<p>I am thinking to use HD to do carpets or flooring and notice they do offer a long list of contractor’s service. However, I have not used them before. Dose anyone here had experiences with HD. I know HD is just a middle man, they just out source the service and collect a hefty fee, that worries me a bit. OTOH, if the work is good and price is fair, what do I care.</p>
<p>Their “BASIC” carpet installation service worries me a bit. The deal is that if you buy the carpet(incl. padding) from them, if the total cost is over 500 they will do the installation for $35. What worries me is they will nickle and dime me to death and the total cost will come out the same or even more.</p>
<p>Personally, I would NEVER contract through Home Depot. They have contractors on a list and you really have no choice in who comes. I just don’t think you have the same customer control as when you get a recommendation from friends or relatives for a contractor…who has done good work.</p>
<p>If it were me, I’d be asking around for recommendations about flooring folks. We used a local carpet/flooring place and the cost was about the same as Home Depot. Plus, we had several friends who had used the same place with good results.</p>
<p>I agree with Thumper. If the HD contractors actually worked for HD, I’d feel differently, but it’s very random as to whether you’ll get someone good or not.</p>
<p>My BIL is on one of these lists for HD and all he did was to ask HD to put him on the list. He very much over estimates his skill level and believes he can do things he is not qualified to do. I’d ask friends for recommendations before I’d use an HD list.</p>
<p>We are looking to have a vinyl fence installed in our backyard and have gotten about a dozen quotes. We know no one to give us a recommendation, so we have been going off reviews we can find online and who has the best warranties-- this is not a project we can ever afford to have to repeat. We just had Home Depot out last week as one of our last few quotes, and I did love the product and warranty that the particular company they sent was selling. Their quote, though, was 25% higher than our next highest quote-- which was a bit on the high side of average, so Home Depot was higher than high. I think it was worth a look, but we’re obviously not going to go with them. </p>
<p>Lowes came out and was on par with our other quotes, so if I am happy with the product they are offering and it has a better warranty than the other companies, we may end up going with them rather than just picking an independent local company. It will just depend on the details. I really want that warranty and whoever makes me most comfortable will probably get our business.</p>
<p>I look at HD and Lowes as an opportunity to get hooked up with a company we may not have tried yet. We only considered them with a long list of other quotes in our pocket already. We hadn’t stumbled across the one HD sent out yet and once we researched them they did get rave reviews. They just cost WAY too much! So, not worth it.</p>
<p>I bought a carpet through HD and used their included (low cost) carpet installation. The carpet was one of their lower cost ones - one of the popular ones they have readily available. This was for a house I was selling.</p>
<p>I think the installer did a fine job. It was actually apparently one of the largest carpet installation companies in the area (a major metro area). It wasn’t just some random individual contractor individual. I’m sure the carpet installation company had a vested interest to do a good job because losing the HD contract would cost them plenty. They were professional and the workmanship was good. It was a relatively simple installation job because the house had no really difficult areas to handle but still, they did a good job and I’d have no problem using them again for this.</p>
<p>There was no nickel/diming - the cost was what it what stated. They do, however, charge more to move furniture out of the way. I just spent a few minutes and moved the furniture out of the way myself.</p>
<p>Obviously the companies HD uses for carpet installation will vary with the location but for carpet installation, at least in my area, they use a large company rather than a random individual. The results could vary depending on the location and companies being used by HD.</p>
<p>For a tile job I contracted with a highly recommended independent contractor - not someone through HD.</p>
<p>Installing carpet isn’t that difficult and not a highly skilled job - it doesn’t require the skill level of installing tile.</p>
<p>I don’t have any experience with any other contractors through them and generally do almost all my own building/install/repair work anyway.</p>
<p>I recommend Angie’s List. I use them to learn about anyone’s reputation. Many companies are not on the list at all, but of the ones that are that we’ve used, with good reputations, they’ve been wonderful.</p>
<p>We have had carpeting and vinyl flooring installed by HD and they did a beautiful job both times. The workers were very polite, cleaned up after and all was good.</p>
<p>We are considering having them install quartz countertops in the kitchen. Not sure what we will decide on that yet.</p>
<p>Our neighbors had carpet installed by a HD contractor. So far as I know, they were very pleased. The job took longer than estimated but was still completed in one day, and they were not charged anything extra.</p>
<p>We had a wall size book case and cabinet designed at HD and purchased. Someone had given us the name of the person they used to install. He was excellent. We kept his card and have used him since. I don’t know if I would go in blind, so ask around.</p>