Most kitchen renovations take eight to fourteen weeks from first survey to finished room, with three to six weeks of that spent without a usable kitchen. A straightforward replacement in a modern house can run shorter. Anything involving structural work, an older property, or a stone worktop runs longer.
The figure that matters to you is the second one. Nobody minds the design and workshop weeks, because the kitchen still works during them. What people want to know is how long they will be washing up in the bathroom.
This guide explains what actually drives the timeline. Which stages physically cannot be compressed, where the weeks get lost, why one delay pushes everything behind it, and how to plan if you have a date you cannot move.
Written from over 20 years of running kitchen renovations across Jersey.
The timeline at a glance
| Phase | Duration | Kitchen usable? |
| Survey and design | 1 to 3 weeks | Yes |
| Ordering and workshop build | 4 to 8 weeks | Yes |
| Strip-out and structural work | 2 days to 2 weeks | No |
| First fix trades | 3 to 6 days | No |
| Plastering and drying | 4 days to 2 weeks | No |
| Flooring | 1 to 3 days | No |
| Unit installation | 3 to 7 days | No |
| Worktop gap | 3 days to 2 weeks | No |
| Second fix and appliances | 2 to 4 days | Partly |
| Decorating | 2 to 3 days | Mostly |
| Snagging | Half a day, 1 to 2 weeks later | Yes |
Total: eight to fourteen weeks. Unusable: three to six weeks.
The first two phases account for more than half the calendar and none of the disruption. This is why a quoted “twelve week kitchen” is less alarming than it sounds.
Why the timeline is what it is
The useful way to understand a kitchen schedule is not as a list of tasks but as a chain of dependencies. Each stage cannot begin until a specific earlier stage has finished, and several involve waiting rather than working.
The stages that cannot be rushed
Four things in a kitchen project take the time they take, regardless of how many people you put on the job or how much you are willing to pay.
1. Finish curing: 5 to 8 days
Sprayed cabinetry needs drying time between coats and curing time after the final one. Drying is solvent evaporating and happens in hours. Curing is the coating hardening chemically and takes days. Paint can feel touch dry and still be soft enough to mark.
Rushing this is the single most common cause of a finish that looks perfect at handover and shows marks within a month. Nothing shortens it.
2. Plaster drying: 3 to 10 days
Fresh plaster must dry before it can be painted, and before units are fixed to it. Depending on the thickness, the ventilation and the time of year, that is anywhere from three days to well over a week. In an older property with solid walls and limited airflow, expect the longer end.
Paint applied to plaster that has not dried will blister or peel later.
3. Worktop templating and manufacture: 3 days to 2 weeks
Stone and quartz worktops cannot be templated until the base units are physically installed, because the template has to follow the actual fitted positions rather than the drawing. Once templated, the worktop is cut and polished off site, then delivered and fitted.
This creates the most frustrating gap in any kitchen project: base units in place, no surfaces on top of them, for up to a fortnight.
4. Adhesive and grout curing: 1 to 3 days
Tiled floors need the adhesive to cure before grouting and before anyone walks on them properly. Skipping this cracks the grout later.
The dependency chain
Each stage waits on the one before it:
- Structural work must finish before services, because the room’s final shape determines where everything goes
- First fix plumbing and electrics must happen while walls and floors are open
- Plastering waits on first fix, so chases can be filled and covered
- Plaster must dry before flooring or units go against it
- Flooring usually goes down before units, so the floor runs continuously underneath
- Units wait on the floor
- Worktop templating waits on the units being installed and levelled
- Second fix plumbing and electrics wait on the worktop, because the sink and hob cut into it
- Appliances wait on second fix
- Decorating waits on everything dusty being finished
The consequence: a delay at any point moves everything behind it by the same amount. A plasterer arriving three days late does not cost three days, it costs three days plus whatever gap opens in the next trade’s diary. That is how a three-day slip becomes a fortnight.
Where the weeks actually go
Survey and design: 1 to 3 weeks
Measuring, drawings, revisions, sign-off.
What extends it: your own response time, more than anything. A design sitting for two weeks awaiting approval adds two weeks to the end date. Nothing can be ordered or cut until the drawings are agreed.
What you control: almost all of it. Block time in your diary to review drawings properly. Answer questions in days rather than weeks.
Ordering and workshop build: 4 to 8 weeks
The quiet phase. Materials ordered, cabinetry machined, assembled and finished.
What extends it:
- Specified materials. Stock board is quick. A particular timber, a specific handle range, or custom cutters ground to match an existing moulding are not.
- Shipping to the island. Anything not held locally has to come across, which is a real factor rather than a token one.
- Appliance lead times. Some models run to eight or ten weeks. This catches people out, because appliances feel like a shopping decision rather than a project dependency.
- Workshop capacity. Finite, and it cannot be scaled up for a busy period.
Critical point: everything should be on site before strip-out begins. Starting demolition while waiting on a worktop or an appliance is how a four-week disruption becomes eight.
Strip-out: 1 to 2 days
Removing the old kitchen, disconnecting appliances, clearing the room.
Quick, unless tiles are coming off walls, which is slower than expected and usually takes the plaster with it.
Structural work: 3 days to 2 weeks
Only if you are altering the building. Removing a wall, inserting a beam, forming a new opening.
What extends it: building control inspections at specific stages, which cannot be scheduled retrospectively. If the inspector cannot come until Thursday, work stops until Thursday.
First fix trades: 3 to 6 days
Plumbing and electrics while walls and floors are open.
What extends it: discoveries. Wiring that does not meet current standards, a consumer unit that will not take the new circuits, pipework that should be replaced while accessible. In an older property this is common rather than exceptional.
Plastering and drying: 4 days to 2 weeks
Two to three days of work, then the drying.
What extends it: cold or damp weather, limited ventilation, thick coats, and solid walls in older properties which take longer than plasterboard.
Flooring: 1 to 3 days
Plus curing time for adhesive if tiled.
Unit installation: 3 to 7 days
Setting, levelling, scribing, fixing, hanging doors, fitting drawers.
What extends it: uneven walls and floors. Each carcass levelled independently and each end panel scribed to follow the wall adds real hours. In a granite property with a floor that falls noticeably, expect the upper end of that range.
The worktop gap: 3 days to 2 weeks
Covered above. The most frustrating stretch of the project.
Second fix and appliances: 2 to 4 days
Sink, taps, hob, oven, extractor connected and tested. Electrical certification issued.
From here the kitchen becomes partly usable.
Decorating: 2 to 3 days
Snagging: half a day, one to two weeks later
Doors and drawers settle as they acclimatise to the room. A return visit to adjust hinges and runners and touch up marks.
The eight causes of overrun
In order of how often they come up.
1. Late decisions. By a distance the commonest. Approving drawings slowly, changing a door colour after ordering, not confirming appliance models. Every one of these moves the finish date.
2. Materials not on site before strip-out. A worktop or appliance arriving three weeks late while the kitchen sits in boxes.
3. Discoveries. Damp behind units, rotten floor structure under an old dishwasher leak, inadequate electrics, walls that will not take fixings, no lintel over an opening. Common in older buildings.
4. Trade availability. On an island, finite. A three-day delay in one trade can mean a two-week wait for the next available window.
5. Plaster not dry. Rushing this causes paint failures later. A good contractor will wait.
6. Worktop remakes. A templating error or a slab that cracks during fabrication means starting again, adding one to two weeks with base units and no surfaces.
7. Building control scheduling. Inspections at fixed stages, on the inspector’s diary rather than yours.
8. Client changes mid-project. Understandable once the room is stripped and you can see it properly, but expensive in time as well as money.
How to prevent most of it
- Finalise the design before anything is ordered. Every question answered at design stage is a delay avoided later.
- Get everything on site before strip-out. Units, worktop material, appliances, sink, taps, flooring, handles. All of it.
- Confirm appliance models early. Cabinetry dimensions depend on them, and lead times can be long.
- Choose a worktop that does not need templating if speed matters. Laminate and timber can be cut on site, removing the worktop gap entirely.
- Book one contractor to coordinate the trades rather than booking them yourself. Most overrun happens in the gaps between trades, and those gaps are your problem if nobody else owns them.
- Build in a contingency of two weeks on your own planning, separate from whatever you are quoted.
- Allow more in an older property. Budget two to three extra weeks for discoveries in a granite or period building.
- Do not change your mind once material is cut. It is the most expensive form of delay.
Living without a kitchen
Three to six weeks is longer than most people picture, and planning for it makes the difference between an inconvenience and a miserable month.
Set up a temporary kitchen before strip-out begins:
- A fridge, moved to another room with an extension lead
- A microwave, which will do more work than you expect
- A kettle and toaster
- An electric hotplate or air fryer, which between them cover most cooking
- Disposable plates for the worst week, which is not glamorous but saves the washing-up problem
- A washing-up station, usually the bathroom basin or a utility sink. A washing-up bowl and a drying rack help.
Practical points people learn too late:
- Batch cook and freeze before the strip-out. Two weeks of meals in the freezer is the single best preparation.
- Budget for eating out. Six weeks of takeaways costs more than people expect, often £600 to £1,200 for a family.
- Dust travels. Seal the doorway with plastic sheeting and keep internal doors closed.
- Plan where displaced items go. A kitchen’s contents fill a surprising amount of a spare room.
- Tell the neighbours, particularly about noisy days and skip deliveries.
- Know which weeks are worst. Strip-out and first fix are the noisiest. The worktop gap is the most frustrating. Decorating is nearly over.
Planning around a fixed date
Work backwards, allowing for the survey booking as well as the project.
| Deadline | Start conversations |
| Christmas | Late August |
| A summer event | March |
| Before a new baby | 5 months ahead |
| Before moving in | As soon as you have keys and access |
| Before going on the market | 4 months ahead |
Add three weeks of buffer beyond whatever you are quoted. Not because good contractors routinely overrun, but because your own approval time, discoveries and trade availability all sit partly outside anyone’s control.
If the date genuinely cannot move:
- Say so at the survey, not later. It changes how the job is scheduled and sometimes how it is specified.
- Avoid structural work if at all possible, since it carries the most scheduling risk.
- Choose a worktop that can be cut on site.
- Be flexible on anything with a long lead time, particularly appliances and specified hardware.
- Accept that a contingency in the plan is not pessimism, it is how the date gets met.
What makes an older property slower
Jersey’s housing stock adds time in ways a modern house does not, and it is worth allowing for rather than being surprised by.
- Solid walls take longer to chase for services, and sometimes cannot be chased at all, which means surface runs that need boxing in and then plastering.
- Lime plaster needs repairing in kind rather than skimming with gypsum, which is slower and takes longer to dry.
- Rubble walls where a run varies by 30 or 40mm along its length mean more measuring at survey and more scribing at installation.
- Floors that fall noticeably require each carcass to be levelled independently and the plinth scribed to the floor line.
- More discoveries. Damp, soft masonry, missing lintels, old wiring, rotten timber. These are the norm rather than the exception.
- Drying times run longer, since solid walls and limited ventilation slow everything down.
- Shipping on anything specified rather than stock.
Realistically, add two to three weeks to any of the figures above for a kitchen in a granite or period property. A contractor who does not build that in has either not worked in these buildings or is telling you what you want to hear.
Three kitchens and how long they took
Composite examples of how the timeline falls.
A nine-week replacement in a modern house. Square room, flat walls, level floor, layout unchanged. Survey and design took ten days because the client approved drawings within forty-eight hours. Workshop build and finishing ran five weeks. Strip-out on a Monday, first fix by Wednesday, plastering Thursday and Friday with the weekend to dry, flooring the following Monday, units in over four days, quartz templated on the Friday and fitted eight days later, second fix and decorating in the final week. Unusable for nineteen days. Everything was on site before strip-out, which is the main reason it ran clean.
A fifteen-week renovation in a granite cottage. Layout changed, sink moved, rubble walls and a floor falling toward an old external door. Design took three weeks because of revisions. A specified handle range had to be shipped, holding the workshop build at seven weeks. Strip-out revealed rotten floor structure beneath the old dishwasher, adding four days. Solid walls could not be chased for one run of pipework, so it was boxed in and plastered, then took nine days to dry properly in February.
Unit installation took seven days rather than four because every carcass needed independent levelling and every end panel scribing. Five and a half weeks unusable. Nothing went wrong exactly, but everything took slightly longer than the modern-house version.
A nineteen-week project with a knock-through. Removing a load-bearing wall between kitchen and dining room. Structural engineer’s calculations and building control approval took four weeks before any work started. The beam installation and building control inspections added two weeks, with a four-day pause waiting on an inspection slot.
Plastering then covered a far larger area across two rooms, taking twelve days including drying. Flooring ran across both spaces. Seven weeks unusable, and the client had planned for four. The structural element roughly doubled the disruption period, which is the part people underestimate when pricing a knock-through.
Frequently asked questions
How long will my kitchen be out of use?
Three to six weeks for most projects, and longer with structural work. The design and workshop phases take up more than half the total calendar but the kitchen still works throughout them.
Why does a kitchen renovation take so long?
Because several stages involve waiting rather than working. Finish curing, plaster drying, worktop manufacture and adhesive curing all take days that cannot be compressed, and each stage depends on the one before it finishing first.
What is the worst part of the timeline?
The worktop gap. If you are having stone or quartz, it cannot be templated until the base units are physically installed, which leaves you with units in place and no surfaces on them for up to a fortnight.
Can I speed up a kitchen renovation?
Mostly at the design stage. Approve drawings quickly, confirm appliance models early, get everything on site before strip-out, and choose a worktop that can be cut on site rather than templated. Using one contractor to coordinate the trades removes the gaps where most overrun happens.
How much buffer should I allow?
Three weeks beyond the quoted timeline, and more in an older property. Discoveries, trade availability and your own decision-making all sit partly outside the contractor’s control.
Should I move out during a kitchen renovation?
Most people stay. It is manageable with a temporary kitchen set up before strip-out and a freezer full of prepared meals. If the project involves structural work or you have very young children, moving out for the worst two weeks is worth considering.
Getting started
The most useful first conversation covers the scope rather than the units: whether the layout is changing, whether services are moving, what the walls and floor are doing, and whether you have a date you cannot move. A survey then establishes what the room is actually like, which is what turns a range into a realistic schedule.
Davision Interiors Ltd has carried out kitchen renovations across all parishes of Jersey for over 20 years, handling the full project from strip-out to snagging including the cabinetry, the fit-out and the coordination of the trades around it, with spray finishing and French polishing carried out in house. Timelines vary a great deal with the building and the scope, so we give you a realistic schedule at the survey rather than an optimistic one, and one point of responsibility means no gaps between contractors. Every project starts with a free design and survey visit, all work is covered by our workmanship guarantee, and we are fully insured. Get in touch to arrange a visit and a no-obligation quote.