Forum Archive

Last week we went to bid to several contractors for our renovation, and several of them were adamant we should buy the materials.

One in particular, even though we have thoroughly spec’d out exactly what we want for tiles, fixtures, etc., did not want to be responsible if he buys the wrong tiles, etc.

My fear are with things like lighting. Tiles I guess we could order, along with the fixtures, but with lighting, I don’t want to order the wrong housing if some housing has to be a certain type or another.

I suspect we would save $$ if we purchased rather than the contractor, but what are people’s experiences?

If you had a choice in balancing $$ versus convenience, where would you concentrate on purchasing directly and where would you insist the contractor do the purchases?

Again, being a newbie, my gut was to have contractors purchase the recessed lighting and items where there are special pieces that may depend on how they do the construction.

Thanks in advance.