Home Depot Expo Remodeling Projects

For years I had anticipated the day I could afford to remodel my kitchen with 'top of the line' cabinets. In Aug. 2011 I finally made the splurge to the tune of approx. $10,000 for Thomasville cabinets and countertops. Installation was set for Sept.16th. This was the worst day of my life.

The installer told me, when he arrived and saw my old kitchen, that he does not do 'tear downs' of old kitchens. He called his company, Greencraft, and Callie told him he had to tear them down. the installer was upset and rude to me. He started yanking and pulling on my new Maytag dishwasher when I asked what he was doing. He told me he was instructed to remove the old kitchen and he was pulling out the dishwasher to put in my garage. I told him he was going to break the door pulling on it like that. I told him it was new and the installers of the dishwasher had some screws they put in on the bottom. He got down, tore off a panel and undid the screws. I called Home Depot immediately to tell them how inept this man was and that he had broken my new dishwasher ($705). Home Depot called Greencraft and was told that a supervisor was being sent out.

To this date (Oct. 17) that supervisor has not arrived. The installer proceeded to break a water value, flooding the old cabinets, tore a large hole in the wall removing the stove vent and caused the wires to touch shorting them out. He used the wrong size screws causing the screws to come out in the next cabinet and splitting the frame. Home Depot made sure that eventually all the damage the installer did to my cabinets were repaired. Now I have Thomasville 'scratch and dent' cabinets that I paid full price for. Home Depot was also good about repairing the water valves, the electrical wires and the large hole in the wall.

However, it has been over a month and I still have a dishwasher on which the door will not close due to a broken latch and water leaks from all around the door if you try to use it. I have been in touch with Home Depot Corporate and all I get are words like "I'll call you back next Thursday to see if the problem has been resolved". I also got a call from someone named Tammy who is apparently with Home Depot's insurance. I spoke to her over a week ago and she was to get back with me after she spoke with the Home Depot store manager. All I know is it has all been one month and I still have a kitchen I paid $10,000 for and a broken dishwasher. This is all so very sad. I am a senior on a pension and I had so anticipated this wonderful kitchen. Why would Home Depot subcontract with a company like Greencraft? Why won't Home Depot stand by me, the customer, and replace my dishwasher?

The store employees at my local Home Depot are fantastic. I wish I could say as much for those they subcontract with and for those that work in Home Depot Customer Service.

The total monetary cost was about $8500.00, but we also have not been able to use the room, as we haven't completed the rest of the decoration etc in the room, as we want to see what happens in regards to the floor

Timeline:

4/5/02 Floor purchased with $1.00 per sq. ft. subfloor installation fee recommended by sales associate because wood floor was to be installed over concrete Total cost $4,813

5/21/02 Floor installed by International Floor Services contractor of Home Depot Expo Center without preparation to the subfloor

6/17/02 Floor buckled in hallway and main room. Buckle was length of hallway and 8 ft in length in main room. Other small raised areas in main room.

6/26/02 Customer contacts International Floor Services and IFS attempts to repair buckles by removing hallway wood and 1ft into main area. No wood was left from the initial installation and several pieces of the wood were damaged during removal. These pieces were used to reinstall the hallway with excessive use of wood putty. No thresholds or T-molding was used between the hallway and bathroom adjacent to hallway. Instead International Floor Services places wood putty between floor and marble threshold of the bathroom.

7/5/02 Floor buckles in same locations as 6/17/02. Customer contact International Floor Services to report floor is buckling for second time.

7/20/02 Customer returns from vacation to find water damage from condo air conditioning condensate pipe. Floor damaged areas are bedroom carpet and hallway. 7/23/02 Customers insurance company comes to condo and assesses damage. Insurance sets up 2 fans and 2 dehumidifiers. Insurance tells customer to report damage to installer. Customer reports flood damage to International Floor Services

7/25/02 International Floor Services inspects damage to floor. At this time IFS does not inform customer that he no longer works for the Home Depot Expo Center. IFS does not inform customer that warranty is voided after water damage unless the entire floor is replaced. IFS tell customer that floor should be removed in hallway area and 5ft from hallway in the main area. IFS says they will order materials and set up install date at a later time when the concrete subfloor is dry.

7/26/02 International Floor Services contacts customer and tells customer to order 10cases of floor and 60 ft. of molding. Customer orders these items. Order Number 177217. Total cost $1240

8/2/02 International Floor Services removes wood from hallway and 3 ft from hallway in main living area. Customer pays IFS $600 for removal of damaged wood. IFS does not inform customer that by paying IFS directly customer no longer has a warranty from Home Depot Expo Center.

9/11/02 International Floor Services installs floor. Customer pays IFS $850.

9/20/02 Floor buckles in same locations as 7/5/02 and 6/17/02.

9/25/02 Select Floors, a contractor of Home Depot Merrifield, inspects floor. Tells customer that floor needs to be completely reinstalled with preparation to subfloor. Select Floor tells customer that there are various flaws in the installation which include not leaving space under shoe molding for expansion and contraction of the wood and no preparation of the subfloor. Select Floors estimated cost of repair and reinstallation. Total cost estimated by Select Floors $1350 to level subfloor, $1611 to install wood, $192 to install base moldings, and $ 1533 to take up existing wood. Total cost estimated by select floor $4686 not including cost of new materials.

9/28/02 International Floor Services inspects buckles. Asks customer if any wood is left over from installation. Customer tells IFS that no materials are left. IFS tells customer that wood does not need to be pull up. IFS tells customer to run a dehumidifier.

10/1/02 Customer contacts Home Depot Expo Center and is notified that the warranty of the floor was invalidated by paying International Floor Services directly and by not removing all of the wood after water damage. Problems: No preparation of subfloor prior to initial installation Deception of International Floor Services to customer after water damage

Total cost of repair $7000 emotional damage and stress at least another $7000!

The contractor was contacted and he came out within two days to take measurements. When he was done I was told that the measurments I gave Expo center were "right-on" and that he would be able to get to work in the first week of July (barely making my time schedule). Again another two weeks pass and I recived a call from Expo center saying they just got the measurements in and that the order had to be increased by 28% due to my mismeasurements (the same ones that the contractor said were "right-on") and that it wouldn't be until the end of July before they could even get the tile. Now luckely Expo hadn't ordered the tile yet so I was able to back out of the the deal, but they dropped the ball twice and raised the price of the job from $5800 to $6400.