Ask how long a kitchen renovation takes and you get an answer in weeks on site. That is the wrong number. What you actually live through is the stretch of days with no sink, no range and no counter, and that stretch is shorter than the project but longer than most homeowners are told. A typical full kitchen in Newmarket runs six to twelve weeks from first measurement to final inspection, and the kitchen itself is out of action for roughly three to six of them. Here is where each of those weeks goes.
The number that matters: days without a working kitchen, not weeks on site
Two numbers describe a kitchen renovation and they are not the same. The first is time on site: the day the first trade arrives to the day the last one leaves. The second is the one you feel, which is the number of days you cannot cook, cannot wash a dish and cannot put groceries anywhere sensible. Contractors quote the first. Homeowners budget for the second, usually by accident, and then lose patience somewhere around week five.
The gap between them is real. Demolition and rough in take the kitchen out early, but the sink and the range do not come back until cabinets are set, countertops are fabricated and appliances are reconnected. On a straightforward replacement in the same layout, that is usually three to five weeks of no kitchen inside a seven to nine week project. Move a wall or relocate the plumbing and both numbers grow, because every added stage carries its own waiting period. Sequence, not effort, is what sets the length.
Ask any contractor you interview for both numbers in writing, along with the date your cabinets are expected to ship. A schedule that gives only a total is a schedule nobody has sequenced yet. Our kitchen renovation service page sets out how we stage the work; the ranges below are what a homeowner should expect from any competent general contractor in York Region, not a promise attached to your address. Both numbers belong on the same page.
| Scope of work | Weeks on site | Weeks without a usable kitchen | Permit likely |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmetic refresh, cabinets stay | 1 to 2 | Days rather than weeks | Rarely |
| Full replacement, same layout | 7 to 9 | 3 to 5 | Sometimes |
| Layout change, services moved | 10 to 14 | 5 to 8 | Usually |
| Wall removed, beam added | 12 to 16 | 6 to 9 | Yes |
What happens before demolition, and why it sets your whole timeline
Nothing in a kitchen schedule slips as quietly as the weeks before anyone swings a hammer. This is where measurements, decisions and orders happen, and it is the only part of the project you can compress by being organised.
- Site measure and layout drawing, which fixes appliance sizes and where services have to move.
- Final selections locked: door style, finish, hardware, sink and every appliance model.
- Cabinet order placed, which starts the lead time clock and sets the earliest install week.
- Permit application, if the work moves structure, plumbing or electrical beyond a like for like swap.
Measuring, drawings and the decisions that must be locked first
A cabinet drawing is not a mood board. It needs the exact fridge, the exact range, the sink model and the hardware before it can be released to the shop. Change one appliance after release and the affected runs are redrawn and requoted, which costs days, always at the worst moment.
When a permit is involved, and what that adds in Newmarket and York Region
A like for like kitchen refresh usually does not need a permit. Moving a wall, altering plumbing runs or adding circuits usually does. In Newmarket the application goes through the town's building and renovating portal, and the review clock only starts once the submission is complete.
Cabinet lead times: the single largest variable in the schedule
Stock cabinets from a big box can arrive in one to three weeks. Semi custom lines commonly run six to ten. Full custom from a local shop is often ten to sixteen. Nothing on site can start earlier than that date, so the order goes in as soon as the drawing is approved and deposits are paid. If a contractor books your demolition before the cabinets have a confirmed ship week, your house sits open while a truck is somewhere in Quebec.
The stages once work starts, and a realistic range for each
Once cabinets are on their way and the permit is in hand, the on site sequence is fairly predictable. What varies is what the demolition finds.
Demolition and the surprises behind the drywall
Stripping a kitchen to the studs takes one to three days. Opening the walls is where a two day stage turns into a two week one: knob and tube wiring, a drain that was never vented properly, or a wall that is carrying load the previous owner's drawings never showed. Removing that wall means a beam, and a beam means drawings stamped by an independent professional engineer, which is two to three weeks on its own.
Rough in for wiring and plumbing, performed by licensed trades
Electrical and plumbing rough in usually takes three to five days on a kitchen that keeps its layout, and a week or more when the sink moves to an island. Behfar Building is a general contractor: electrical and plumbing are performed by licensed subcontractors under our project management, and their availability is scheduled around the inspection they trigger.
Drywall, paint and flooring before anything goes back in
Drywall, taping and priming runs four to seven days because compound has to dry between coats. Flooring goes in next where it runs under the cabinets, and paint gets its first coats while the room is empty. Cabinet installation then takes two to four days, longer with a pantry wall or a large island.
Countertop templating: the pause everyone forgets to plan for
This is the stage that surprises people, and it is the reason a kitchen that looks finished still has no working sink. A countertop cannot be measured from a drawing. It is templated from the cabinets themselves, after they are installed, shimmed and level.
Why the template cannot be cut until the cabinets are installed and level
Stone is cut once. A digital template captures the real walls, which are never square, and the real cabinet tops, which are only level after the installer has shimmed them. That template cannot be taken a week early on the promise that the boxes will land where the drawing says, because a sixteenth of an inch of error becomes a visible gap along a ten foot run of quartz.
Fabrication after templating commonly runs seven to fourteen days, sometimes longer for a slab that must be ordered in or a mitred edge that needs extra shop time. Then installation is a half day. Between the template appointment and the install you have counters covered in plywood, a sink sitting in a box and a working tap nowhere in the room.
Sink, faucet and appliance decisions that hold up fabrication
The fabricator needs the actual sink, the faucet and the cooktop on site before templating, because every cutout is made to those exact bodies. An undermount sink ordered late is the most common single reason a template appointment gets pushed a week. Buy them early, store them somewhere dry and do not swap models after the template is taken. A different faucet hole count means a new template, not an adjustment.
Inspections, appliances and the punch list that closes the job
The last ten percent of a kitchen takes longer than it looks, because it is made of short tasks that each depend on somebody else arriving. Inspections are the clearest example. Where a permit is involved, framing, plumbing and electrical are inspected at set stages, and covering that work before the inspector has seen it means opening it again.
That is a ceiling on the wait, not a booking time. Newmarket asks for two days notice by email to book, so a trade that finishes on a Thursday afternoon can easily lose the following Monday. Every inspection is worth scheduling before the work is done, not after.
- Countertops installed, then the plumber returns to set the sink, faucet and dishwasher connections.
- Backsplash tiled and grouted, which waits on the counters being in and takes two to three days.
- Appliances delivered and connected, including the range hood duct and any gas line work by a licensed contractor.
- Final electrical trim, paint touch ups, hardware and the punch list walk, usually three to five days.
Appliance delivery is its own risk. A range on back order will not move because the rest of the kitchen is ready, and a hood that needs a duct through a joist bay is a framing question, not a half hour of connection. Confirm delivery dates the week the cabinets are installed.
How to keep cooking and washing while the kitchen is down
A temporary kitchen is the difference between a renovation you tolerate and one that wears your family down in week two. Set it up before demolition, not on the evening of the first day, and put it somewhere you are willing to eat: a dining room, a basement rec room, a spare bedroom with a hard floor. The fridge is the anchor, so decide early where it will live and whether the circuit there can carry it.
- A working fridge on its own circuit, plugged in and loaded before demolition day.
- A washing station: a laundry tub, a basement sink or a bathroom you accept using for dishes.
- A kettle, a microwave and a two burner induction hotplate, which needs a circuit of its own.
- Dust protection: sealed doorways, floor covering on the route the crew walks, and filters changed after.
- Everything from the kitchen boxed and out of the room a day before the crew arrives.
- A written schedule on the fridge with the cabinet ship week and the template date on it.
Plan the washing, not the cooking. Most families settle into takeout and a hotplate without much trouble, and then discover that three weeks of scrubbing pans in a bathroom sink is what actually breaks morale. If the house has a laundry tub, clear the space around it and treat it as the real kitchen sink. Barbecues count as a burner from May to October in York Region.
