How long does a kitchen remodel take?
So, you are going to have your kitchen remodeled! You know that the process is going to affect your day-to-day life and you need to know how long the disruption will last.
So, how long does a kitchen remodel take? How long will the design and planning phase of a kitchen remodel take? How long will the construction phase of a kitchen remodel take? What variables could cause a kitchen remodel to take longer? How can I keep my kitchen remodel from getting delayed?
Don’t worry, we’ll answer all of these questions!
How long will the design phase of my kitchen remodel take?
The design phase of a kitchen remodel can be broken up into a few parts:
Cabinet layout & design
Product & finish selections
Scope of work & estimate creation
The timeline for each of these is largely affected by how much time you, the homeowner, have available to make decisions. So, it will vary widely from person to person and family to family.
The design & planning phase of a typical kitchen remodel will generally take about 6-8 weeks from start to finish.
Here is how this will play out:
How long does the cabinet layout & design for a kitchen remodel take?
At the initial consultation & dreaming session (the Explore It phase of Our Process), we will gather the measurements for your space and get an idea of what you are looking for in your transformed space.
Once we know how much space you have to work with, it will be time to move into the cabinet layout & design phase. This is where we will work with you to create a plan for your kitchen, including the placement and sizes of the various cabinets that will go into your new kitchen.
It will usually take approximately 1 week to create the first iteration of the cabinet plan. Any changes you request will take a few days to make, so depending on how many changes are required, a cabinet design can take anywhere from 2 to 4+ weeks to finalize.
2-3 weeks is a pretty typical timeframe for the creation of the cabinet design in an average kitchen remodel.
How long does selecting the products & finishes for a kitchen remodel take?
Once the cabinet layout & design is complete, it will be time to pick out the countertops, backsplash, flooring, sink, faucet, cabinet pulls, and appliances.
Even if you find most of these products online, you will likely need to make at least a couple of trips to various stores and/or showrooms to verify that the products are to your liking.
The decisions that need to be made in this phase can be done as slowly or as quickly as you need. If you are in a hurry, you might be able to make all of the decisions in a week, but 2-3 weeks is a better expectation for an average homeowner with commitments at home and work.
How long will it take to get a quote for a kitchen remodel?
Once the cabinet layout is done, we can get started on creating a scope of work for your project. There will likely be some details that we will need to sort out after you select the finishes you like.
Once all of your selections and design decisions have been made, we will need a week or two to verify the final details and get pricing from our suppliers and trade partners. So, you can expect to have a contract in hand within 2 weeks of making your final selections and design decisions.
How long will the construction phase of a kitchen remodel take?
Just like the design phase, the construction phase of a kitchen remodel is composed of a few different parts, all of which can vary in time from project to project.
These parts are:
Demo
Rough-in
Drywall
Cabinetry installation
Countertop & backsplash
Flooring
Paint
Plumbing & Electrical trim-out
Appliance installation
Hardware & punch list
All of these tasks will need to be completed during the construction phase of a kitchen remodel.
The construction phase of a typical kitchen remodel will generally take between 5 and 7 weeks from start to finish.
Here is how this looks on a typical project:
How long does the demolition phase of a kitchen remodel take?
The demo phase of a kitchen remodel is, arguably, the most fun part of the whole project! It is fast-paced and it feels like so much progress!
After 1 day of work, the demo phase of your kitchen remodel will be mostly, if not completely, done!
How long does the rough-in phase of a kitchen remodel take?
After demolition, it is time to install the things that go in the walls and/or floor. This is the time that wires and pipes get moved or updated (if necessary), blocking gets added, and walls get shimmed.
The electrical & plumbing rough-ins will each take approximately 1 day for simple projects where fixtures don’t need to be updated or moved.
If a lot of changes are being made, the electrical rough-in can take an additional day or two, and the plumbing rough-in can often take the same, if not more.
The blocking and wall shimming will take a day or two, but it will often happen within the time the electricians and plumbers are on-site. So, it won’t always add time to the project timeline.
If walls are being moved to make space for a larger kitchen, this will require another phase: the framing phase, which can take a week, or longer.
Long story short, the rough-in phase for a typical kitchen remodel will generally take between 3 and 5 days, depending on the project.
How long does it take to install drywall in a kitchen?
It isn’t always necessary to replace all of the drywall during a kitchen remodel. Often, we will remove a section of drywall in the backsplash area of the kitchen. Our electricians will use this space to run wiring, then we will install new drywall, flushed out nice and flat for the installation of the backsplash.
When the drywall is done in this way, it will only take a day to complete the drywall phase of the project.
If it is necessary to replace all ceiling and wall drywall in the kitchen, the drywall phase of the project will take between 3 and 4 days.
How long does it take to install kitchen cabinets?
The cabinet installation phase of a kitchen remodel is another phase, like demolition, where it feels like a ton of work is getting done in a short amount of time!
Most of the cabinets, in an average kitchen remodel, will be installed within 2 days. If your kitchen cabinetry is very complicated, or there is a lot of intricate trim work, this time might extend for 2 or 3 additional days.
Generally speaking, though it will take between 2 and 3 days to install all of the kitchen cabinets, toe kick, and crown molding.
How long does it take to install kitchen countertops?
Let’s be honest, kitchen countertops can be a real hassle when it comes to scheduling! The process for having stone slab countertops, whether they are granite, quartz, soapstone, or marble, is this:
After the cabinets are installed, the countertop company will come to the site to take measurements and make a template of the area where the countertop is going.
Once this template has been created, this information is brought back to the countertop shop where they will cut the stone to perfectly fit within the space.
The template cannot be done before the cabinets are installed, and the time between the template being created, and when the countertops are cut and ready for installation will vary based on the countertop company’s workload.
Sometimes the time from template to installation is 1 week, sometimes it is 4 weeks! Yay! This is always fun for the scheduler!
This is one area where it really pays to work with a general contractor (like Rothrock Kitchen & Bath Remodeling). Because a general contractor buys many countertops per year from the countertop company, we usually get preferential treatment. While a homeowner may need to wait for 4 weeks for a countertop during a countertop company’s busy season, a general contractor will likely have the same countertop within 2 weeks!
If the template is scheduled in advance, it can usually be done within a couple of days of the cabinet installation. Then, it will generally be between 1 and 2 weeks from template to completed installation, if you are working with a general contractor. This will be more like 1 to 4 weeks if you are working with the countertop company directly.
How long does it take to install a backsplash in a kitchen?
Just like how the cabinets need to be installed before the countertop can be installed, the countertop has to be installed before the backsplash.
If you are getting a stone slab backsplash, to match the countertops, this will be done with the countertop. So, if you go this route, the backsplash will be complete when the countertops are complete.
Tile backsplashes, on the other hand, will generally take 2 to 3 days to install and grout.
How long does it take to install a kitchen floor?
The time required to install a kitchen floor will vary based on the flooring materials used.
A luxury vinyl plank or engineered vinyl tile floor will usually take 1 day to complete.
A prefinished hardwood floor will take closer to 2 days.
A porcelain tile floor will generally take somewhere between 3 and 5 days, depending on the size of the tiles and the complexity of the installation (large format tile will go faster, hex tile or mosaic tile will take longer).
How long does it take to paint a kitchen?
In most kitchen remodels, there is not a lot of area to paint. the cabinets will usually come from the factory already painted. The kitchen cabinets and backsplash will take up most of the wall space.
What you will have left is the ceiling, window and door trims, and maybe an accent wall.
All of this can usually be painted in one day, sometimes two days.
How long does it take to install a kitchen sink and faucet?
After the countertop and backsplash are installed, the plumber can come back and install the sink, faucet, and any other plumbing fixtures, like pot fillers, drinking water filters, or beverage faucets. This is called the “plumbing trim-out.”
This is usually a single day’s work on smaller projects and 2 to 3 days for larger projects.
How long does it take to install lighting in a kitchen?
The electrical trim-out will be done around the same time as the plumbing trim-out: after the cabinets, countertop, & backsplash are installed.
The switches, outlets, undercabinet lighting, and ceiling lighting will be installed during the trim-out phase. This will generally take 1 to 2 days, depending on how many fixtures need to be installed.
How long does it take to install kitchen appliances?
Appliance installation is something that seems like it would take less time than it does. The good news is that it still goes pretty fast.
A full set of electric kitchen appliances: range, microwave, dishwasher, and refrigerator, can usually be installed in a single day. If you have gas appliances, like a gas range or gas oven, these will take a little longer. If your home has LP gas (propane) instead of natural gas, you can add another half day for the gas fitter to install the LP conversion kit.
How long does it take to install knobs and pulls in a kitchen?
We’re getting down to the last few tasks! It is time to install the knob, pulls, and shelves in your new cabinets. This is also the time when we will adjust the cabinet doors and drawers to make everything look pretty and function as it’s supposed to!
This is usually less than a day’s work, and the results are so satisfying!
How long does the punch list phase of a kitchen remodel take?
The punch list is the technical term for the odds and ends that need to be fixed before the project is complete. The things on this list are usually tasks that couldn’t be completed earlier, like installing a special order or replacement product, or repairing damage that happened during construction, like touching up “dinged” wall paint.
When you hire skilled professionals, this list will usually be short, and easily completed in a few hours. If special order products are involved, though, it can stretch out for weeks as your contractor waits on the manufacturer and supply house to get him the product he needs.
What could cause a kitchen remodel to take longer than it should?
We’re sure that “pretty much anything” isn’t the answer you were looking for, but it’s not that far from the truth!
The most common things that cause kitchen remodels to take longer than they should are:
Failure to plan properly
Unforeseen problems
Material delays
Labor delays
Some of these are within a contractor's and/or homeowner’s control and others aren’t. If you seek to avoid delays (as most of us do), you would do well to control what you can and prepare yourself to accept what you can’t control.
So, the big question is:
What can I do to keep my kitchen remodel from being delayed?
Plan Properly
As the saying goes, proper planning prevents poor performance.
Often, homeowners are so excited to get their project started, they try to fast-track the planning phase. Unfortunately, many contractors fear that if they don’t allow the homeowner to do this, they won’t get the job. So, they agree to fast-track or delay the planning phase of the project, in order to get the project started.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but if the contract you signed with your contractor has allowances in it (or if there is no written contract at all) this is what is happening on your project.
Allowances are a placeholder in the budget for a decision that has not been made yet (Read more about allowances Here). If you wait until the construction phase of the project has been started, there is a good chance that the decisions you make could delay the project.
If you wish to avoid these delays, be sure to plan absolutely everything you possibly can before anyone arrives to start work!
Budget for unforeseen issues
It’s scary to think that there is a possibility that you could run into problems during construction that you have no control over. But, sometimes that’s exactly what happens.
We recently had a kitchen floor project where, when we removed the old flooring, we found that rainwater from a roof leak had been running down the inside of the wall and under the flooring, causing structural damage that no one would have known about if we hadn’t removed the old flooring!
We couldn’t do anything to prevent the delay that this unforeseen problem caused, but there would have been further delays if our clients hadn’t had the funds to deal with the issue!
You can’t keep these unforeseen issues from arising, but you can minimize the delays they cause by creating a budget to cover them. We recommend that you keep at least 20% of a project’s cost in reserve for these types of issues.
Order materials ahead of time
Material delays can be controlled, to some degree, by ordering the products ahead of time and storing them on-site until they are needed. Sometimes this can’t be done, and sometimes a product that was ordered ahead will arrive damaged and will need to be re-ordered.
But, you can minimize delays by ensuring that the products with the longest lead times or the biggest potential of causing a delay are on-site before the work starts. This will include most of your finishing materials: cabinetry, flooring, backsplash tile, appliances, etc.
Hire a general contractor
Delays caused by the workers involved in the project can be hard to avoid. One of the best ways to avoid worker-related delays is by following the three recommendations above. Once one thing is delayed, it tends to trigger another delay, and the delays start to snowball. If you can prevent the planning and material delays, you will have a better chance of avoiding labor delays.
The other thing you can do is hire a general contractor. Because general contractors have established relationships with the trade contractors, and we give these tradesmen consistent work, we tend to get preferential treatment (to learn about the differences between general contractors and trade contractors, read the article here).
If a material delay keeps your plumber, for example, from installing the faucet, it can be hard to get him to come back once you have what he needs. He is far more likely to “fit it in” for a general contractor because he doesn’t want to harm the relationship he has with the general contractor.
How long will my kitchen remodel take?
We know, this has been a lot! Thanks for sticking with us!
In this article, we explained that the design and planning phase of a kitchen remodel generally takes between 6 and 8 weeks time.
We described how long each building task would take, and how it all adds up to about 5 to 7 weeks of time spent on the construction phase of your kitchen remodel.
We also talked about the things that are most likely to cause your project to be delayed, and how to avoid them.
Hopefully you now have the information you need as you set out on your remodeling journey! It will take some time, but we know it will be worth it! You are going to love your new kitchen!
