Advice please: Purchasing kitchen countertops.

9 years ago

Hi, I am remodeling my kitchen and have hired a contractor. In the contract, he put an allowance for granite or quartz countertops. I have been shopping around to get prices for the materials that I am interested and went to the granite dealer that he works with. When I asked the sales lady for the estimate, she said she would send it to the contractor and he would discuss it with me. She would not let me know the estimate directly. Does this seem sketchy to anyone? I am not sure how this type of thing is usually handled, but I feel like I should be able to know the number she is giving my contractor.

How should I proceed with this? Should I find my own countertop place/fabricator?

Any advice would be helpful.

Thank you.

Featured Answer

User

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

If the GC/installer allows it, the stone yard will allow the homeowner to be treated as the buyer even if the final cost is paid for by the contractor although they would still only how the relative costs in the yard because fabrication charges vary with the actual slab selected. In my part of the world, hidden mark-ups are a thing of the past.

Also, the associated costs of an Allowance item (like installation, overhead & profit, storage and delivery) should be in the base fixed contract amount and the Allowance amount should represent only the actual cost of the materials, therefore, there should be no profit mark-up in an allowance and contractor discounts and rebates should be subtracted from the final allowance price unless the quality or installation difficulty can be shown to have increased enough to reevaluate the original associated costs in the base contract. So, even if the stone yard understandably doesn't want to reveal the contractor's discount, the actual cost of the stone must eventually be revealed to the owner by the contractor.

Of course, many homebuilders do not follow industry contract accounting standards and make up their own standards with no explanation in the contract and sometimes include installation, overhead, profit and other associated costs in the Allowance amounts thereby creating a nightmare for the owner.

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Comments (7)

User
9 years ago
Standard business practice. You are not her customer. You are a third party. The contractor is her customer. Your contract is with the contractor, not the stone yard. You wouldn't want the contractor discussing the dollar figures of your project with your neighbor or his plumbing supply house either. It's between you two only.
aschulth thanked User
PRO
mdln
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
That is how it works. Some places had the stones labeled in categories for cost comparison.

Suggest make a list of all your top selections and wait for the cost comparison from your GC. (Unfortunately, not like going to the tile, appliance or lighting store and being able to compare prices.)

Was surprised my marble choice came back less expensive than the granite & quartz I picked, glad I included on my list.
aschulth thanked mdln
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aschulth
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you both very much for your input. I had no idea how this process works, so I appreciate the advice.
aschulth
Original Author
9 years ago
JDS- Thank you so much for that insight. That is exactly the things my husband and I were discussing, because our contractor did include his profit/overhead as a line item in our contract. He did forward the estimate to us and the cost of the quartz/installation appears to be very fair and lightly less than an estimate that I got from and independent stone yard. So it looks like he is being fair and not uncharging us.

I really appreciate you taking the time and providing this information to us!

Thank you!
calumin
9 years ago
I'm a homeowner who just went to a stone yard yesterday and bought a quartz slab, at a contractor's discount, and had it sent to my GC's fabricator to cut.

i don't know why contractors like to make everything "simple" for the homeowner in a way that things aren't transparent. With my GC he gives me an allowance and I shop around, if I can get a better product or better price, he's happy - otherwise he does the purchase. Either way I know exactly how much everything costs including fixtures and labor.
aschulth thanked calumin
aschulth
Original Author
9 years ago
That's that's a great arrangement and it seems fair. My GC sent me the estimate from the stone yard and it was cheaper than what I was quoted somewhere else, so I am happy.

Thanks for weighing in!