the names of their suppliers so we could do the online search as well. We get home, I start looking at the pamphlets... 3 copies of the same 3 suppliers. All the local counter shops and HD use the same suppliers in our area.
The only difference is who does the cutting and installation (and of course what they charge). We chose a local place that gave us the best price and had a wide selection in stock.
I used to work for a granite company who was subcontracted by HD. We bought the stone from the same distributors as all the other stone. Generally manufacturing and installation were pricier for the same quality stone.
Bought some real basic silestone from HD and was happy with everything. Would do again.
We did our kitchen last year and bought granite from HD, on sale at the time at $39/sq. ft. The sub they hired to install was great - very thorough and helpful when he was measuring for the template. And the install itself went smoothly; we have no complaints. The granite looks great and has also held up well. We also got our sink (pretty basic model) for free. I'd use them again.
We've been using prefab lately for most renovations. We're not super particular about the edge finish (usually 2 to choose from) and there are always a dozen granite/quartz types to choose from. A 10-foot long slab is about $300, and another $300 to deliver/fabricate/install.
We did three slabs with an under-mount sink for ~$1500 total a couple of years back.
There are countertops that don't work with prefab - particularly those with large islands, or if you are picky about choosing your own slab, but I favor price over that stuff.
Where do you find prefab slabs?
OP is in Joshua Tree which might be far from anywhere local, but when I lived in San Diego I went to a place up in the Miramar area - http://www.toscanaturalstone.com/slabs/prefabs.html.
Most cities have a similar business around.
You should be able to save money by going direct to a countertop vendor. Home Depot just subcontracts those guys to you. You can try a search for granite online, or try http://www.corian.com/-find-a-retailer-
Granite dealers around me had a lot of sales and incentives. It's a pretty competative business in the northeast from what I can tell. Corian might be less so, since it's a registered trademark material.
Just look up reviews for people that have had home depot do work for them. Some are good, most are not and it is usually the customer caught between HD and the sub just trying to get things done.
Of course, if you don't mind the fight.. You can get it all completed eventually but the cost from what I've seen is usually more than local shops and materials are not as good.
But yeah, they will help you finance.
I have had granite countertops installed two times from them and have been happy both times.
I have found that home depot is not really any cheaper than the right independent store.
I would ask around local
Slow. Kay fabricators is who I am using and the can not manage the project l. We cut them out of the middle on he slabs. Kay kept rejecting the slabs saying too gray. We drove to dative saw 6 slabs that looked amazing picked them out and had hem shipped to Kat. Now to see if they really need an install date 2 weeks out