Guides for planning a kitchen and bath remodel

How long cabinets, countertops, appliances and windows take to arrive

Lead time ranges for cabinets, stone countertops, appliances and windows, each one attributed to the supplier that published it on the date shown, plus the reason the ranges are not directly comparable.

What order to do a kitchen remodel in

A kitchen and bath remodel runs in six phases, and five points inside that sequence are irreversible. This page puts the decisions in order and marks where a change stops being a conversation.

How to read an appliance spec sheet without missing the number that matters

A spec sheet is written for the installer, not the buyer. Overall size against cutout size, counter depth against finished depth, and the depth with the doors open that collides with the aisle.

The thirteen fields that get missed on a cabinet order

A cabinet order goes wrong in a field, not in a dimension. The thirteen boxes that get left blank, what arrives when they do, and how to check an order against the drawing line by line.

What happens on countertop template day, and what to settle before it

A fabricator measures the installed cabinets and leaves with the drawing your top is cut from. What has to be true before they arrive, what gets decided on the day, and what you are signing.

How much space do you need between kitchen counters

Published planning guidelines put a work aisle at 42 inches for one cook and 48 for more than one, and a walkway at 36. They are different numbers, and measured between finished faces.

How much counter space you need beside the sink, the range and the refrigerator

Published planning guidelines give a counter figure for every appliance in a kitchen: 24 and 18 inches at the sink, 12 and 15 beside the cooking surface, 15 at the refrigerator. Here they are, with the rules that decide what counts.

What size range hood do you need over a 30 inch range

Airflow is only half of it. One manufacturer counts a 90 degree elbow as 15 equivalent feet against a 150 equivalent foot limit for its own hoods, which is why the duct route decides whether a hood works.

What size bathroom fan do you need

One industry body publishes two methods for sizing a bath fan, one for rooms up to 100 square feet and a different one above it, and the model code adds a minimum underneath both.

How much space you need around a toilet, a shower and a vanity

Almost every clearance in a bathroom has two published figures, a planning guideline and a smaller figure from a model code. This page prints them in the same table and keeps them labeled.

What to check before the walls close

The open wall is not one moment, it is three, they belong to three different trades, and a question asked on the wrong day is a question asked too late.

Shower valve height and depth, and why the depth is the one that comes back

Height is the number everybody discusses. Depth is the number that comes back, and the proof is that manufacturers sell handle extension kits in named thickness ranges for exactly this failure.

Change orders and allowances, and where a remodel quietly goes over

A change order is a written record of work added or removed, with what it cost and how many days it added. Allowances are the other way a total moves without anybody doing anything wrong.

How to check a contractor before you spend an hour on the phone

The public register comes first, and it is not called the same thing in every state. What three state authorities publish about their own registers, what to ask for before the meeting, and the reference call in order.

Why three contractor quotes for the same job never match

Three quotes usually differ because they priced different work, not because one business is cheaper. How to read them against one list of lines, count what is missing, and total the allowances.

Your contractor wants 50 percent up front. Here is how to think about it

What a large deposit does and does not tell you, what one state licensing board publishes about down payments, and the one number that shows whether your payments have run ahead of the work.

The final walkthrough, as a method

A walkthrough done by wandering finds what you happen to look at. Raking light, a level, a tape and a camera, room by room in a fixed order, and the records to collect while everybody is still on site.

What a scope of work for a kitchen and bath remodel should contain

A scope of work is the one description of the job that every bidder prices, unchanged. The sections it needs, the supply and install table that decides most of it, and why the allowances are set by you.