The average kitchen remodel from design to completion will take anywhere from eight to thirteen weeks, depending on how long the lead-times are for each segment.
Any reputable cabinet dealer will offer to come out to your house and measure your kitchen, to ensure the new cabinets that you purchase are going to fit properly. It’s in your best interest that you allow them to do this. Some dealers may charge a fee to measure your kitchen. Some dealers may measure your kitchen for free. Other dealers may charge you a fee to measure your kitchen, and then apply your measure fee to your cabinet purchase.
In fact I’m going to say that if a cabinet dealer tells you that they won’t, or that they don’t need to come out to your house to measure your kitchen, I’d run away from them far & fast. There are usually plenty of cabinet dealers in one geographical area who are competitive for business, so you should have a good choice from whom to buy.
The information contained on this site will allow you to walk into your first kitchen showroom, and sit down with your designer with confidence.
Now for the time-line; As I mentioned before, your kitchen remodel time line will fall into anywhere from eight to thirteen weeks. For our example we’ll set a fictitious date of January 1st, as the very first meeting with your designer.
This will probably be the day when you first walk into the showroom. Also, for the sake of argument I’m going to use a worst-case-scenario in this fictitious time-line. So, let’s go!
Weeks 1-4 (Planning & Purchasing)
The amount of time from your first meeting with your designer (pre-measure) until the day that you actually pay for your cabinets will be anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks, or even longer depending on how fast or how slow you want this project to move. I‘ve actually had customers get measured, and in a week or two we’ve been able to layout the final design. However, some of these same customers have decided to wait months before purchasing their cabinets, for various reasons.
During the planning and purchasing phase, you’ll meet with your designer as many as five times, or more. The first time you meet you’ll be getting acquainted with the beginning aspects of the design, the door styles, the compatibility of your designer, and taking a tour of the kitchen showroom to view the displays of all the kitchen cabinet manufacturers available to you.
The next time you meet with your designer, once you find one you like, should be for the initial design consultation. Here, the designer will open up the cabinet spec books and show you in great detail which cabinets are available to each specific space available. At the end of the design meeting, which could last up to four hours, you’ll head home with the floor plan, elevations and any perspectives of the first draft of your design. You’ll take these elements home and think about how the layout will look in your current kitchen. Most of the time changes are made after the purchaser has taken time to go over the placement of every cabinet in their mind’s eye.
If changes are made, then it’s time to take another trip back to the designer to make any changes that you’d like. This cycle will continue until you reach the end of the design phase. It’s not uncommon for changes to be made 4-5 times, before the final design is purchased, so don’t feel bad about changing your mind until you get what you want. This can sometimes take weeks, especially if it’s during the kitchen busy season and both parties are busy. At the design closing you’ll more than likely be signing “FINAL DESIGN” paperwork, which will cement your final kitchen design choices.
Weeks 5-10 (Cabinets Are Made)
Now we’re at February 1st, the day that you pay for your kitchen cabinets. Here’s a special note to keep in your hat; occasionally, once the cabinets are paid for, you’re past the point-of-no-return on making any changes to your cabinet choices, so make sure they’re want you really want. However, on most special orders the buyer is given a three day grace period. It will take a few days for the paperwork to get from the cabinet seller to the cabinet vendor, and most will allow you to make changes before the production of the cabinets actually starts. Any good designer will double check every detail in the kitchen design for accuracy, and any pitfalls before obtaining your signature on the “FINAL DESIGN” paperwork.
Most cabinet manufacturers maintain an average lead time of four weeks, with you usually receiving your cabinets during the 5th week after purchase. Some cabinet manufacturers will have longer lead times, even up to six weeks. The reason for the long lead-times is due to the fact that, in most instances, your cabinets aren’t sitting in boxes in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust. The cabinets you purchase more than likely need to be built, assembled and then stained painted and/or glazed to the finish you selected. This can take some time, especially during the peaks during the kitchen remodeling busy season. The two busiest times of the year for kitchen remodels are; just after school lets out for the summer, and when school starts back up in the fall, just in time for the holidays.
Going with the six week lead-time instead of the four week lead time for the cabinets, this would put us receiving our cabinets somewhere around the middle of March.
Week 11-12 (Cabinet Inspection & Installation)
Once the cabinets are received from the cabinet manufacturer it’s recommended that each cabinet be pulled out of its individual box and completely inspected for damage. Most cabinet manufacturers will give the customer a 90 day window, after delivery, to report any damages. Usually, the cabinets will have no damage. However, if any cabinet box is damaged, the structural integrity of the box is compromised and the cabinet must not be installed. While inspecting the cabinets, if you discover only a damaged door, then the cabinet box can still be installed while you’re awaiting your new door. The doors & drawer fronts will need to be removed during the cabinet install anyway.
Speaking in general terms, from the day the cabinets arrive at the install location, until the time the cabinets are installed is about 1-2 weeks. This will have the cabinets installed right around the end of March.
Weeks 13-16 (Countertop Template & Install)
Most countertop installers won’t even fabricate your countertop until they perform what’s called a, "countertop template". The countertop measurer will only template for your new countertop only after the base cabinets are permanently installed, and don't move. They do this because they only want to make the countertop once, without mistakes. There is a lot of time, money and material involved in the countertop process and the countertop manufacturer wants to be sure to avoid any waste in materials, labor and time.
Once your installed cabinets are templated for your countertop, the lead time should be between 2-3 weeks until your new countertop is installed. This will put your kitchen being completed between mid-late April. Please keep in mind that during peak seasons your countertop manufacturing lead times may be longer. Now you can see how and why the kitchen remodel process takes so long. And, how it’s totally unrealistic to have your kitchen remodel done in a week’s time, like they do on television. Keep in mind too that during this whole process, that you’ll have many decisions to make, so take your time and get your friends and/or family involved for their opinions.
You also may want to hire an interior designer to narrow down the choices from several, to just a few, making your choices easier to make.
