Home Depot or Lowe's for Kitchen Remodel?

[Josh E.]

So I'm remodeling the kitchen in my first rental. Not doing anything crazy, just replacing cabinets, countertops, floor, and new appliances with basic materials.

It looks like Home Depot and Lowe's do kitchen installations. Has anyone used them to renovate a kitchen before? Or is it better off to go with a private contractor, and just pick out the materials myself?

[Steve K.]

@Josh E. Carpenter here...Don’t do it! The big box stores squeeze and hamstring their contractors so bad they are forced to cut corners and many quit half way through the first job when they realize they’re losing money, or just put in effort commensurate to what they’re getting paid which means a terrible finished product. Find a good local contractor, pay them what they’re worth, trust me don’t use HD or Lowe’s, I can’t think of a better example of “cheap is expensive”. I’ve seen whole kitchens done by HD/Lowe’s crews that had to be completely redone and most of the material couldn’t even be reused because they had done things like butt-cuts in the corners instead of 45 miter cuts. Absolutely awful and I’ve seen this many times because they are good at selling you the job and their price is tempting, but completely incompetent executing it. When you point out the substandard work the contractor blames the store and the store blames the contractor, then the contractor quits and disappears, good luck getting your money back even though the work is not done and what has been done needs to be redone. I’ve seen this many times first hand and I’ve been the guy to go in and fix it (redoing just about everything). They go through so many contractors that many times it will be the installer’s first and last time working with them because they pay so little and blame any problems on the contractor even if their materials come damaged. I hate to disparage everyone working for them, I’m sure there are good carpenters working for them, I have actually worked alongside and hired carpenters who worked for them in the past who were great workers but they were just completely set up to fail by the box store and then quit after a few jobs. Stay away!