"Have you ever went into a Lowes, House Depot or Costco and asked to see the owner? Of course not; that's outrageous. It does however shed some light on why purchasing services from the huge box shops frequently ends in catastrophe. Let me say at the beginning that I have absolutely nothing versus package shops. In truth I invest a number of thousand dollars there every year. If I require an item they carry I pick it up, take it home, plug it in and use it. If it doesn't work correctly I return it for a replacement or my cash back. No issue. Have you ever attempted to return a kitchen area or bath remodel? Of course not; that's absurd too. That's another reason that the big box model does not work well for complex design/build jobs. Make no error the box stores desire quite to offer leading quality services in addition to off the rack products. It's not for lack of desire that they fall short. Why would a property owner think about purchasing a kitchen or bath from a shop like House Depot or Lowes?

There are 3 primary reasons:

1) We presume the cost will be better because we gain from their leveraged purchasing power.

2) We presume they will be around in case we have any guarantee concerns in the future.

3) They offer financing and/or other rewards.

Let's take a look at these one by one. First, while it is true that big chains purchase more volume than the majority of retail outlets, they also acquire some items (eg cabinets) from name brand manufacturers that are not of the exact same quality as those the producer provides their sellers. This supplies package shop with better margins however at the expenditure of the house owner who is getting an item of a little lower quality marketed under the exact same brand name. Secondly, while the majority of big chains have excellent return and service warranty policies, when you add outside subcontractors and the subcontractor's subcontractors to the equation it ends up being incredibly difficult to deal with any of the myriad problems that can show up during or after a kitchen or bathroom remodel. Lastly, the offer of funding or some other token incentive will never make up for the issues and frustrations frequently connected with box store building and construction jobs of any size. Likewise, a lot of sellers have access to 3rd party financing and want to include a sink or some other item to close a sale.

Let's go through a simplified example of contracting with a box shop to have a cooking area renovated. First the house owner goes to the cooking area department of the store either with measurements of their own or to arrange for the shop to send someone to their home to gather the necessary details. So the very first person the property owner has contact with is the sales representative in the store. Next a 2nd individual checks out the home and sketches a layout which is taken back to the store and offered to a designer, which may or may not be the initial salesperson.

The designer develops a cooking area design and invites the homeowner to the store to evaluate it and look a cabinet and countertop options. If other choices are to be made, such as pipes or lighting fixtures, the property owner will need to deal with people in those departments to make those options and get the items required. Presuming that the property owner authorizes the design and consents to the rate they then spend for the full rate of the cabinets and maybe the counter top material too. The task is then turned over to the accelerating department to order the materials and choose the subcontractor to offer the job to. This subcontractor most of the times has never seen the job and is working off a pay sheet that dictates what they make money for each job of a job.

It deserves keeping in mind that the main subcontractor, hardly ever if ever, deals with the task himself. They pass the job to among their subcontractors who in turn uses whatever labor is at their disposal to do the job. None of the subcontractors who actually do the work want to continue working under this arrangement any longer than they have to. For one thing, the pay isn't that excellent. Package shops squeeze the main subcontractor so they can provide appealing prices to their clients. The main subcontractor in turn squeezes his subcontractors so that he can make as much as possible on each task. The subcontractor who does the work will quit as soon as he has a much better deal or can get a task of his own. Sometimes this occurs in the middle of a project. It's not difficult to envision what sort of problems that creates. The cabinets are delivered straight to the consumer's home where someone must be waiting to accept the delivery. If the subcontractor who is to do the work is even slightly professional he will check the order for damage before deconstructing the property owner's kitchen area thus avoiding a significant inconvenient delay if one of the main parts has arrived harmed.

Now you have some concept of the variety of people included and how nobody individual has followed the project from the extremely starting to a delighted conclusion. This approach supplies too many chances for miscommunication, lack of follow up and basic apathy which lead to the scary stories everyone has heard of numerous times. If a kitchen area or bath remodel remains in your future, think about finding a smaller, maybe family owned company where individual attention and obligation are the trademarks. Cabinets and countertops are commodities. The success and stress level of the project will be determined by the care and professionalism of the individual you deal with and they should be there for the entire task."