HOME DEPOT HOME SERVICES

The estimate was so far beyond any other that I feel the hours I spent with him was a complete waste of my time.

On January 13, 2013, I met with a salesperson to price replacing 10 windows including a very large living room picture window. He arrived at the precise time expected and he was very knowledgable and professionsal explaining in detail what I should expect. The project is available to view online step by step and they also update with emails. The installation began on 2/1/13 and ended on 2/2/13. The first day the windows were installed and completed on the inside. The following day the exterior work was done. The independant contractor who did the work by himself worked quickly, quietly, and did not leave any debris for me to clean up. Extremely neat. He worked with a shop vac by his side and he used it.

The installation process was far from satisfactory. The installation was not completed in one day as promised. The uncompleted exterior work on one window was not secured against rain for two days. The patio door and one window did not fit in the openings. The exterior caulking on three windows with shutters was not done properly. The workers did not check that the windows opened and shut properly after they installed them, and in fact two windows did not. All of these problems were brought to the attention of the field inspector, and fixes were offered for all of them. We accepted some of the fixes, but the level of knowledge, skill and responsibility displayed by the field inspector and the installation crews inspired so little confidence that we declined some of Home Depot’s offers to redo unsatisfactory work. Our story in detail: We needed a full-frame replacement on the patio door. The original interior trim had been brought an inch into the house due to a storm door on the patio door. We were concerned that the new door be installed normally, without projecting an inch into the house, and discussed this issue repeatedly with both the salesman and the field inspector. The crew arrived at 11 a.m. While the crew was installing the windows, we at first stayed out of the way, in the yard. When we came in for lunch, we found the crew attempting to ram the new patio door into the opening. The amount of force they were using was alarming. We noticed that they had not removed the interior casing yet. We stopped them and told them they were to remove this trim and install the door flush with the wall. The crew immediately agreed to remove the trim and did so. The door was forced into the opening but did not seem to fit the opening. The door frame was smack against the studs and there was a wide gap at top. This did not seem right to us. The field inspector assured us that this was normal. When the new bedroom window was placed in the opening, it was obviously too small. At first, the crew used a spacer (vinyl channel) to fill some of the gap, but even with the spacer, there was a ¼” inch gap at the top and bottom. This gap was obviously too wide to be caulked. Both the salesman and the job inspector had measured the windows. The salesman had told us that while other companies may use spacers to hide a poor fit, Home Depot never did that because this would create “insulation voids”. We objected to this installation. The field inspector tried to persuade us that “some situations require this and that’s why manufacturers make the spacer.” He then conferred with the crew and had them reinstall the window without the spacer, leaving even wider gaps, to our bafflement. We refused to accept the window. The field inspector agreed to replace the window. We happened to notice that the crew had not removed the shutters, but had instead caulked around the outside edge of the shutters. They had not caulked along the gap between siding and window. When making the bid, the salesman had asked if we wanted to remove the shutters ourselves or have them do it for a charge, and we had agreed to the charge for shutter removal. We were shocked at this work and told the crew leader that we had paid to have the shutters removed so that the trim would be properly caulked. The crew readily agreed to redo the caulking and removed the shutters and caulked behind them. Unfortunately, we did not catch them before they replaced the shutters on the wet caulk. They then caulked on top of the inside edge of the shutters. We were shocked at this as well. We expressed our dissatisfaction to the crew leader. He asserted that he always did shutters this way and argued vehemently with us. We called the field inspector again and left a message. The crew left after dark. The interior casing on the patio door still needed to be done. We were too exhausted at this point to even remember that the exterior of the bedroom window was unfinished and not secured against rain. On Thursday, we inspected all the windows. We noticed that the large sliding window in the kitchen did not operate properly. We saw the top of the frame was sagging so that the top of the sash caught on the security stop. We saw that another large slider also sagged, though to a lesser extent. We also found that the screen door did not latch smoothly and appeared to be bowed. The field inspector came to our house on Thursday. We expressed our concern about the exposed bedroom window, which we considered urgent, particularly with rain predicted for that night. He agreed that the crew should not have left the house exposed like that. He said he would send a crew right away to seal this window. We did not want the same crew and he agreed that a different crew would finish all the work. We showed him the problem with the patio screen door. He attempted to adjust the door but damaged it in the process. A replacement screen door was ordered. We expressed our dissatisfaction with the shutter caulking. He agreed that the shutters should never have been caulked on the outside and did not try to defend the crew’s work. He offered to have the shutters removed again and the unnecessary caulk cleaned off. We declined this, fearing that more damage would be done. When the inspector left, we expected to get a call that a crew would seal the bedroom window from the elements that day. No one called on Thursday. It rained on Thursday night. On Friday, the second crew came to finish the work. They were unprepared with the correct materials for the interior finishing, but they sealed the exterior of the window with aluminum trim. They came back on Saturday to finish the patio door trim and to fix the non-sliding slider. The second crew made several unsuccessful attempts to fix the kitchen sliding window, drilling more holes in the frame in the process, before removing the security stop and shaving off enough vinyl that the sash could slide freely. About two weeks later, the second crew returned to install the replacement bedroom window. In the meantime, we had discovered that you could see daylight through the frame of the patio door. We showed the crew this spot, and they caulked it. As the crew was preparing to leave after installing the bedroom window, I checked the operation and found that it did not slide freely. I rushed out to tell them that this window was also sagging. They repeated the previous scenario in the kitchen of drilling needless holes in a futile attempt to raise the security block, before shaving down the security block. When preparing to paint the trim around the patio door, we found that the trim was loose. The gap at the top of the patio door was so wide that the casing was nailed into the foam rather than the drywall or frame. The casing was so loose it could be removed by pulling gently with bare fingers. When the job inspector brought the replacement sliding screen door about a month later, we told him about the trim falling off at the top. He offered to insert a piece of wood into the gap to provide a backing for nailing the trim. We declined this solution because we had lost hope of getting a decent job out of them and decided to deal with it ourselves. The replacement screen door also did not latch properly. At this time, we discovered that the patio door itself was slightly bowed, not the screen door.

There were issues early finding materials in the stores. It was an uncomfortable feeling when the salesman has different products than the store.

The process is the biggest problem with Home Depot. They give you an estimate in the store. After you select your product, they give you an estimate on how much it will cost. At that time you pay for the measurement. Next the measurement company comes to your house. Every step in this process is separate. The measurement company only measures, that's all. Based on this information HD determines materials, method of installation, amount of effort, etc. They didn't look at what it would take to install floor in my NEW home until the installer came out. Because the floor was not 100% level (more like 98% level), they recommended that I pour a new floor, add plywood, raise another part of the floor, and change the installation method for double the estimate! Then in order to consider alternatives, you have to come up with them on your own, call the service desk, they call the installer, then circle back to you for every single question! I asked for a refund and hired someone else!