Fixtures and Parts

Where should I get my fixtures? This question is asked often along with “Can I supply my own parts?”

There are many large “all in one” stores out there where you can get many of your electrical, plumbing, and building supplies. If you ask just about any professional contractor where they get there materials, most will say the name of the closest supply house. Sometimes, the prices they pay at the local supply house may even be slightly higher than that of the “all in one” stores, however, there are many things to consider:

• The convenience of a nearby supply house will save time & money. How long does it take to drive to a place 20 miles away and much will the gas cost you to drive there to save a buck or two? Most of the time, the fuel savings alone would save you money overall.
• Talking with someone who actually knows what you’re looking for is sometimes hard to find at the large “all in one” stores.
• You don’t get the same quality of product. Ask any contractor of any trade and most could probably tell you stories of parts and fixtures they had installed in the past that were supplied by the customer. Many times there were parts missing and if this happens now you could be wasting your valuable time retrieving the correct parts and now your contractor is held up and you’d be paying extra labor expense. I’ve been told the rumors many times that the quality isn’t the same, even if the brand and model # are the same! I’ve confirmed this a couple times personally where a customer supplied a fixture that was the same brand and model # of what I get from my local supplier. I found that the metal was not only a different color but also not as thick as I was used to, which explained why the price they paid may have been less than what I could’ve purchased it for.
• Warranty (typically 90 days): If we supply the part and something is wrong with it, we will not charge labor to replace it. If you supply the parts and something isn’t right, you will of course need to pay any labor to replace it. We can not be responsible for any supplies not supplied by us.
• It will typically cost you more in our labor to make a list of parts for you and explain what we need than if we just supplied the parts ourselves.
• I recently had a customer supply me with some track light fixtures they wanted me to install. They were no where near the quality of the track lights I would typically supply. The parts that were supplied to me were wrong. I explained to the customer the correct parts needed. Another 2 hour round trip was made (travel time, traffic, dealing with a busy store, and cashing out, etc.) to get the correct part (brand specific, only supplied by this type of store). When the customer returned, they gave us the part which was still not the correct part. They said they even talked to the person in the department and explained what was needed. Now a third trip was made (another 2 hour round trip) and finally the correct part was brought to me. How much time and money was wasted to try and save a couple dollars?

Many times I will send a customer to my local vendor store to pick out the major fixtures and give me part #’s. I will then either order the fixtures myself or they can pay for them directly. This way, if something is wrong, I know who to call and how to get the problem resolved as quick as possible to save on labor costs. Also, I will most likely be familiar with the products purchased, which will further save on labor to install.