Lowe’s or Home Depot make window replacement a breeze. They provide a turnkey service to provide you with the windows, offer the support in ordering them, and even provide an installation option to install them. By creating a “one-stop shop,” big box stores can cover it all. However, how do you know if you’re getting the best window replacement project you can get from the big box stores? The following information details three areas to consider when choosing a box store to supply your replacement windows.

window quality

Both Lowe’s and Home Depot have several options to choose from when selecting replacement windows. For starters, each store has their unique brand of window that is only found in their store. Lowe’s offers the Reliabilit line of vinyl and Home Depot offers American Craftsman vinyl windows. Both lines of windows are exclusive to each company, which means you won’t be able to find the window brands outside of their respective stores. If you’re concerned about the quality of the “home” brand of windows, you should know that in a 2007 Consumer Reports test, Reliabilit scored the highest of the vinyl windows tested and American Craftsman scored third.

In addition to store brand windows, Lowe’s replacement window offering also includes the Pella brand. Pella has been in the window and door business for over 75 years and has a reputation for quality products. Pella’s after-sale service support ensures that if you have a problem with your window, it will be resolved. Home Depot sells the Andersen and Jeld Wen brands. These are large window manufacturers who have years of research behind their product. Like Pella, buying Andersen or Jeld Wen windows assures you that you’ll get support from the manufacturer after your store purchase.

Window quality should not be considered a major concern when shopping at box stores. With house brands ranked at the top of Consumer Reports and other name brand window companies available, you’ll be able to find a product that meets your quality level.

Experienced personnel

Buying and ordering windows is not brain surgery. However, there are many different factors involved with ordering replacement windows and it requires someone familiar with the process to ensure that the order is correct. The challenge homeowners face with stores like Lowe’s or Home Depot is achieving consistency in the employee experience. While every store has dedicated, trained staff for specific store departments, it’s not always easy to determine how much experience that person has with the product they sell. An employee in carpentry (windows) today could have been in electricity three weeks ago.

This is not to say that whoever buys you replacement windows at any of the stores doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Both stores hire strong staff, are well trained, and are very willing to help customers. Even so, you should always make sure that the person helping you with replacement windows is the most qualified person in the store. This will ensure that the details are covered and that your order is correct.

Installation quality

One of the attractive aspects of the big box home improvement stores is that they provide installation services along with the replacement windows. The “one stop shop” aspect makes it easy for homeowners not to have to find a contractor to install their windows. Plus, big box stores offer installation prices that are relatively inexpensive to fit most project budgets.

Before you commit to having store installers do the job, you should always look for other installers to do the job. Find out what the average installation costs are for your area. Chances are that when you compare installation prices to Lowe’s or Home Depot prices, you’ll find that the box store price is significantly cheaper than a professional installation company or installer.

Before you think you’re getting the steal of the century, keep this in mind: The process for removing and replacing a window is basically the same whether you pay $100 or $200 per opening to do it. If the job is done for $100, in order for the installer to make the same amount of profit as the $200 installer, he must either reduce material costs or reduce labor costs. If material costs go down, you may not get the best caulk or the highest quality trim around windows. This can cause wood to rot and windows to leak.

Similarly, for contractors who charge $100 to install a window, they have to install twice as many windows to make the money that the $200 per window installer makes. This means that they would have to spend half the time installing a window. If the basic process is the same, how good is the installation if they are taking half the time to complete? Large stores use volume to compensate for their low installation price and to achieve volume they must install as many windows as they can in the shortest possible time. Keep this in mind when considering the quality of installation you’ll receive for the price that big box stores offer.

(The above statements are not intended to disparage box store installers. They are good hard working people like you or me and put a lot of effort into the job they do. Just be aware of how the system works before starting a project with a box store so you can’t be surprised by the results if they are less than desirable).