A full kitchen remodel with no layout change typically runs 6-9 weeks of active work: demo and rough-in in week one, drywall and flooring in week two, three to five weeks absorbing cabinet lead time, then countertop template, install, and trim-out in the final weeks. Cabinet lead time, commonly four to eight weeks from order to delivery, is usually the single biggest driver of the overall timeline, not labor.
Every kitchen remodel client asks the same question in week one: how long is this going to take? The honest answer depends on scope, but the shape of the schedule doesn't change much once you're past a cosmetic refresh. Here's the week-by-week breakdown a builder can actually show a client, and the two things that stretch it every time.
The three scopes, roughly
- Cosmetic refresh — paint, hardware, maybe countertops, no layout change: one to two weeks.
- Full gut, same footprint — new cabinets, counters, appliances, flooring, no walls moved: six to nine weeks.
- Full gut with a layout change — moved plumbing or electrical, possibly a wall: nine to fourteen-plus weeks, mostly because of lead times, not labor.
A realistic week-by-week schedule (full gut, same footprint)
- Week 1 — Demo and rough-in. Old cabinets, counters, and flooring come out; any plumbing or electrical rough-in for the new layout goes in and gets inspected before anything closes up.
- Week 2 — Drywall, paint, flooring. Walls get patched and painted, and new flooring goes in before cabinets are set — installing flooring after cabinets means recutting it around the toe-kicks.
- Weeks 3-5 — Cabinets. This is usually the schedule's bottleneck. Semi-custom cabinets commonly run four to eight weeks of lead time from order to delivery, so they need to be ordered in week one, not week three.
- Week 5 — Countertop template. Stone and quartz fabricators template off the installed cabinets, not the drawings, so this can't happen until cabinets are in.
- Weeks 6-7 — Countertop install, backsplash, and plumbing/electrical trim-out: sink, faucet, dishwasher hookup, under-cabinet lighting, outlets.
- Weeks 7-8 — Appliances, final trim, and the punch list.
What actually stretches the timeline
Cabinet lead time is the single biggest lever on the whole schedule. Order the day the design is locked, not the day demo starts, because every week of cabinet lead time is a week the crew either sits idle or works out of sequence to fill the gap. Second is permit and inspection scheduling: a jurisdiction with a two-week inspection backlog adds two weeks no matter how fast the crew works. Third is allowance items with no in-stock model at the client's price point, which means waiting on a backordered range or a discontinued tile.
Building slack into the schedule you hand a client
A schedule with zero slack is a schedule that's already late, because a full gut has too many handoffs between subs for nothing to slip by even a day. The move isn't to pad every line item — a client can tell when a schedule is padded, and it undermines the ones that are tight for a real reason. The move is to put the slack where the risk actually is: a day or two around the rough-in inspection (inspectors don't always show up on the day requested), a few days of float before the countertop template (fabricators book out and a cabinet delay pushes the template date with it), and a buffer on any special-order item that isn't confirmed in stock yet. Everything else on the schedule above can run tight, because it's labor the crew controls directly.
- Put float on inspection-dependent steps, not on steps the crew fully controls.
- Confirm cabinet and appliance stock status before publishing a date, not after.
- Tell the client which weeks are labor and which are waiting on a fabricator or an inspector — it's the difference between a delay and a surprise.
Terms, defined
- Lead time: how long between ordering a product and having it in hand. It determines when you have to place the order, not when you'll use it.
- Template: the on-site measurement a fabricator takes of the installed cabinets before cutting stone or quartz countertops. It can't happen until the cabinets are set.
- Trim-out: the finish plumbing and electrical work after the walls, cabinets, and counters are in — faucet, dishwasher hookup, outlets, switch plates.
- Punch list: the final list of small fixes before the job is called done.
Setting the client's expectations
Most of the mid-job calls a builder gets aren't about the work, they're about not knowing what's happening. The schedule above is the honest version to hand a client at kickoff, including the two weeks that are really about waiting on a fabricator, not about anyone being slow. Lilli, in early access, is built to hold a schedule like this — including the lead-time gaps that aren't labor — and draft the client update when something on it moves.
Questions, answered.
How long does a full kitchen remodel take on average?
For a full gut with no layout change, plan on six to nine weeks of active work. Add several more weeks if plumbing, electrical, or walls are moving, mostly because of permitting and lead times rather than labor.
What's the longest lead time item in a kitchen remodel?
Cabinets, almost always. Semi-custom cabinets commonly run four to eight weeks from order to delivery, and that clock needs to start the day the design is locked, not the day demo starts.
Why does the countertop install happen so late in the schedule?
Stone and quartz fabricators template off the actual installed cabinets, not the drawings, so templating can't happen until cabinets are set. Install typically follows template by another one to two weeks.
Can a kitchen remodel go faster than six weeks?
Only if it's cosmetic, meaning paint, hardware, and maybe countertops with no cabinet change, or if the cabinets, counters, and appliances are all in-stock rather than special order.
What actually causes kitchen remodels to run late?
More often a lead-time gap or an inspection backlog than the crew itself. Ordering cabinets late is the single most common cause of a schedule slipping.