How long a kitchen remodel takes

Ask how long a kitchen remodel takes and you get answers from a week to most of a year, and all of them can be right. A job that refaces the cabinets and changes the faucet takes days. One that moves the sink, takes out a wall and waits for custom cabinets takes months. What varies isn't the pace of the work so much as how much of it there is, and how long the materials take to arrive.

This guide sets out the published figures for each stage, from three home-improvement publishers, and where they agree and disagree. They are national, general figures. None of them is a schedule for your kitchen, and no remodeler's dates should be read off this page. The schedule for a real job comes from its own quote, its own permit and its own cabinet order.

What is the average time it takes to remodel a kitchen?

The publishers land in the same range of weeks for an ordinary full remodel, and all of them say the range stretches to months once the plumbing moves or the cabinets are custom.

The figures measure slightly different things, which explains most of the gap between them. Fixr says its 6 to 12 weeks is meant to show how long you'll be without easy use of your appliances and prep space, and that it leaves out the planning and the hunt for a contractor. HomeGuide's 3 to 5 months, by contrast, includes the time it takes "to obtain permits, order and receive materials, and complete construction." This Old House adds that size is only one factor, and that the timeline also depends on the contractors and how quickly suppliers deliver.

So there are two clocks. One runs from the first design conversation to the last inspection, and the other only runs while the kitchen is unusable. Ask any quote which one its dates describe.

Kitchen remodel order of steps

Most full remodels move through the same sequence, because each stage needs the one before it to be finished. Fixr's timeline breaks it down like this, with other publishers' figures added where they give one.

1. Planning and design. Choosing the layout, the style and the materials, and fixing where the range, sink and refrigerator go. Fixr says this can take a few days if you are only choosing finishes with a designer, and up to three weeks if a structural engineer and a custom cabinet maker are involved. Collecting several quotes can take longer than that.
2. Ordering and permits. The cabinets, the countertop material and the appliances are ordered, and any building permit is applied for. Fixr notes that permits alone can take a week or two, or longer, to be approved by the local building department.
3. Demolition, one to three weeks by Fixr's count. That covers taking out the old kitchen and hauling away the debris, and any structural change, which needs its own permit.
4. Plumbing and electrical rough-in. Fixr puts the electrical and plumbing work at two to four days, and rerouting the water supply and drain lines for a sink in a new place at two to three days.
5. Flooring, one to three days by Fixr's figure, depending on the material. Tile takes longest because the grout goes in a day or two after the tiles are set.
6. Cabinets, two to three days of installation once they arrive, by Fixr's count. HomeGuide says 2 to 5 days in a small kitchen and up to 10 to 14 days in a larger one.
7. Countertop, two days to a week after the cabinets are in, according to Fixr, if the top was ordered with them.
8. Backsplash, a couple of days, longer for a complicated tile pattern or a wall that needs preparing first.
9. Finishes, one to three weeks in Fixr's timeline. Painting takes a professional two to three days, fixtures and cabinet hardware usually a single day, and each appliance one to three hours to connect.
10. Cleanup and the final inspection. Fixr expects cleanup to take no more than a day. Where the job had a permit, the City's final inspection closes it.

The order explains why a delay in one place moves everything behind it. Nothing can be tiled until the cabinets and the top are in. The top can't be cut until the cabinets are set. And the cabinets can't go in until the walls behind them have passed their inspections.

Why the cabinets set the calendar

Of all the stages, the cabinet order has the widest spread, and Fixr's figures show how much the choice of cabinet decides.

The installation barely changes between grades. The wait changes by months. HomeGuide makes the same point in fewer words, telling readers to "allow another month or more for ordering custom cabinets."

The practical answer is to order early and demolish late. If the cabinets are ordered at the end of planning and the old kitchen stays in use while they are made, the weeks of waiting for delivery happen while you can still cook. Fixr gives the same advice for the countertop: order it at the same time as the cabinets, so the two waits run together instead of one after the other. It says the same of appliances, whose delivery can take a few weeks: time it to the expected finish of the cabinets and countertop.

The countertop has one wait that ordering early can't remove. A stone or quartz top is cut to fit the cabinets as they actually sit, so it is templated once they are installed, as in the photograph at the top of this page. The countertops page explains the template, fabrication and installation stages in more detail.

How long does it take to replace kitchen cabinets and countertops?

This is the most common middle-sized job: new boxes and a new top, with the sink and appliances staying where they are. Adding up Fixr's stages for it gives a working picture.

With stock cabinets, allow one to two weeks for delivery, then the old cabinets and countertop come out, the new cabinets take two to three days to install, and the countertop follows two days to a week later. Semi-custom cabinets stretch the delivery wait to four to eight weeks. Neither needs the rough-in stage if nothing inside the walls moves, which in Aurora usually means no building permit either. The City's homeowner handbook says replacing cabinets, countertops, sinks and appliances usually doesn't need one.

For a job that only changes one part of the kitchen, the published figures are shorter still.

Refacing is quick for a clear reason: nothing comes out but the doors, so there is no demolition, no rough-in and no countertop to template. The cabinet refacing page explains what the job replaces, and the guide to refacing against replacing covers how to choose between the two.

How long does it take to redo a small kitchen?

Less than a large one, but not in proportion to its size. This Old House gives three to nine weeks for a kitchen remodel and says outright that size isn't the only factor. HomeGuide's cabinet figures show where a small kitchen saves time: 2 to 5 days of cabinet installation against up to 10 to 14 days in a larger kitchen.

The stages that don't shrink with the room are the waits. A small kitchen with semi-custom cabinets still waits four to eight weeks for them. It still needs its rough-in inspected if a pipe or a circuit moves, and its countertop still can't be templated until the cabinets are in. A small kitchen with stock cabinets and nothing moving is the fastest full remodel there is. A small kitchen with custom cabinets can take as long as a large one.

Can you live in your house during a kitchen remodel?

Yes. Fixr says it isn't necessary to move out, though it can be a good idea if you have somewhere else to stay, because you won't have easy use of your appliances or prep space while the work goes on.

What makes it bearable is knowing which weeks are the hard ones. From demolition until the countertop and the appliances are in, there is no working kitchen. Before demolition, during planning and ordering, the old kitchen works as normal. After the countertop, the kitchen is usable again while the backsplash, paint and fixtures are finished around you. Keeping the refrigerator running in another room, with a microwave and a kettle beside it, covers most of the gap for a household that can eat simply for a few weeks.

Dust and noise are the other cost of staying. It is worth asking whoever quotes how the kitchen will be closed off from the rest of the house, and where the debris goes out.

Permits and inspections in Aurora: where they fall in the schedule

A job that changes anything inside the walls needs a City of Aurora building permit, and the permit brings inspections that set part of the timeline. The kitchen remodel permits guide covers which work needs one. What matters for the schedule is when each step happens.

The permit comes before any of that work starts. The City's handbook says most remodeling projects can be permitted without plan submittal, which keeps the application short for a kitchen whose walls stay put. Its advice on timing is specific: a permit expires if the work "does not begin within six months or is not completed within one year", so it recommends getting it as close as possible to the day work starts.

Inspections are requested ahead of time. The handbook asks for inspection visits to be booked a day in advance. They fall at the points where work is about to be covered up. Pipes and wires have to be visible to be inspected, so work inside an open wall is inspected before the wall is closed, and so before the cabinets go in against it. A failed inspection holds up everything that comes after it, which is why the rough-in stage deserves some slack in any schedule for a permitted job.

The last inspection comes at the end, once the work is complete. The City's handbook suggests holding the final payment until every inspection has passed, which makes the final inspection a natural last line in a remodel's schedule as well as its budget.

Homes built before 1978: the lead-paint rule

Many Aurora kitchens are old enough for a federal lead-paint rule to apply, and it adds steps to the start of a remodel that newer houses skip.

The rule is the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule. The EPA says it "requires that anyone paid to perform work that disturbs painted surfaces in homes, childcare facilities and preschools built before 1978 be certified and their employees be trained" in lead-safe work practices. Colorado isn't on the EPA's list of states that run their own version of the program, so in Aurora it is the EPA's firm certification that applies. The rule also requires firms to carry out its pre-renovation education, which includes giving the household the EPA's lead pamphlet before work begins. The EPA's guide for homeowners is called Renovate Right.

How many Aurora homes does that cover? The Census Bureau's American Community Survey counts housing by the decade it was built, so it doesn't publish a pre-1978 share. It gives both ends of it instead. Of Aurora's 150,242 housing units, 13.8% were built before 1970 and 37.8% before 1980, so the share built before 1978 falls somewhere between the two.

For the timeline, Fixr notes that lead paint on walls and cabinets, or asbestos tiles under an old kitchen floor, need extra safety equipment and careful disposal, and can add a few more days to demolition. If your house predates 1978, ask anyone quoting the work whether their firm holds the EPA certification and how they will contain the dust, and expect the pamphlet before work starts.

Kitchen remodel checklist

A remodel runs smoothest when each decision is made before the stage that depends on it. This is the order that follows from the stages above.

Before any quotes:

• Decide the scope: what stays and what goes. The cost guide shows how much the scope moves the budget.
• List anything that moves: the sink, the range, a wall, an island. Each one adds rough-in work and, in Aurora, usually a permit.
• Check the cabinet boxes, starting with the sink base, if you are weighing refacing.
• Note the year the house was built. Before 1978 brings in the lead-paint rule.

Before signing:

• Get the start date and the finish date in writing. The City's homeowner handbook suggests a penalty clause for missing the finish date, too.
• Ask which clock the dates describe: the whole project, or only the weeks without a kitchen.
• Confirm the cabinet grade and its delivery time, and that the countertop will be ordered at the same time.
• Ask who applies for the permit, and whether the permit costs are in the price.

Before demolition:

• The cabinets, the countertop material and the appliances are ordered, with delivery dates.
• The permit is issued and on site, if the job needs one.
• A temporary kitchen is set up in another room.

During the work:

• Rough-in inspections pass before the walls are closed.
• Cabinets are checked for damage and against the order on delivery, before they are installed.

At the end:

• The final inspection passes on a permitted job, and the final payment follows it.