Home Depot -paying them to install entry door

[Miss Mary Poppins]

Hi we are totally clueless when it comes to home repairs. We have to get a new entry door because the one we have now needs replaced. I guess now that they have come and measured the price they quoted for the installation when we were at the store and now that they measured the door is crazy high. Would it be cheaper to buy the door and find someone else to install it? Anyone have experiences with them they can share? Thanks

 

[kat3668]

Well considering this article and what I have heard about thier hiring practices I would hire my own...........
http://consumerist.com/consumer/con...to-refinish-single-womans-cabinets-262335.php

 

[Avonlady1001]

We recently used Home Depot to install our carpet. The men they sent (from the company the hired to do it) didn't speak a word of English, ruined several parts of my newly painted walls, ripped a few chunks of wall off the corner, ruined my front screen door, and left one of the inside doors laying on the rug w/ no explaination.

I called Home Depot & the company to complain (sending pics). They promptly sent someone to look at the damage, and he said over & over how sorry he was, how this shouldn't have happened. He left saying he'd call the next day and send someone to repair the walls and damage. The door was left on it's side b/c it needs to be cut down a bit to fit over the carpet. (Makes sense, just wish that would have been explained to me.)

To make a long story short, it's been over a month, haven't heard from anyone, and no one is returning my phone calls from either the company OR Home Depot.

On the upside, the carpet looks great.

I wouldn't recommend their installation services to anyone.

 

[liftn]

I am a contractor, and will say generall HD is a little high on thier install prices. The problem with pricing compared to HD, is when your are in the store HD will tell you "basic install". I don't know that their is a basic install. If there are they are far and few between.

Think about this,HD subcontracts all thier work. So if the normal price to istall something is $100, and HD is charging $90 for the same job. The subcontractor probably gets $45 and HD gets $45. If you ask someone to do a job for $45 that normally is $100, they are either going to have to cut corners, or do a crappy job to make up for the lower fee. (Most of the time)

 

[java]

Don't go HD. We did and they destroyed our entryway. The installer showed up with his girlfriend that just sat there and smoked all day and complained about how hot it was. I suggested they finish up the door so the air conditioner would be cooling the HOUSE instead of the front. It took 7 hours when I was quoted 2 hours. And they destroyed my leaded glass on the overhead semi moon thingie. Oh I was furious.

Never again. We learned our lesson the hard way. Don't make our mistake.

 

[Miss Mary Poppins]

I am a contractor, and will say generall HD is a little high on thier install prices. The problem with pricing compared to HD, is when your are in the store HD will tell you "basic install". I don't know that their is a basic install. If there are they are far and few between.

Think about this,HD subcontracts all thier work. So if the normal price to istall something is $100, and HD is charging $90 for the same job. The subcontractor probably gets $45 and HD gets $45. If you ask someone to do a job for $45 that normally is $100, they are either going to have to cut corners, or do a crappy job to make up for the lower fee. (Most of the time)

Who else can I call to install a door?

 

[DisneyMomJen]

HD is expensive for contracting. We had our kitchen done about 8 years ago. The guy who installed our cabinets charged us $80 a foot for installation. He also did work for HD and HD Expo and the price HD charged to install cabinets was $135 a foot which is about a 70% increase for the same work!

I am in the same situation as you right now. I am ordering new interior doors this week since there is a great deal going on. HD charges $129 to install each door. This is about 3 times the amount of what the actual door costs! I have to find someone else to install them but am not sure who to contact. Good Luck

 

[slruud]

HD is expensive for contracting. We had our kitchen done about 8 years ago. The guy who installed our cabinets charged us $80 a foot for installation. He also did work for HD and HD Expo and the price HD charged to install cabinets was $135 a foot which is about a 70% increase for the same work!

I am in the same situation as you right now. I am ordering new interior doors this week since there is a great deal going on. HD charges $129 to install each door. This is about 3 times the amount of what the actual door costs! I have to find someone else to install them but am not sure who to contact. Good Luck

I work as a handyman in this area, and assuming you mean to just change out the door slabs, I wouldn't do it for less than $129 a door. When you look at the tools involved...skilsaw, router, drill for boring, planer...and the skill of the individual doing the work, and of course the overhead for transportation...gas, use of vehicle, etc. $129 is pretty reasonable.

 

[NMW]

The problem is that with doors from Home Depot or Lowes, if you don't get it installed by their installers, you may void your warrenty on the door. Pella for instance at Lowes, needs to installed by their installer or the warrenty is voided.

I think it greatly depends on the installer. We just went through this whole process buying a new entry door with two sidelights. I wanted fiber glass with leaded glass. The install company from Home Depot is a big window and door company in NJ. They came out, measured, gave me their card, seemed very professional. The company from Lowes I don't think was a big company, just a few guys, but they seemed professional. I wanted a Pella door from Lowes but the installers said it wouldn't fit (too big by 1/2 inch). The store guy tried to tell me Pella can make smaller sidelights (8 in instead of 10 in). The installer called me at home and said that personally they didn't think that would look good, it was going into a brick opening and we really needed it to fit perfectly, they'd have to build out, etc. and they just couldn't gaurantee it would look perfect. While they said Pella makes great doors, they reccomended I go with a different door comapny to get a perfect fit. I trusted THEM over the Lowes salesman.

I ened up going with Home Depot because their doors fit perfectly. The window and door company that did the install was very professional. I paid extra for capping around the door and sidelights in aluminum-I wanted it weatherproof. They actually sent a siding guy to do that so it would be perfect. The guy who installed the door was fantastic. The whole thing took 2 hours and the capping took an additonal hour. They gave me their card when they left and the company called the next day and asked me to complete a survey on my installation experience. I gave them the highest scores possible. They cleaned up, caulked, installed new interior trim around my door on the inside without damaging my walls/paint. I know that they have done a couple other doors for Home Depot in my neighborhood and everyone has been happy with them.

I think it really, really depends on who Home Depot contracts to do their install. You could get good people or not so good people.

 

[ncbyrne]

I've had two disasters with Home Depot. One involved installed a rear entry storm door. First they came and measured, and naturally I assumed they knew what they were doing. When it was installed it was clearly close to an inch too small! The installer (older foreign gentleman), shimmed it into place! The job was done while my husband was at work. And let me tell you he threw a FIT when he saw it. He took photos and went directly to the manager at Home Depot, who agreed it was a bad job. After three weeks, with my husband showing up at HD with his photos and gentle threats, they finally sent two carpenters to fix the problem. But instead of just giving us a door that fit our opening, they rebuilt the door frame. It looks just fine now, but it was an awful lot of work for nothing!
Oh, and my second disaster was a carpet install! Long story - too long for this post. BUT...when we had carpeting installed next, we went to Lowe's and I told them upfront about our previous disaster and said I wanted PROFESSIONAL carpet installers that spoke English. I also said that if anyone else showed up, I wouldn't let them in the door. My plea worked and the carpeting was installed properly the first time.

 

[mikehn]

Depending on where you are, finding someone to come out for a such a small job as this is very difficult. On the phone, they tell you they'll come out, but then they never show up. When they give you the excuse the truck broke down, its time to call someone else.

 

[WendyisDarling]

We replaced two doors two years ago. One door is an odd design and the replacement had to be a custom job, so we hired a custom door shop: a local owned business. The other was a front door with a side light. We used Home Depot for the front door.
I found the people who worked at Home Depot to be very annoying, but I really like the door and the price. The two men who installed it were great . We were even quite a PIA to them as DH was drilling holes through the frame and bottom of the sidelight for the alarm sensor. They weren't thrilled with it, but were tolerant and happy to receive a well deserved tip. Even later (prior to tip) when the work was done they were very friendly as we struck up a conversation. They gave us a lot of extra tips about the door and even a few that involved "be sure HD does this or that because they won't if you don't stay on them".
The custom door place, on the hand, did only a fair job. They ended up making three different visits because they ordered the wrong parts. The door still doesn't close perfectly. We have to give it an extra nudge to be sure it is shut all the way.
So, basd on my HD experience I would say go ahead. I'm sure a lot depends on the store.
We have also had counters installed by HD (subcontractors). That, too, was a good experience. There was a problem with the deal. HD advertised one thing and subcontracted place said it wasn't valid. HD made good on it and actually gave us a better offer than the original. The installers were fantastic and their company followed up twice to insure we were satisified.
To be honest, of the home improvement projects we have done -- we have been satistifed more often with the HD installers than the local companies. (Although, a couple locl compnaies have done good work.)
From what I have read, we are not the norm on a national level. But, I would ask in YOUR area about local experiences.

 

[PiperPizzaz]

I am in process of having a french door put in from HD. It is going to be expensive around $400 top end I think. But that does include getting it from the store and we would have to rent a truck to do that. The man that came to measure is the one that will put it in and he was super super nice and very professional. Hopefully things work out for us.

 

[DebMcDonald]

We had HD do both our front door and back door about 4-5 years ago. They subcontracted out to a local company that I had not heard of previously, but their work was wonderful and the guys were great and we even went back to HD later for a corian countertop same situation, they subcontracted out to a company that mainly installed in business, but again, I was very very happy. They did make a mistake on the style of the edge, but were more than willing to fix it.

 

[KristiMc]

We had a door and side-lights installed by a Lowe's contractor a few years ago and he did a great job.

 

[Kimmumum]

HD just installed our front door last week. The guy was very friendly and knowledgeable. I would recommend them. HD also offerred installation for only $42 which is why we got the door when we did.

 

[bnorm27]

It is very hit and miss with some of the store installers. We had a garage door opener installation guy come out from HD, and he didn't even have all the tools necessary to do the job. He also told me I needed to purchase an extra part (which I really didn't need, and luckily was able to return). I asked them for someone else, and the guy they sent out was great. He did a dynamite job.

I saw the first guy installing a storm door on my neighbors house a few weeks later. Hope he did a better job with that!

I also think that the installation is guaranteed by HD.

 

[kate0305]

I think it really, really depends on who Home Depot contracts to do their install. You could get good people or not so good people.

I agree. Our Home Depot install was great!! He had to build out the jam because the facade of the house is brick and the old door jam was too narrow for a new door and new storm door. It took around 4-5 hours, the doors look and work great. He was very respectful of the house and the people in it- even chatting with my kids who were fascinated and wanted to sit and watch. The only complaint (and it is a small one) is that when he built out the jam, he left the barcode stickers on the outside rather than facing them in towards the house, and I had a hard time getting them off to paint and prime. Like I said, minor!!!

 

[clorenzen]

We had HD install our laminate floors. While the contractor did a good job, dealing HD was an absolute nightmare. They were also supposed to replace all the carpet in the bedrooms, but they lost our carpet for 8 weeks! We ended up cancelling it b/c they said it would be 4-6 weeks. And they tried to sell us unnecessary expensive things and then double charged us for things, tried to sneak in cheaper substitutions to bring the price down, etc. I would not recommend HD because of HD, not because of the contractor.

 

[MrsPete]

I have also had a negative experience with Home Depot's installation. They installed laminate countertops in my kitchen a couple years ago, and it was much more stressful than it shoudl've been. Oh, they were eager to take my order (and my money), but they weren't so quick to get the contractor out to my house! It took me about two weeks to get the appointment with him, then he called to cancel and we started all over again.

In contrast, when I had my backsplash installed, I used a small local store . . . what a difference in service! They didn't charge me to come out to my house to measure, they were quick to make the appointment and to do the work (because I didn't pay them until it was done), and the price was about the same. I LIKED working with the store's OWNER instead of a big-box employee.

I learned my lesson. Guess who's installing my hardwood floors next month? Hint: It's not Home Depot or Lowe's!