Cheapest Kitchen/Bath Materials? Home Depot?

[Mike Kalob]

Howdy All,

I'm about to fully reno my kitchen and bath in hopes of renting out my 1bedroom. Is Home Depot the cheapest place for materials for one of my rentals?

I've read some people go material diving for excess/unused materials at slab/appliance/cabinet yards but we don't have much of that (it seems) around North NJ and I work a full-time job so my time to scope material yards is somewhat limited.

Where do you all go? I would like middle range DURABLE materials since it's in a nice doorman building (ie I'm personally fine with formica, but prospective tenant may want granite counter-tops given the building's contemporary amenities)...

Also, regarding countertops, I don't really follow what's new.. is GRANITE still the best ROI option for something nice but DURABLE (I don't want to replace over the years)?

I spoke with another buddy who mentioned updating to QUARTZ since it's much less porous than granite and will last a lifetime.. however, he deals with stylish/hi-end units where as this one of mine is moreso middle/entry-high level unit, so the tenant probably doesn't care about Quartz' stylish looks.. has Quartz come down in price the same manner as granite in recent years due to over-popularity (thanks HGTV!)? Advanced thanks.

PS when you make contractor bids, do you have all your materials from Home Depot (or store) picked out prior to meeting with the contractor, or do you discuss this during to see if they have inside discounts (though I understand this may bite me back in the end)? Thanks.

[Shawn Thom]

another option depending on what kind of finish out you want is granite tiles.  I can get certain granite tiles for less than $2 each.  It not a super high end look but its better than laminate countertops.