How Long Does a Kitchen Renovation Take?
Did you know there are more factors at work in a kitchen renovation than in any other room? It’s true: the kitchen is the most complex room in the house. There’s more electrical and plumbing within the walls, more appliances, and a higher likelihood of installing custom items like cabinets.
These details make it especially important to tackle your kitchen renovation with a solid plan in place.
The two most common questions we hear during the planning phase are:
How much time will my kitchen renovation take?
What type of budget do I need?
Today, I’ll answer the first question. In our next post, I’ll address the second. So let’s talk about scope and timeline...
Two Approaches to Kitchen Remodeling: Full and Partial
To know how much time your kitchen renovation will require, we need to identify the scope of the project. We typically do this during our initial consultation.
During this meeting, we ask questions about the shortcomings and issues of the current kitchen. We ask about dreams and goals for the new space. These concepts help us get an idea of what the overall outcome should be like.
After years of renovating homes, we’ve been able to break renovations down into two categories:
Full Kitchen Rehab or Partial Kitchen Renovation.
I’ll dive into the characteristics of each below, but you should also know that there are several updates highly likely to happen regardless of your goals:
Demo and removal of the old kitchen
Rewiring for the new appliances
New plumbing for the sink and refrigerator
This is especially true of older homes. Fortunately, these necessary tasks are wrapped into our timeline predictions below and in the budgeting estimates I’ll share in our next post.
Scope & Timeline of a Full Kitchen Rehab
The defining characteristic of a Full Kitchen Rehab is a new layout designed specifically for you — a.k.a. more construction and personalization than a partial renovation.
It typically includes all or most of these items as well:
Install new cabinetry
Install backsplash
Replace/refinish flooring
Replace countertops
Install cabinetry hardware
Install new lighting : under cabinet, island pendants, LED recessed cans
Install new appliances
Install new plumbing fixtures
Paint walls, ceiling
Timeline Predictions:
3-4 weeks for design
4 weeks for permit drawings (if applicable), sometimes more depending upon municipality
8-12 weeks for construction and renovation
It could vary based on your project and the size of your home, but the ballpark time estimate for a Full Kitchen Rehab is about 12-24 weeks.
Scope & Timeline of a Partial Kitchen Renovation
While a partial kitchen renovation includes little or no change to the footprint, the look and feel of your kitchen still gets a major makeover via any or all of these items:
Paint existing cabinetry
Install or replace backsplash
Replace/refinish flooring
Replace countertops
Install new or replace door hardware
Install new lighting : under cabinet, island pendants, LED recessed cans
Replace appliances
Replace plumbing fixtures
Paint walls, ceiling, if needed
Timeline Predictions:
2-3 weeks for the design, ordering materials, and general preparation
4-6 weeks for construction and renovation
Again, it could vary based on your project and the size of your home, but the ballpark time estimate for a Partial Kitchen Renovation is 6-9 weeks.
In two weeks, I’ll be back on the CKD blog again to talk about budgets. If you have a renovation coming up (or even in the dream phase), this is valuable info you won’t want to miss.
Until then,
Sarah