The short version
- The schedule is set before demolition, when drawings are final and long-lead items are ordered.
- Countertops are templated after cabinets are installed and level, never from a drawing.
- Most delays come from backorders, failed inspections, and decisions deferred to the day they're needed.
The first time you see a kitchen reduced to studs, it looks like a mistake someone should apologize for. It isn’t. It’s step four of a sequence that has barely changed in decades, and knowing the order is the difference between a project that feels chaotic and one that feels merely loud.
The whole sequence on one page
Durations below are planning ranges, not averages. They’re here so you can sketch a calendar, not so you can hold anyone to a date.
- Measure and design. Planning range: two to four weeks for a straightforward kitchen, longer if walls are moving or a designer is involved.
- Order long-lead items. Same week the drawings are final. Cabinets, windows, special-order appliances.
- Pull permits. Planning range: two to six weeks, depending on the jurisdiction and how complete the drawings are.
- Protect the house and demolish. Planning range: two to four days for a typical kitchen.
- Rough-in: plumbing, electrical, HVAC. Planning range: one to two weeks.
- Rough-in inspection. Booking lead time is often a few business days. Work stops until it passes.
- Insulation and drywall. Planning range: one to two weeks, including drying time between coats.
- Flooring. Planning range: two to four days, depending on material and whether it runs under the cabinets.
- Cabinet installation. Planning range: two to four days.
- Countertop template, then fabrication. Template usually within days of cabinet install; fabrication planning range one to three weeks.
- Backsplash. Planning range: two to three days, plus grout cure.
- Appliance delivery and hookups. Planning range: one to two days if everything is on site.
- Punch list and final inspection. Planning range: one to two weeks of callbacks and small fixes.
Before anyone swings a hammer
The schedule is decided in a room with a tape measure and a lot of indecision, not on the day the crew arrives.
Two things matter more than the rest. The drawing has to be specific enough to build from, which means dimensions, cabinet sizes, appliance models, and where the outlets go. And every selection that affects rough-in has to be made before rough-in starts: sink, faucet, cooktop, hood, refrigerator, under-cabinet lighting, and whether the microwave is going over the range or into a cabinet.
If you are choosing a faucet on the morning the plumber arrives, you are not choosing. You are guessing under pressure, and the guess will be expensive.
Order the slow things first
Cabinets are the spine of the schedule. Everything after them depends on them, so a late cabinet delivery moves the countertop template, the backsplash, the appliance install, and the day you get your kitchen back.
| Item | Order it | Planning range for delivery |
|---|---|---|
| Cabinets | When drawings are final, before demo | Six to twelve weeks |
| Windows and exterior doors | With the cabinets | Four to twelve weeks |
| Appliances | Before rough-in | Two to ten weeks |
| Tile and slab | Before drywall is finished, slab earlier if possible | One to three weeks |
| Specialty plumbing and lighting | Before rough-in | Two to six weeks |
Treat these as planning ranges and confirm the actual lead time in writing when you order. A salesperson’s “about a month” is not a date.
Demolition, and the day the room gets worse
Planning range: two to four days. Dust, noise, a dumpster in the driveway, and the moment when the room is at its least reassuring. Take a photo. It gets better.
Before demo, shut off water and power to the room, protect the path from the front door, decide where the refrigerator is going to live, and confirm the dumpster permit if your street requires one.
Rough-in is the quiet, expensive part
Planning range: one to two weeks. This is when the room is ugliest and most important. Everything hidden goes in now: supply lines, drains, venting, circuits, the hood duct, the recessed light layout.
Changing your mind after the drywall goes up is possible. It just costs like it isn’t. If you’re already picturing a different outlet location, say so now, while the wall is open and the electrician is standing there.
Inspections are a pause, not a formality
Rough-in inspection usually happens after framing, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical work, and before insulation. Some jurisdictions also want a separate framing inspection. The permits page covers what typically needs one and what to ask your building department.
Ask two questions when you book: what order they want to inspect in, and how far out they are booking. A two-day wait and a two-week wait are different schedules, and only one of them fits your cabinet delivery.
Insulation and drywall
Planning range: one to two weeks, including drying time. Drywall is fast to hang and slow to finish. Three coats of mud with drying in between is normal, and rushing it shows under paint in a way that no one can unsee.
Flooring: before or after the cabinets
Two valid approaches. Install flooring wall to wall before cabinets and you get a faster install with no awkward cuts, but replacing the floor later means moving the cabinets. Install after cabinets and future replacement is easier, but you’ll have more cuts, more shoe molding, and a floor that stops at the toe kick.
Neither is wrong. Decide before the cabinets arrive, because the cabinet height and the dishwasher opening depend on the answer.
Cabinets go in, and the room starts to look like a kitchen
Planning range: two to four days. The cabinets get shimmed, leveled, and scribed to the wall. Your walls are not square; the cabinets will be. The gap gets covered by a filler and a caulk line, which is normal and not a sign of a bad installer.
Countertop templating, and the wait you can’t rush
This is the step that surprises people.
The template is taken after the cabinets are installed and level, because the countertop has to fit the cabinets, not the drawing. A laser or a plywood jig goes against the actual cabinet edges, the actual wall, and the actual sink location. Only then is the slab cut and finished.
Planning range for fabrication: one to three weeks, longer for some materials and some shops.
During that window the kitchen has cabinets and no work surface. You will be eating off a folding table, and the temporary kitchen earns its keep. If that’s the plan, set it up before demo rather than the day the countertops come out, and read living through a remodel with kids and pets before the plastic goes up.
Why not template earlier? Because cabinets move during installation, walls bow, and a countertop cut to a drawing made before demolition will be wrong in at least one place. The template is the correction.
Backsplash, appliances, punch list
Backsplash comes after countertops, always. The tile sits on top of the counter and the cut edges are hidden by the counter itself.
Appliances come near the end, once floors and counters are in, unless the range or refrigerator has to be in place for the template. Slide-in ranges sometimes do, and a counter-depth refrigerator needs its opening confirmed early.
The punch list is the last real phase. Walk the room with blue tape and a clipboard, mark everything, and get a date for each item. Final payment usually follows the punch list, not the other way around.
What you can do in parallel
- Choose paint colors while the drywall is being finished. You’ll have weeks of dust to inspire you.
- Order lighting, hardware, and trim while rough-in is happening so it’s on site when it’s needed.
- Book the dumpster and the final inspection window at the same time you book demolition.
- Set up the temporary kitchen before demo, not after.
- Plan the move-back: what returns, what gets donated, what never comes back in the house.
- Schedule a deep clean for the day after the punch list walkthrough.
Where schedules usually slip
- A cabinet arrives damaged and the replacement is weeks out.
- An inspection fails on something small, like a missing nail plate, and the re-inspection is a week away.
- The countertop template reveals a wall that’s out of square and a filler panel has to be ordered.
- An appliance goes on backorder after the opening was built around it.
- A decision filed under “we’ll figure it out later” arrives at the exact moment it’s needed.
- A holiday week. Nobody schedules an inspection the week of Thanksgiving.
Never do this
- Don’t order countertops before cabinets are installed and level.
- Don’t book the plumber before the faucet is on site.
- Don’t close up walls before the rough-in inspection passes.
- Don’t install the backsplash before the countertops.
- Don’t change the layout after rough-in without pricing the change first.
- Don’t pay the final invoice before you’ve walked the punch list.
- Don’t demolish before the permit is posted, if your jurisdiction requires one.
What to do next
The timeline lays these phases out with room to write your own dates beside them, and the permits page covers what usually needs a signature before work starts. If you’re still working out whether the budget can carry the project, start with a real contingency before you fall in love with a cabinet line.
