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The day by day plan
This is a typical ten day programme for a standard family kitchen with a quartz worktop.
- Days 1 to 2, strip out, waste removal and first look at the walls and floor
- Days 2 to 3, first fix plumbing and electrics, plastering and making good
- Days 4 to 5, floor preparation and levelling, then units assembled and set to a laser datum
- Day 6, worktop templating, which needs the carcasses final and fixed
- Days 7 to 9, flooring, splashback tiling and decoration while the worktop is manufactured
- Day 10 or 11, worktop fitted, sink and appliances connected, tested and handed over
How long you are without a sink and cooker
Expect no kitchen sink from day one until the worktop goes in, so five to nine days in most cases. We normally set up a temporary tap in a utility or a garden supply, and we leave the fridge and a socket live so a kettle and a microwave still work.
If being without a sink is genuinely impossible, a laminate worktop removes the templating wait entirely and can be fitted the same week.
What makes a kitchen take longer
Stone worktops need seven to ten days between templating and fitting, which is the most common reason a job spans two weeks rather than one. Structural work, a boiler move, or a late change to the door colour add time on top.
- Stone worktop manufacture, seven to ten days
- Removing a wall, two to four extra days including making good
- Moving a boiler, one to two days plus a separate visit
- Late design changes, which usually restart a supplier lead time
Kitchen fitting
- Strip out, plastering and making good
- First and second fix electrics and plumbing
- Units fitted level, worktops templated and scribed
How we keep to the programme
Everything is delivered and checked before the strip out starts, so a missing door front is found before the room is unusable rather than on the day it is needed. You get the written day by day plan at the start, and we tell you the same day if anything slips.
How long it takes to fit a kitchen you have already bought
If you have bought a kitchen yourself, the time on site is broadly the same as for one we supply, because the strip out, services, unit fitting and finishing still have to happen in the same order. What changes is the time before we start. Flat pack units need assembling, and every box has to be opened and checked against the plan before the old kitchen comes out, so a missing end panel or a damaged door is found while you still have a working room.
Allow for that checking visit in your planning, and try to have everything delivered at once rather than in batches. Rigid, ready built carcasses save some assembly time on site; flat pack adds a day or two on a typical kitchen. If the worktop is a stone one ordered through your supplier, the templating pause still applies once the units are fixed.
Read more: Fitting a kitchen you have bought
Timings by kitchen size: galley, L-shape and open plan
A galley kitchen is the quickest layout to fit because the units run along one or two straight walls with few corners. The services usually stay roughly where they were, and the worktop is a pair of simple lengths. This is the five to seven day job described in the questions below.
An L-shaped kitchen adds a corner, which means a corner unit, a worktop joint and more careful levelling where the two runs meet. Most L-shaped family kitchens sit comfortably inside the one to two week range, with stone worktops pushing towards the longer end.
Open plan kitchens and rooms with an island take longest. Services often have to be run across the floor to reach the island, the flooring area is larger, and there is more decoration where the kitchen meets the living space. Removing a wall to create the open plan room adds structural work and making good on top. These are the jobs that can run to three weeks, and the written programme shows exactly where the extra days fall.
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Common questions
- How long does a small kitchen take to fit?
- A six to nine unit galley kitchen with a laminate worktop is usually five to seven working days from strip out to handover.
- Why can the worktop not be measured in advance?
- Stone is templated against the fitted carcasses because a few millimetres of difference between the plan and the real room would leave visible gaps. Templating from drawings is the main cause of poor worktop fits.
- Can we live in the house while the kitchen is fitted?
- Yes, and most clients do. We set up a temporary kettle and fridge point, seal the work area and clear a protected route through the house each evening.
- Do you work weekends to finish sooner?
- Occasionally, by agreement, though it rarely shortens the job because supplier and worktop lead times are the real constraint rather than days on site.
- When can I start using the new kitchen?
- On handover day. Appliances are connected and tested before we leave, though silicone around the sink and worktop joints needs 24 hours before heavy use.
- Does fitting a kitchen I have bought take longer?
- Time on site is similar, but allow for a checking visit beforehand and a day or two more if the units arrive flat packed.
- Does an island add time to a kitchen installation?
- Usually, because water, waste or power has to be run through the floor to reach it, and the floor is often finished around it.
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