How long does it take to fit a kitchen? A realistic week-by-week timeline

TL;DR

• Fitting is the short part. For a full kitchen, I put 5 to 12 working days on site.
• The weeks before fitting (design, decisions, ordering and delivery) usually decide when you can cook again.
• A stone worktop adds a gap, because it can only be measured once the base units are in.
• Gas, electrics, plumbing, plastering, tiling and flooring are separate trades, so book them to match the fit.
• Get dates in writing, and work backwards from any deadline you have.

How long does it take to fit a kitchen? For a full kitchen, fitting itself usually takes 5 to 12 working days on site. The weeks before that, covering design, decisions, ordering and delivery, are normally longer, and a stone worktop adds a gap in the middle. Plan from your first message, not from strip-out day.

How long does it take to fit a kitchen, start to finish?

From first message to first meal, it takes longer than most people expect, and the fitting is the smallest block in it. The honest answer is a range, and what sets it is how fast you decide, how long your kitchen takes to be made and delivered, and what your worktop is.

Here is the order things run in at Signature Kitchen & Bedrooms:

Stage	What happens	Typical time
Home visit	I measure the room, look at where services run and ask what you want from it	About an hour
Drawing	A drawing of your actual room with the units in it	Within a few days
Price and deposit	A written price, then a 10% deposit books the dates	Your decision time
Ordering	Your kitchen is ordered and made	Varies by range and supplier
Fitting	Old kitchen out, units in, doors adjusted	5 to 12 working days
Stone worktop (if chosen)	Measured once the base units are in, then made and fitted by the stone supplier	A gap of one to a few weeks
Finishing	Connections by the right trades, then a snag walk	Depends on the trades involved

Those timings are guides, not promises. The exact dates come after the visit and the drawing.

Before fitting: the visit, the drawing and the price

Before fitting, you get a free home visit, a drawing and a written price, and none of them takes long on my side. The visit is about an hour. The drawing follows within a few days. Free home visits are booked on WhatsApp, and I do not charge for travel.

The slow part of this stage is usually you. A drawing of your real room is the point where you see what you are buying, and changes at drawing stage cost nothing. That is the easiest time to change your mind about a tall unit or the position of the hob. It is also a bad time to rush, because a change after ordering can mean reordering.

The price comes broken down by what it covers and what it leaves out. If you want to see where yours might land first, the new kitchen costs page has the published ranges. Once you say yes, a 10% deposit books the dates and the balance is due when the job is finished.

Why does ordering take longer than fitting?

Ordering takes longer than fitting because most kitchen units are made to order, so there is a wait between the order and the delivery that fitting cannot shorten. How long depends on the range and the supplier, so I will not put one number on it here.

What you can do is ask for the delivery date in writing, and ask what starts the clock: the order, the deposit or the final sign-off. If the date moves, you want to know before the old kitchen is out, not after. Ask for the delivery to be checked before strip-out starts, so you are never without a kitchen while waiting for a missing end panel.

This is also the stage where a written timetable earns its keep. Citizens Advice says a contract should cover how long the work will take and what happens with delays. If nothing is agreed, the law fills the gap with a reasonable time, which is vague. A date you both wrote down is better.

How long does it take to fit a kitchen once the units arrive?

A full fitted kitchen typically takes 5 to 12 working days on site. If you have bought the kitchen elsewhere and only need it fitted, it is typically 4 to 10 working days. Both are ranges, and the size of the room and the number of tall units move you around inside them.

The things that stretch fitting are plain ones:

• walls that are not straight, because scribing units to an uneven wall is where the time goes
• a worktop that cannot be cut and fitted in one go
• a layout change that moves the sink, hob or sockets
• something found once the old kitchen is out

On kitchen fitting jobs where the customer supplied the kitchen, roughly one job in five arrives with a problem the supplier’s planner did not catch. That is why photographs of the room and the supplier’s plan are usually enough for a price, but not enough for a date I would stake anything on until I have seen the room.

Strip-out is part of the fitted kitchen price when I supply it. On fit-only jobs it is not, so ask who is taking the old kitchen out and where it is going.

Why do stone worktops add a gap?

Stone worktops add a gap because they are measured on site after the base units are in, then cut to those measurements. They cannot be ordered at the start the way a laminate or timber top can. That is how a stone or quartz top fits your walls with no daylight showing.

I do not template or fit stone myself. The stone supplier does, after my base units are in. Their timing is theirs, and it differs between firms. One fabricator puts stone worktops at 3 to 4 weeks from choosing the stone to fitting, and another says the whole process from first consultation runs 10 to 21 days, with the fitting itself usually one day.

Templating also depends on the units being level. If they are not, it is postponed until fixed, which is another reason for fitting that is done carefully rather than quickly.

In the gap you have units but no worktop, no sink and no hob. Before you commit, ask the stone supplier for their current lead time and plan how you will eat in that window.

Gas, electrics and the other trades

Several jobs in a kitchen belong to other trades, and each one has to be booked to match the fit. I design, supply and fit fitted kitchens. I do not do gas, plumbing, plastering, tiling or flooring, and new sockets go to a qualified electrician I bring in for the job.

• Gas hob: a gas cooker or hob is only compliant if a Gas Safe registered engineer installs it. Nobody should connect it for you any other way.
• Electrics: new installations and major alterations to circuits fall under Part P of the Building Regulations in England and Wales, so ask who is certifying the work.
• Plumbing, plastering, tiling and flooring: separate trades, and each one adds a visit. Ask for the order they come in.

Appliances are not in my kitchen prices, so confirm with your supplier when yours will arrive and what size they are, because the units are made around them.

Surprises that stretch the timeline

The job can grow after it starts, and the usual causes are knowable in advance. You will not avoid all of them, but you can ask about each one at the visit.

Moving or removing a wall. Taking down a load-bearing wall is notifiable work, so an application goes in before work starts. Even a non-load-bearing wall can need approval if it affects fire escape, ventilation, drainage or electrics. That time is outside the kitchen fit, so allow for it separately.

Older textured ceilings. Some textured coatings in older homes contain asbestos. The HSE says work on them is low risk but must be done by people trained to recognise and work safely with asbestos. If any work will drill or break into one, find out first. Do not scrape or sand it yourself.

Changes after ordering. A different door colour or a taller unit once the order is in can mean reordering. That is why changes at drawing stage cost nothing and changes later do not.

Surprises behind the old kitchen. Damp or old wiring can show up once the units are out. A survey catches most of it, not all.

How do you plan a kitchen around a deadline?

Work backwards from the date, and add up the stages you have just read, because the stage you cannot shorten is the one in the middle. If there is a date that matters to you, such as a family visit or Christmas, start with that and subtract.

1. Fitting: 5 to 12 working days for a full kitchen, plus time for the other trades to finish.
2. Stone worktop gap, if you are having one: ask the stone supplier for their current lead time.
3. Delivery wait: the date you were given in writing, plus a margin.
4. Ordering: needs the drawing agreed and the deposit paid.
5. Design: the visit, the drawing, and however long you need to decide.

Nobody can honestly promise a finish date before the drawing is agreed. Be wary of a date given on the doorstep that nothing is written down against. The dates I can stand behind come after the visit and the drawing.

If you want to know how this would run in your house, message me on WhatsApp and I will book a free design visit. I will measure the room, and you will leave with a clearer idea of how many days you will be without a sink. You can also see the kitchens I have designed and fitted in our work.