"Have you ever went into a Lowes, House Depot or Costco and asked to see the owner? Obviously not; that's ludicrous. It does nevertheless shed some light on why purchasing services from the big box shops regularly ends in catastrophe. Let me say at the start that I have nothing against package stores. In reality I invest a number of thousand dollars there every year. If I require an item they bring I choose it up, take it home, plug it in and utilize it. If it doesn't work appropriately I return it for a replacement or my cash back. No issue. Have you ever attempted to return a cooking area or bath remodel? Of course not; that's ludicrous too. That's another reason that the big box model does not work well for complicated design/build jobs. Make no error the box stores want quite to offer high quality services as well as off the rack products. It's not for absence of desire that they fall short. Why would a homeowner consider buying a cooking area or bath from a shop like House Depot or Lowes?

There are 3 main factors:

1) We presume the rate will be much better since we gain from their leveraged purchasing power.

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

3) They provide financing and/or other rewards.

Let's examine these one by one. First, while it is true that large chains buy more volume than most retail outlets, they also acquire some products (eg cabinets) from name brand name manufacturers that are not of the exact same quality as those the maker offers their retailers. This offers the box store with better margins but at the cost of the homeowner who is getting a product of slightly lower quality marketed under the same brand. Second of all, while the majority of big chains have excellent return and warranty policies, once you include outdoors subcontractors and the subcontractor's subcontractors to the equation it ends up being exceptionally difficult to resolve any of the myriad problems that can come up throughout or after a kitchen or bathroom remodel. Finally, the offer of funding or some other token reward will never make up for the complications and disappointments often associated with box shop building projects of any size. Also, a lot of merchants have access to 3rd party financing and are ready to include 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 remodeled. Initially the homeowner visits the cooking area department of the shop either with dimensions of their own or to arrange for the shop to send someone to their home to gather the essential details. So the very first person the property owner has contact with is the sales representative in the store. Next a second individual checks out the home and sketches a layout which is taken back to the store and offered to a designer, which may or might not be the initial sales representative.

The designer develops a cooking area style and invites the house owner to the store to evaluate it and look a cabinet and countertop alternatives. If other choices are to be made, such as pipes or lighting fixtures, the property owner will require to deal with individuals in those departments to make those choices and get the products needed. Presuming that the house owner approves the style and concurs to the rate they then pay for the full price of the cabinets and maybe the counter top material too. The project is then committed the expediting department to purchase the materials and choose the subcontractor to offer the job to. This subcontractor in the majority of cases has actually never seen the job and is working off a pay sheet that dictates what they get paid for each job of a job.

It is worth noting that the main subcontractor, hardly ever if ever, works on the task himself. They pass the task to one of 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 desire to continue working under this plan any longer than they need to. For something, the pay isn't that good. Package shops squeeze the primary subcontractor so they can use attractive rates to their consumers. 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 better deal or can get a job of his own. In some cases this occurs in the middle of a job. It's not hard to envision what type of issues that creates. The cabinets are delivered directly to the client's house where somebody must be waiting to accept the shipment. If the subcontractor who is to do the work is even slightly expert he will examine the order for damage before deconstructing the property owner's kitchen therefore preventing a major inconvenient delay if one of the main parts has arrived harmed.

Now you have some concept of the number of people included and how no one individual has actually followed the task from the very starting to a pleased conclusion. This technique supplies a lot of chances for miscommunication, lack of follow up and basic apathy which result in the horror stories everyone has heard of often times. If a cooking area or bath remodel remains in your future, consider discovering a smaller sized, perhaps family owned business where personal attention and duty are the hallmarks. Cabinets and countertops are commodities. The success and tension level of the job will be identified by the care and professionalism of the individual you work with and they need to be there for the entire project."