Anyone used Home Depot to fit their bathroom or kitchen, for example?
(I'm Calgary area)

Received a delightful little pamphlet in the amongst junk mail highlighting all the services they offer - and of course, I believe, I believe

It would be fair to say that I would not have opted for B&Q in the UK for installation of the above for a variety of reasons - and one reason being I knew where else to look for these supplies and services (and better quality?), and I knew all kinds of tradespeople to help us out.

I'm starting afresh here, know no-one in any trade - and with the shortage of good tradespeople and much sucking of teeth if you ask, I'm getting desparate for a new en-suite bathroom that doesn't cost me the $25k that I was quoted last week. And hubby has neither the skill, time, nor inclination to do much apart from change the odd light fitting at the moment. I'm more capable on the DIY front, if I'm honest - tiled our last four bathrooms and kitchen - but once we rip out the current suite, half the room will come down with it and I just can't do all that on my own !

Any showrooms around the City? - I went hunting for a few via the phonebook, but some had changed, some did not exist anymore, and I couldn't find one at all.
Anyone recommend a man-that-can ? ( or woman ?)

May be worth sending a PM to Morwenna as she had her basement ripped out and redone. I have seen it and it looks fantastic. No doubt she will be able to recommend her builder.

We've thought about using Home Depot service, probably more expensive than hiring a local contractor but it's not like they get the kids from the stores to come out and have a go, they subcontract but I would imagine that they have established firms they use that they know are reliable. So the advantage you have is that you know you aren't going to get a cowboy and you have a coporate entity with which to deal that has to maintain an image and hopefully wouldn't contract out to people who rip you off. So you get a job with a decent guarantee but probably pay more for that. Depends I'd guess how much you have to spend and how much work you want to put into finding a decent contractor compared to just going in to Home Depot and getting it all taken care of simply. Other places do it to like Rona etc. Also I guess one advantage is you could whack it all on a Home Depot card at 0% interest and take a year to pay it off.

I would imagine that Home Depot are quite picky about their contractors and that the contractors themselves are well aware of the ramifications of not doing good work. We've bought a couple of Persian shutters from there and are in the process of getting more. These things are custom made and the measuring/fitting needs to be done by a pro. The guy our local Home Depot use comes all the way from Montreal. He shows up when he says he will and does very good work. Home Depot phones after for customer feedback.

This all sounds very interesting...I'm after an en-suite in the basement when I get there. Understanding the pifalls of trying to get credit in Canada I can see there being a problem in getting hold of one of these cards.
Has anyone here who's recently landed tried to get one?

Even more relavent. Home Depot use Mike Holmes extensively in their advertising. Your not going to tell me that Mr Make it Right would give his blessing to anything with the remotest chance of a problem? Might make for an interesting HoH episode though......'I chose the contractor through Home Depot, from the flyer with your picture on the cover. Permit? Oh no they said I didn't need to bother with any of that........................'

I met him in a pub once. Nice guy but not nearly as big as you might think. Well-muscled but really quite short.

noooooooooooooooo,, short?? another illusion shattered.

Sorry luv.

I'm five ten in thick socks, I was looking down on him. He smokes, too, just to further shatter your illusion. And he has an earring.

He also advertises Nestlé which makes him a total twat in my book

I see the forum filters are working as well as usual. That's rather a rude word in these parts poppet.

N**tlé? I agree!

Why? I seem to remember something about baby milk but I'm not sure.

http://www.ibfan.org/site2005/Pages/...rt_id=23&iui=1

Evil bu**ers, allegedly send their 'sales representatives' out to africa dressed up to give the impression they are health visitors. They hand out 'free' samples of formula to mums...just enough until their own milk to dries up.

The mums are then forced to buy baby formula to continue feeding their babies, and can't afford it...so they have to dilute it....with contaminated water...because that's all they have.

As the link says, a baby dies every 30 seconds due to unsafe bottle feeding.

Aren't you glad you asked???

Nicky

I won't click on the link but I get the general idea. Thanks.