Lowe’s or Home Depot make window replacement a breeze. They provide a turnkey service to provide you with the windows, offer the support to order 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 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 window brand 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 “house” 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 ranked third.

In addition to store brand windows, Lowe’s replacement window offerings also include the Pella brand. Pella has been in the window and door business for over 75 years and has a reputation for providing quality products. Pella’s after-sales 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 great window manufacturers that have years of research behind their product. Like Pella, buying Andersen or Jeld Wen windows assures you that you’ll get manufacturer support after the store purchase.

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

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 each store has dedicated, trained staff for specific departments in the store, it’s not always easy to determine how much experience that person has with the product you’re selling. An employee in carpentry (windows) today might have been in electrical 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. Still, you should always make sure that the person helping you with replacement windows is the most qualified person in the shop. This will ensure the details are covered and your order is correct.

Installation quality

One of the attractive aspects of big box home improvement stores is that they provide installation services along with replacement windows. The “one stop shop” aspect makes it easy for homeowners to avoid having 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 shop 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 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 heist 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 or she must reduce material costs or reduce labor costs. If material costs are reduced, you may not get the best caulking or the highest quality trim around your 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 earn the money the $200 per window installer earns. 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? Supermarkets use volume to compensate for their low installation price and to achieve volume they must install as many windows as possible in the shortest possible time. Keep this in mind when considering the quality of installation you’ll receive for the price the big box stores offer.

(The above statements are not meant to disparage box shop installers. They are hard working people just like you or me and they put effort into the work they do. Just be aware of how the system works before you start a project with a box shop.) boxes so you can not be surprised at the results if they are less than desirable).