"Have you ever entered into a Lowes, Home Depot or Costco and asked to see the owner? Of course not; that's ridiculous. It does nevertheless shed some light on why acquiring services from the big box stores frequently ends in disaster. Let me state at the start that I have nothing versus package shops. In fact I invest numerous thousand dollars there every year. If I need a product they carry I choose it up, take it home, plug it in and utilize it. If it doesn't work properly I return it for a replacement or my loan back. No problem. Have you ever attempted to return a kitchen area or bath remodel? Of course not; that's ludicrous too. That's another factor why the huge box model does not work well for complex design/build projects. Make no error package stores want quite to supply leading quality services in addition to off the shelf items. It's not for absence of desire that they fall short. Why would a house owner consider purchasing a kitchen area or bath from a shop like House Depot or Lowes?

There are 3 main reasons:

1) We assume the rate will be much better considering that we gain from their leveraged purchasing power.

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

3) They use funding and/or other incentives.

Let's examine these one by one. First, while it holds true that big chains buy more volume than many retail outlets, they likewise acquire some products (eg cabinets) from name brand name producers that are not of the very same quality as those the maker supplies their merchants. This supplies the box shop with much better margins however at the cost of the property owner who is getting an item of somewhat lower quality marketed under the same brand name. Second of all, while most big chains have great return and guarantee policies, once you include outdoors subcontractors and the subcontractor's subcontractors to the equation it becomes incredibly challenging to fix any of the myriad problems that can show up during or after a kitchen or restroom remodel. Lastly, the deal of funding or some other token incentive will never compensate for the problems and disappointments typically associated with box store construction projects of any size. Also, most sellers have access to 3rd party funding and want to toss in a sink or some other product to close a sale.

Let's go through a streamlined example of contracting with a box store to have a kitchen area redesigned. First the house owner visits the kitchen area department of the shop either with measurements of their own or to schedule the shop to send out somebody to their home to collect the required info. So the first person the house owner has contact with is the salesperson in the store. Next a second individual goes to the home and sketches a layout which is reclaimed to the store and given to a designer, which might or may not be the original sales representative.

The designer works up a cooking area style and welcomes the house owner to the shop to examine it and look a cabinet and countertop choices. If other choices are to be made, such as pipes or lighting fixtures, the property owner will need to deal with individuals in those departments to make those options and get the items required. Presuming that the homeowner approves the style and consents to the rate they then pay for the full rate of the cabinets and possibly the counter top material also. The task is then turned over to the speeding up department to purchase the materials and choose the subcontractor to give the job to. This subcontractor in many cases has actually never ever seen the task and is working off a pay sheet that determines what they make money for each task of a job.

It deserves keeping in mind that the primary subcontractor, seldom if ever, works on the project himself. They pass the project to one of their subcontractors who in turn utilizes whatever labor is at their disposal to do the job. None of the subcontractors who really do the work desire to continue working under this arrangement any longer than they have to. For something, the pay isn't that excellent. The box stores squeeze the primary subcontractor so they can provide appealing rates to their customers. The main subcontractor in turn squeezes his subcontractors so that he can make as much as possible on each job. The subcontractor who does the work will quit as quickly as he has a much better deal or can get a task of his own. In some cases this takes place in the middle of a task. It's not hard to envision what kind of issues that produces. The cabinets are shipped directly to the client's house where somebody need to be waiting to accept the delivery. If the subcontractor who is to do the work is even somewhat professional he will examine the order for damage before deconstructing the property owner's kitchen hence preventing a major inconvenient delay if among the primary parts has shown up harmed.

Now you have some idea of the variety of people involved and how no one person has actually followed the job from the very starting to a delighted conclusion. This method provides too many chances for miscommunication, lack of follow up and basic lethargy which result in the scary stories everyone has actually become aware of sometimes. If a kitchen or bath remodel remains in your future, consider discovering a smaller, perhaps household owned business where personal attention and responsibility are the trademarks. Cabinets and counter tops are commodities. The success and stress level of the task will be identified by the care and professionalism of the person you work with and they need to be there for the whole project."