Most homeowners think that by buying from bigger “warehouses” they’re getting a better value and price. You know maybe for what you’re looking for it may be the only choice. However, as a contractor, I really don’t shop at Home Depot too much.

Now what I do. Let’s say I need a whole deck. I’ll call around to see who has the better price. And all the time the lumber yard is the cheapest and to mention much better quality of wood. Hey, that’s just for wood. They have to be better and cheaper. So next time you’re buying wood give your local lumber yard a try.

This is what I do. One I never ever buy wood from Home Depot. I need good straight wood so I end up at a real lumber yard. It just cracks me up that when I do shop at Home Depot I can see a dozen or so, so-called contractors with a load of wood. Humm, let’s see this again. They park 200 feet from the store, look for a cart. Now they push that cart, load their wood, wait in a long line, push a heavy cart through the parking lot and then load. To where a real contractor calls the lumber yard up and gets it delivered or just go there and THEY LOAD IT while the contractor signs or pays for it. Now that’s just funny.

I’m not saying to shop at these big places. Hey if you need a garbage can, the hardware you be OK.

I hear this one a lot. But the employees there really know what they’re talking about. OH my, if they really did they wouldn’t be working there. And for no money. They only know what they know because Home Depot, in this case, makes them read a few pages they call PK “Product knowledge” To where a contractor reads experience.

 Private Label

I was once forced to match a laminate floor for a customer. I was building an addition and I had to match their existing laminate floor they Home Depot installed a year prior. I called the manufacturer to try to locate a place where I can buy some. To my surprise, Pergo explained to me that the product is only made for Home Depot. So now I was forced to shop there and buy some crazy prices.

How about this one, I learned this one a few years back. I was asked to pick up a Delta faucet model # bla bla, I just don’t remember. So anyway I picked it up from my local supplier for about $50. more than what Home Depot had it for. So of course, I returned it back to my supplier but not before I bought the one from Home Depot. So now I have both of them in boxes right next to each other. Humm they have the same model number. But one weighs about three pounds more than the other.

LOL, get ready for this one… One was made out of metal and the other cheaper one (Home Depot) was made out of plastic. I could not believe it. I brought both of them back to the homeowner so they could make the choice. Yes, they picked the real one. The metal one. So that really educated me on what goes on over there.