How long does a kitchen renovation take?

The short answer

• You still have to choose your kitchen: allow about 14 weeks.
• Your kitchen is already ordered: about 8 more weeks, depending on the delivery time.
• Your kitchen is ready to be fitted: about 5 weeks, 2 of which are waiting for the worktop.

Those weeks come from the example plan PLOTT makes for a typical kitchen renovation: the same layout as now, painting the walls and ceiling, a composite worktop, and a fitter who installs the kitchen. Is yours different? At the bottom of this page you can work out your own planning.

Where does the time go?

Most of the work in the house takes a few days per step. What makes the planning long is two waiting times: the delivery time of the kitchen, and having the worktop made to measure.

Step by step

1. Choosing and ordering: 2 weeks

You visit showrooms, have designs drawn up and put the quotes side by side. If you take a month longer over it, the rest of the planning moves a month with it.

2. The delivery time: allow 6 weeks

Once you've ordered, the waiting starts. In the example it's 6 weeks, but it varies by supplier and by kitchen, so ask for the delivery time when you order and get the date confirmed. Use those weeks to book the fitter, and the plumber or electrician if you need one.

3. Taking out and preparing: just over a week

First the old kitchen comes out (2 days), then you get water, gas and electrics ready for the new one (2 days) and paint the walls and ceiling (3 days). It's better to paint before the kitchen goes in, because without the units it's quicker and neater.

If the layout is changing, say from a straight kitchen to one with an island, a new design and moving the pipes and electrics come on top. Allow an extra week and a half.

4. Fitting: 3 days

A fitter installs the units, the appliances and the tap in about three working days. If you do it yourself, it's closer to four.

5. The worktop: another 2 weeks

This surprises most people: a stone or composite worktop is only measured once the base units are in, because it has to fit exactly. Making it then takes about two weeks, and only then is your kitchen really finished. If you choose a wooden worktop, the fitter cuts it to size on site and the wait disappears, and a laminate worktop usually arrives with the kitchen.

If there's a tiled wall behind the counter, it goes up once the worktop is in. Allow about a week extra.

6. Handover

Go through the kitchen with the fitter and write the snags down straight away, with a date by which they'll be fixed.

What makes the planning run late

Every step depends on the one before: if the kitchen arrives a week late, taking out the old one, the fitting, the worktop and the handover all move a week with it. It's usually one of these:

• The delivery time slips, because a unit isn't in stock or an appliance comes later.
• The fitter can only come later, especially if you only call once the kitchen has arrived.
• There's a surprise behind the old kitchen, such as pipes that run differently than expected or a wall that isn't straight. That becomes extra work.

In PLOTT every task sits on one timeline and depends on the task before it. If the delivery moves a week, the rest moves with it and you see your new end date straight away. The delivery time sits behind your order as waiting time, so you can see what your planning is waiting for.