8.27.2019

PSA: Do NOT use the Home Depot for Kitchen Reface/Renovations

Our nightmare Home Depot Kitchen Renovation:

We moved into our small ranch in May of 2015. Our kitchen had medium color oak cabinets, an ivory formica counter top, a 30" electric coil stove, no hardware on the cabinets, and a small stainless steal sink. Over the first 18 months, we purchased a new refrigerator and dishwasher. We held off on buying a new stove because we knew our goal was to switch to gas, and my husband and I also wanted something bigger than 30" because 4 burners was not enough for me!
I went out on a whim and painted the cabinets myself using Annie Sloan's chalk paint, in Paris Gray. You can read about that here. I loved getting rid of that old cabinet look, and loved the fresh look the chalk paint gave, but once you repaint cabinets it has a domino effect. You'll want a new counter, then a new sink, then a new everything else! We went to Home Depot to look at counter tops and instead left with an appointment for someone to come over and quote redoing the whole kitchen. This was not in our budget and not something we had much interest in - all we wanted was a new counter!
In June, we made the decision to go with it - reface all of the cabinets (a portion of the cabinets being built new), new counter, farm sink, and a dream stove that I could never imagine having. Home Depot quoted us 3 to 5 days and started the job on July 1, 2019. Two local subcontracted gentleman came over and started the job.


Here is how it all went down:
  • We received the wrong style knobs with half of them being the wrong color. We were unable to find the correct knobs in the color we wanted, and ended up having to go to Lowes to buy all brand new knobs and handles. We are still waiting for a refund on this.


  • After the job was "complete," my husband and a friend went to install the range ventilation hood and the space was not wide enough. The installers had to come back and shave down a portion of the cabinet to meet spec.
  • In doing so (shaving down one side of the cabinet), they cracked the reface material... I have to also mention it looked awful.. the way it was shaved on one side and not the other.

  • Once the hood was installed, I walked up to it and it was literally below my face. Home Depot did not take the specs I sent into consideration (since we purchased a commercial style stove, we had a commercial style hood that stuck out further than a standard hood) - so we had to have the installers back to rip out the brand new glass door cabinets, and raise the hood 13". 
  • The counter top was installed at this time, and because of the way home depot built the farm sink cabinet, we were unable to put the faucet close enough to the sink, as well as the soap dispenser. The soap dispenser does not reach to the point of hanging over into the sink, and washing out hands is difficult because the flow of water is close to the back of the counter top, causing water to splash and fill up on the back. An employee at HD told us to "have them redo that because it is 100% incorrect" - unfortunately we were unable to have it redone because the back splash.

  • We waited two weeks for material to come in to reface the entire wall (the wall where it was cracked). They finally came, the hood was raised 13" and the entire wall was refaced in the WRONG color. We did not know this until the evening (after they left) because the daylight caused shadows making it hard to tell. It was a much lighter gray.

  • The Home Depot ordered new reface material which was promised to be ordered overnight. They had issues getting the material from Canada so it took another week to come in. When it arrived, Home Depot asked me to come in to do it on a Saturday. Normally that would be fine but this was my son's first birthday and we were expecting 40 people over. 
  • The Home Depot pushed me out another two weeks because I denied them doing the job on that Saturday. They told me it was my fault that the job was still incomplete (among other things that should NEVER be said to a customer) .. Because we were so fed up, we picked apart every shitty area (pictured below) and made them redo it all at the time of refacing the correct material. We also had them level the hood which was installed crooked. They added molding to hide uneven spaces under the counter top and redid areas where the cabinets met the wall to cover spaces. They also had to redo the rollout drawers which were all installed incorrectly (on the bottom of the cabinets instead of in the center). When one rollout drawer broke after a one time use, they came back to fix it again.


  • The job was finally completed 48 days after it started. I missed many days of work, and my husband had to be docked from his new job to be there on days I couldn't.
  • We continue to wait for a call back from the home depot (I attempted calling corporate 3 different times with not one call back), and continue waiting for the project manager to call back to discuss refunds. 
  • We also just got the error fixed on our home depot credit card account which was supposed to give us 24 months interest free, yet they put it thru for 6 months only. 



Am I happy with our kitchen AFTER all of the fixes the last month and a half? Yes.. we picked out all of the colors and decor together. I am thrilled with our gorgeous Bluestar range, and the fact we have gas now! I am in love with the back splash, that my talented husband Kevin installed. We are obsessed with the silestone counter top color that we picked out 5 years ago when we bought our house. 

Am I satisfied with the quality of work that was given by Home Depot? No.. What about their customer service? I am actually truly disgusted with the customer service we received from a project manager named Peter. To tell a customer "turn the news on, there are worse things going on than your kitchen cabinets" really deserves someone to be fired in my opinion. That is NOT someone that should be working with the public in customer service, especially for a multi billion dollar company. It is a very poor reflection on the Home Depot. This whole experience was NOT worth the money we spent and the stress we've been put through. While I await for refunds and corporate to listen to my complaints, I will continue sharing my experience to everyone I know and urge them to use a different outfit to do their kitchen renovations.


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