Bathroom Countertop and Undermount Sink
Valley Countertops are the contractor Home Depot uses when you buy countertops through them. We purchased a Silestone countertop to accomodate an undermount sink for our bathroom.
V.C. came out to do the measurement about 2-3 weeks after we booked it through Home Depot, which was fine. Another 3-4 weeks later we finally got the call that they were ready to install. They weren't available to book anything until 2-3 weeks out, so plenty of waiting was going on here.
For the actual installation, I can't imagine a less qualified pair of installers. First they tromped through the house with their muddy boots on (without asking permission). V.C. claims it is a safety requirement in their contract with Home Depot. (My suggestion to our customer service rep was that they use slip-on boot covers if they installers aren't allowed to take their boots off!). The installers then proceeded to drill the holes into the countertop in the WRONG place: IE the two faucet handle holes were not evenly spaced from the center faucet hole. (The right hole was 1" futher away than the left hole). They also did the absolute sloppiest job of gluing the undermount sink on, with dried glue hanging down from the underside of the countertop, and glue all over the bottom of our new sink! Finally, they did NOT silicone the rim of the sink to the countertop, meaning the sink would have A) Leaked into our new cabinet and B) Fallen down the first time we filled the sink with water (despite the copious glue everywhere).
Anyway, VC has sent out a more experienced installer to try and "fix" the issues: They have redrilled the holes so that they are more evenly spaced, and they have reinstalled the sink with proper silicone.
The only good thing in this whole experience was that our customer service rep (Trina) actually returned phone calls and messages (not that you can reach her on the first try...she must be busy fielding angry customer calls). Otherwise, this is one of the worst companies I've dealt with, and I've just finished building a new house, acting as the GC for the entire project.
I should know better than to use a box store (Home Depot in this case, but really pick your box store and you will get the same headaches) for anything that requires installation. I should know, because I used to work for Totem Building Supplies (now Rona), and we had the same issues. You always get the worst contractors doing the installations for the box stores, because any contractor worth their salt stays away from the box stores.
SUMMARY: STAY AWAY FROM VALLEY COUNTERTOPS, STAY AWAY FROM HOME DEPOT INSTALLATIONS
- Approximate cost of services:
- $1,000.00