Sand the wall with 80- to 120-grit sandpaper on an orbital sander's pad. At Lowe's, signage was larger and price stickers were consistent; there were few, if any, missing tags. - 1,777 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. You may need to connect several together to be able to go all the way around the larger rings. For the deck project, the pre-tax total was slightly lower at Lowe's: $1,368.31 vs. $1,382.50 at Home Depot.On our more general shopping list, 11 products were cheaper at Lowe's, with average savings of just over … Home Depot, by contrast, seemed harder to navigate. Cheapism researched each home-improvement store to see which offers the better prices, and the better value, for your limited renovation dollars. Check that your moisture barrier, underlayment plywood and plank fit under your door casing and door. Lowe's specifically says original shipping charges are nonrefundable, while Home Depot says it will refund them if the return is a result of store error. Lowe's doesn't hold regular workshops and has discontinued its own kids' workshops. Both Lowe's and Home Depot offer price-match guarantees. At the time of our price check, a Frigidaire side-by-side refrigerator at Lowe's was discounted to $150 less than the counterpart that Home Depot sells. If you have a plywood subfloor over a concrete slab, check the moisture level of both floors. To compare Lowe's vs. Home Depot prices, we drew up a list of items from flooring to lumber to mulch. When deciding whether to rent or buy tools, consider price and availability. This allowance covers imprecise math, irregular pieces and cutting mistakes. - Reserved parking and dedicated checkout lanes. Payments are spread equally over up to 84 months, and the maximum loan is $55,000. Large retailers like Home Depot and Lowe's offer their own house brands and carry some high-priced "exclusives" like appliances with slightly different features and store-specific model numbers, which rules them out for price matching. If the new floor will run parallel to the room's length and floor joists, you need to reinforce the subfloor with an additional piece of plywood. One was 14x20 and one was 17x17. Note: Cheapism does not accept or publish guest blog posts. The APR ranges from as low as 17.99% to as high as 26.99% based on creditworthiness. If they don’t fit, cut 1/16 inch to 1/8 inch off the casing and check again. ring or spring clamps (optional); I made mine out of PVC. Lowe's posted the lowest prices on 11 items from our list, including four types of interior paint ($4 less per gallon for house brand paint with flat, eggshell, or semi-gloss finish), engineered hardwood flooring (a difference of $2.37 per square foot), and bagged mulch (more than 30 percent savings). Nail-down or floating floors may be installed over existing vinyl as long as it's no more than two layers thick. There are myriad conditions and exclusions to these price-match policies, however. It operates more than 2,284 stores in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. If you're gluing the new flooring to the subfloor, use a sander to remove paint, oil, wax, adhesives, sealers or other material and then thoroughly vacuum off dust and debris. Both stores will arrange for truck delivery of large items such as lumber. Lowe's has 1,777 stores in the same three countries. You'll need to know how to level a floor: Just sand any high spots and fill the low spots with leveling compound. Since we have a small dog, it won’t get bigger than 10 pounds, I bought two pillows. The cost of the remaining 18 products was essentially the same at both stores (less than a 1 percent difference). Thoroughly vacuum the existing floor, and use a long floor leveler and tape measure to ensure the subfloor is level within 3/16 inch for every 10 feet. Power in the category of store facility, which includes factors such as store cleanliness, organization, and layout. However, Home Depot, by a slight margin, is the largest home-improvement retailer. Now, subtract the manufacturer’s expansion gap from the measurement to create your guideline measurement. Measure the distance between the center point and the starting wall. Continue sanding the area until the paint is no longer shiny. Both offer 60 days to pay with no interest and fuel discounts at participating Shell stations to cardholders who enroll. Contrast that with the cost of buying a brand-new saw outright at Lowe's, where they start around $100. Do this by multiplying the room’s length by its width. Home Depot undercut Lowe's on only 9 items, by an average of just over 9 percent. We opted for the smoothest and thinnest sheet we could find, just one-quarter inch thick and relatively smooth. While an original receipt is preferred, both stores specify that they can often retrieve receipts in their systems if customers provide the credit card, debit card, or checking account number used for the purchase. Home Depot stands out for offering free weekend workshops for novice renovators that focus on common home improvement projects (times and dates are posted on the website). Additionally, it was easier to locate and price out merchandise at Lowe's, where the aisles were more spacious and simpler to navigate. Unroll any required underlayment and moisture barrier in long strips, joining each row with tape. Hearne's massive, on-site 67-inch band saw and equally wide belt sander make short work of most sizes of hardwoods. Check the manufacturer’s instructions for specifics on acclimation periods. Home Depot focuses on contractors and other paid construction and repair workers with a dedicated Pro Desk and offers perks including reserved parking, dedicated checkout lanes and order loading, a two-hour turnaround on call-ahead or online orders for pickup in-store, expanded selection, exclusive discounts, and reduced pricing on orders over $1,500. - More associates approached us to offer help; staff seemed more experienced and knowledgable. All opinions are 100% mine. Our local stores do not honor online pricing. Both Home Depot and Lowe's offer extend lines of credit to qualifying customers who want to finance their home improvement ventures. Lowe's bases its delivery charges solely on how far a customer lives from the store, while Home Depot takes into account things like delivery window (a shorter amount of time costs more) and whether you want threshold service (unloading closer to a job site or your home, such as in the garage).