| Author | Message | ||
     Vegasbueller |
When we bought this place back in May we started a complete remodel. It had been so neglected for the past 10 years it needed a facelift of sorts(The house has a "famous" history, but that is another story) In December we decided it was time for the dining room and kitchen tile. We went to the local Lowes store and picked it out. Now the fun starts. They sent a guy out for the estimate. I looked at it when we were paying for the work and I told them that their estimate was wrong, and they were shorting themselves. I got the "we do hundreds of these a day sir, we know what we are doing". Then I pointed out that their math was wrong. They screwed up the simple L X W=sq ft. Again... the same answer. So we left. Then the install started. About half way through our dining room the guy looks at me and says... (drum roll)"we don't have enough tile"  Now... they have to order the tile from Italy..again! Get the picture.. My fridge is in the living room, the stove, washer, dryer, dining table, antique radios, dish washer, and chairs are in our "great room". It takes two weeks to get the tile in, and then we have to reschedule the installers. I wont even begin to repeat some of the conversations with the Lowes people. So the tile comes in, and they start laying the new tile. Yayyy...NOT! I came home from work the night after the grouting is done and everything is said and done and my wife met me at the back door. No, not the happy wife, but a wife who is standing there in tears! Why tears??..because now I have a kitchen that has two different color tiles with the dividng line right down the middle of the kitchen floor! We call Lowes and the first guy we get says "well I can offer you ten percent of your carpeting Mr Moody".  Umm yeah, right. Yesterday we had the district manager of Lowes, and the owner of the flooring install company in our home. Needless to say there is a BIG lot of tile on its way from Italy, and new carpeting, and who knows what else on the way to the Casa De Bueller for free. There is more to the story that could take pages. But...I just wondered if anyone else has had this kind of problem with jsut trying to get a fairly simple tile job done. | ||
| Whodom |
Vegas, We went through something almost as bad last fall. After Hurricane Katrina, I volunteered to go to the Navy SeaBee base at Gulfport, MS to do hurricane damage assesssment of Navy facilities. Spent 3 weeks down there working ~14 hour days 7 days a week, sleeping with 5 other people in a small RV. While I was there, my wife calls and asks if she can go ahead and get new kitchen floor I'd been promising for ~3 years. I say sure, I'm making some good OT here, this'll be a good time to do it. She's hoping to have it all done by the time I get back. Estimator comes in, measures floor, says "BTW, you can save yourself ~$500 if you pull up this old flooring. They WILL NOT install new flooring on top of it, even with new 1/8" plywood underlayment on top." She calls guy at Lowes and he says "Yea, you should pull it up yourself. It's not hard at all." Yea, right. Naturally, work can't be done for a month or 2, so I come home and start pulling up old floor. Stuff is glued down with unobtanium cement. I call and ask how clean does floor have to be for new installation? "Oh, it has to be perfect". Like that's even possible. I mention that underlayment is particle board. "Oh, we will not install new flooring on particle board". DO WHAT? I say "Look, I have destroyed my entire kitchen floor based on YOUR directions and work estimate, and NOW you're telling me you WON'T install new floor?" Lowes also says that if floor doesn't meet the installer's requirements when he gets there with new flooring, he will not install it and we will be charged ~$100 for a wasted trip. I'm getting pretty steamed by this point. Estimator comes back out, looks at bare particle board floor and says "Oh, I didn't see that. Yea, you'll have to pull up all this flooring and replace it with 5/8" plywood." I spent the next week with a crowbar and hammer pulling up ~10 sheets of 30 year old particle board, which naturally came up in 2" x 2" pieces. (My daughter's boyfriend was very helpful and did a good half of it himself.) Then I spent a good 2 weeks at night after work installing new 5/8" plywood. The floor was finally installed and my wife is happy, but I don't think we'll be trusting Lowes to do anything for us any time soon. | ||
| Bikergoddess |
My brother and I decided to buy our mom a new stove, since her circa 1950 green built-in monstrosity oven quit and the burners on the range were flaky. She didn't really want to replace with like, but a range-top would require some remodeling. We told her to look around for something she liked and get estimates. While at Lowes, for something else, she saw a range-top that was almost exactly what she wanted for half off. She went ahead and bought it that day, after explaining, in detail (and trust me, they got *detail*), how the current oven/range were laid out and what would likely need to be done. Both the oven and range were gas, but the range-top was a combination, so there was going to be electrical work, plus cabinetry work. She scheduled the install on a Friday she'd be off from work. Guy was hours late, then called to get directions. He asked her how to get on the highway out of town (which is directly in front of the Lowes store. As in, you have to be on it to get to/from the store). Because of the high number of accidents, the county paved over about half the crossovers, so you have to go to the next exit and turn around. He couldn't figure out how to get back on the highway. When he finally arrived, he said he couldn't do two of the three things needed and she'd have to schedule someone else to cut the cabinets and run the electrical. I told her not to let this guy work on the gas, if he couldn't figure out how to get back on a highway from the entrance ramp. So, the stove sat in the middle of the kitchen for another two weeks until they could schedule the other people, and they had lots of microwaved food. When they did get it finally put in, they blocked the cabinets (plus she'd already lost what had been under the range). I believe she's storing pans in the old wall oven until she can find someone who's not a complete idiot to build cabinets there. Personally, I'm getting tired of paying 'professionals' who are incompetent. Don't get me started on the movers I hired... Laura | ||
| Dana P. |
Vegas do your self a favor. I'm into floors thats my Biz and I used to help install which many of my friends are either Subcontractors for flooring stores or own a flooring store. Go to a place that,thats what they do only. Lowes,Menards,etc only use subcontractors and usually not good ones because these large retail stores do not pay what the job is worth to the installer that has to pay his own insurance,tools,etc. So what you get in the bottom feeder installers. Problems can arise with floors over time.... sometimes and I'd rather have a reputable flooring store backing the work then a huge hardware store. Good luck!!! (Message edited by bads1 on January 28, 2006) | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
My wife works for the French equivalent of Lowes, I will NOT let any of their agreed contractors in my house. If I can't do it myself, I'll pay someone whose business is doing that thing, & I'll try & get local recommendations first. Another thing with those big stores is that you generally end up paying more than if you paid a specialist, plus nobody wants to take responsibility when it screws up, they all just try & play the blame game. Have fun anyway. | ||
| Vegasbueller |
Laura: Typical from what I have seen and heard now. Ohh yes...movers... our bed was ruined and the bike was scratched all to heck when we got to Florida. And we tipped the guys like a hundred bucks for working so fast! Dana: Thanks! What happened was the install company that was contracted to Lowes SUB CONTRACTED another scum bag bottom feeder. Now I am not picking on the kids, but I wanted to throw this twenty something year old over my knee! On the good side of it right now is that when all is said and done I may end up with free carpeting, the back florida room recarpeted and maybe even some other work done for free. The District manager was pi$$ed off! I guess they don't follow up on their contractors at all. grumpy: Most anything else I will do. Paint, electrical, construction, etc. I do that myself. The roof and the flooring are two things that I know nothing about and yes, did trust that we were getting "professionals". Thanks too! | ||
| Vegasbueller |
ok...add another strike. While talking to one of my neighbors about the BBQ parking today he says..."So what are you gonna do about the fence?" And of course I ask what about the fence. He shows me that the floor contractors cleaned all their equipment along the side of my wooden privacy fence. We were planning on a new cedar fence next year but I still didn't want a big white splotch on this one! All the Lowes manager could say is ...ohh my god. | ||
| Vegasbueller |
Whodom: What a mess man! Did they offer any money back or anything? | ||
| Newfie_buell |
Well, We just bought a 41 yr old 5 bdrm house in the East End of the city. So Grumps, next time your in town you got a spot to stay. Same goes for anyone else too. The lady that owned it had passed away about a year ago, the house sat empty until last Tuesday when we took possession. Well the house was decorated in 1975 and still was to last week. I now have 1000 sq ft of hardwood flooring, 1000 sq ft of laminate floor and about 300 sq ft of ceramic floor tiles sitting in the house. This don't include the paint and other bits I got to get. The past two days I put down about 400 sq ft of laminate flooring (my first time) and it came out absolutely great. I have put down ceramics in the past and its really not that difficult. Now I do have a professional installing all new windows and doors so I have yet to experience that. The thing is that flooring is not that difficult if you can get your head around it. As for putting it down, so long as you use a good covering of plywood of at least 1/2 inch with LOTS of coarse wood screws there will be absolutely no problems. I'm glad we don't have a Lowes. | ||
| Mr_grumpy |
I had a pro do all the tiling here last year, we had underfloor, geothermal heating installed, so it HAD to be right. All the rest upstairs is 8mm oak parquet, laid & glued on 19mm chipboard, which I did myself, & it looks great. I've become quite daring about DIYing having seen how some so called professionals work, I now have the mentality, "hell I can do as well, if not better than that", & after all I'm doing it for me & my wallet, so I can stand slight imperfections at that price. Any of you guys get over my way I'll happily, put you up, lend you a bike & proudly show you my work. | ||
| Toona |
The saying around my house is, "I'd rather do it myself and not be hapy with it, than pay someone else and not be happy with it." | ||
| Toona |
The saying around my house is, "I'd rather do it myself and not be happy with it, than pay someone else and not be happy with it." |
