Just wanted to hear perspective from those that regularly do business through Home Store Services and do a lot of Lumber Liquidators installs.....

What is the business like? Good service to work for? How busy does it get?

Im doing a bit of research on installation services and wanted to hear other's opinions....

Thanks.

i dont, but one of my regulars is the only guy in town that LL uses for installs. Its sounds like you do a ton of estimates and it does turn into a large amount of work. The downside is half the time you are working with crap product. Ive been told it changes almost week to week as to what kind of quality they are selling. Some good and some bad some middle of the road ect. Overall I hear you have to hound them pretty well to get on the list but once your on, your on until you have a major problem.

And I bet half the time your out fixing jacked up floors. Plus, I heard they like to dictate your labor prices. Just like most retailers who like to control the price of labor. You have to agree to their pricing structure or your not in. This keeps us installers in servitude. Keep labor low so they can make more profit. Great for them, bad for us. Eventually bad for the industry and consumer who is led to believe they are buying high quality wood for pennies on the dollar. The consumer may get krap wood, the industry and installer more than likely gets a bad rap.

Who do you think they are kidding?

I feel that working for those guys is the sort of thing that under cuts the whole market.IF no one installed for LL or Home Depot ,etc , it would be much easier to command a proper dollar.

More money can be made by doing excellent work and making relationships with good builders and remodelers / carpenters. Then you can source your own wood from a good supply house .

But sadly, many amateurs and start ups try to get into the business through LL and the like. I will never install their product.And my business is growing.Not that I'm getting rich but my business continues to prosper.

I feel that these types of gigs are only for those who don't know how to market themselves. Working for them, is like contributing to the downfall of our trade. Look into internet marketing, get a website of you don't have one, optimize for the best exposure online and get jobs yourself.

Just looking at LL comments and came across this one about marketing.

I know a guy in Jacksonville who recently closed his retail business. Damned shame too because he does know what he's doing. BUT, he never had decent internet exposure. For many years he's depended on the seven Home Depots in and around Jacksonville.

Says he's content with it.

Btw, anybody getting leads from Houzz?

It's definitely one not to ignore. I'm going to guess leads are better too.

Also looks like they approve pics? I'm just guessing because I haven't seen the all too common over or under exposed photos.

http://www.houzz.com/pro/stephen-perrer ... llation-co

I'll take that as a compliment Ken, thanks.

We've done a few of these, but try to avoid them. The ones we've gotten have been by customers contacting us directly (e.g. by finding us online). We did them more in my early years - both because we needed more biz and also because I didn't realize the potential issues.

In general, the customers that use LL are not our target customer. They is very price sensitive and don't care about quality...and ironically think that they got a good deal.

The milling of the LL products are very poor and that creates all sorts of issues and doesn't set my guys up for success. Also, I've had plenty of people that already bought the product...and of course got the wrong type. I hate delivering bad news like this.

They tend to also attract more people in apartments w/ concrete subfloors, and inevitably there are more issues there (vs. plywood subfloors) w/ all sorts of leveling issues that the customers don't realize and don't want to pay for.

We do not put a warranty on LL installations as their product is so bad. Usually, we try to avoid them now, but sometimes I find someone at my office didn't screen so well.

Thankfully, we are so busy now due to our online presence, Angie's List and repeat customers. (Oh, and BTW, low repeat rates w/ LL customers). I'd focus on other lead sources if you can.

Debbie Gartner aka The Flooring Girl
http://TheFlooringGirl.com

JUst remember LL will give you additional over 5% BUT do not install anything that is out of specs regarding crook, overwood etc. as installation is acceptance and they will not do a thing if it is installed no matter how bad it is. All mfgs have this requirement. Yes you are the final inspector!!