The Home Depot Downsizes Exterior Installation Services

Home Depot is eliminating roofing, siding, insulation, and gutters from its installation service categories. 

“We’re only exiting these four programs,” said Home Depot spokesperson Stephen Holmes in a prepared statement. Eleven installation categories remain in the company’s offerings, including an “exterior home” category, which now covers fence, pergola, deck, solar panel, generator, and solar water and pool heater installation. 

“Going forward, we will focus our efforts on installation categories that enable us to deliver the best customer experience, while simplifying processes and business structure,” Holmes stated. 

But roofer Sam Fullerton thinks he understands what the company’s saying. “I’m not surprised,” says Fullerton, who owns Summit Roofing in Washington, D.C., and has previously worked as a Home Depot installer. “I think they’re finding these exterior services are more challenging than they expected. In my experience, their pricing was a bit higher than average, and organizing exterior replacement contractors on a scale like theirs is akin to herding cats.” Fullerton says when he did work with Home Depot, the jobs were often last minute, which meant they would take them only if their schedule was free. “We would take the jobs if we could. But what do you do if you’re Home Depot and a contractor drops out last minute?” He says that those problems happen all the time, especially in roofing. “I think Home Depot knew it wasn’t sustainable long-term.” 

The action resulted in layoffs, with Home Depot placing the number of jobs lost at “fewer than 1,000.” Unconfirmed reports—based on an online discussion between laid-off Home Depot workers discovered on message board site TheLayoff—indicate that the downsizing is primarily happening in California, Florida, Georgia, New England, and Wisconsin.

Home Depot did not reply to requests for comments beyond its initial statement for this story.