So... you hire the big box place... who then, contracts out your job to a workroom. A workroom is nothing more than somebody sitting behind a desk, usually desperately trying to find sub contract installers to work for them. The workroom or the store, also hires a measure company. That's 4 different companies, all wanting part of your hard earned money. It also leaves plenty of places to pass the blame around, when something goes wrong with your flooring installation.

Retailers & workrooms often increase material estimates to ensure more than enough flooring is on hand for the installation. As well, of course the extra money in their pocket. Retailers using third party labor subcontractors, overestimate to make the installation easier for them; including making up for miscalculations, on the job mechanic errors and pattern matching issues. Overall, material & labor estimates received from retailers are 80% to 120% higher than estimates received from an independent flooring contractor like myself.

The long term ramifications of installing flooring through retailers using third party labor subcontractors, leads to service issues, major communication issues and labor issues that can destroy customer satisfaction. as well as erode the floorings service life. The cost for installation by a retailer using a third party subcontracted installer, for a one time job can be as much as $3.00 higher per square foot.

Exactly what makes purchasing flooring such anxiety producing and often disappointing process, is that customers don’t know how important things like informed staff, excellent service, skilled installers, owner with ethics, etc are until they’ve gone through the process and gotten burned. Until then, they think the only thing that matters is price.

Asking someone who has had a good experience for a reference is usually the best, but be warned: if they say: Home Depot, Lowes, Empire... you need to have: the same store, the same salesperson, the same installer, the same product, etc. to increase chances you’ll have the same positive experience. These are not VARIABLES with the "little guy", but GIVENS. The "little guy" needs to survive by word of mouth.

As for Home Depot as a corporation, they have been trying to do to the independent flooring retailer what they did to the hardware stores and keep failing. Their business model simply is not designed to provide customers with the sort of information, knowledge, and service they NEED when purchasing flooring. you've got to give them credit though, they don’t give up! Maybe some day they’ll figure it all out and revolutionize the industry. Until then: buyer beware!

As for Empire Today just Google Empire today and see what top hits you get. ANYONE who buys from Empire gets exactly what they deserve. Empire Today advertises a lot because they DO NOT and CANNOT rely on word of mouth for their business, like independent contractors. The commercials generate a ton of volume, sales is a pressure cooker, gauging is the order of the day (so the people who they get the most are little old ladies) the quality of the flooring is clearly inferior (just ask the 200 plus people on www.complaintsboard.com) etc.

Flooring, appliances, home repair, etc. are where the scammer’s go because it’s almost impossible to “return” it, and once you’ve made such a purchase, you won’t be in the market for it for a number of years, so it’s not like they lost your “repeat” business!

Do you homework, challenge the clichés in your head (they are big, they must be cheaper) and don’t listen to just one man’s opinion.