What order to do a kitchen remodel in

The six phases, in the order they have to happen

A remodel is not a building project with some decisions in it. It is a decision project with a build at the end. The six phases below are the order those decisions run in, and each one produces the input the next one cannot start without.

Nothing here asks anyone to decide faster. It asks you to know which decisions have a closing door in front of them, because a decision you have not made is still made, by the contractor, the supplier, or whatever is in stock that week.

Why the first phase has nobody in it but you

Phase 0 happens at your own kitchen table, before a designer, a contractor or a showroom sees the room. Five questions are answered there and they cost nothing: the budget range, how long you plan to stay in the house, one room or both, what must not be touched, and whether anyone else has to approve the work.

The do not touch list decides the most. A load bearing wall, the main drain stack, the gas line, a duct or a return, the position of a window or an exterior door: each of those turns the project into a different project when it moves, because each brings in design work, approvals and trades that would otherwise never come near the job. Whether any of them can move at all is a question for your contractor, and the answer is free at the first walkthrough and expensive in week three.

The other question that belongs here is who else has to say yes. In a condominium, a co op or a homeowners association, approval can take weeks and can arrive with conditions on hours, access and insurance, which sets your earliest possible start date and sometimes the scope itself.

Phase 0 is also the only phase nobody measures. No published source gives it a duration, because it lasts exactly as long as you let it, and it is the cheapest time you will ever have.

Layout and scope decide everything that is ordered later

Phase 1 is where a designer turns your answers into a drawing. Nothing downstream can be ordered, priced or built until the layout and the scope are settled, because every order that follows is derived from them.

The list is longer than most people expect. Layout type. Island, peninsula or neither. Range or cooktop, how many ovens, which fuel. Refrigerator and dishwasher positions. Sink count and fittings. The ventilation route. Seating and counter overhang. Lighting layers and the outlet plan. Then cabinet construction, which is hinge sides, finished ends, fillers, toe kick, crown, interior finish and hardware drilling.

Published planning guideline. Several of those decisions have published planning guideline figures attached to them: a work aisle at 42 inches (1067 mm) for one cook and 48 inches (1219 mm) where more than one person cooks, at least 15 inches (381 mm) of landing on the handle side of a refrigerator, a dishwasher within 36 inches (914 mm) of a cleanup sink with at least 21 inches (533 mm) of standing space in front of it. Those are published recommendations that the profession works to, not code requirements, and nobody inspects them.

Some Phase 1 decisions behave differently from the rest, because each one is built before it is visible. Lighting layers are final before the ceiling is framed. The outlet and switch plan is final before the electrical rough. The ventilation route is final before the cabinet order, because it decides the hood, the duct size, the soffit depth and the cabinet above the cooktop.

Ask the designer one question at the first meeting: which of my decisions are you waiting on, and in what order. Write the answer down. It is your Phase 1 list, in their words.

The five points after which a change stops being a conversation

Five moments in a remodel are different in kind from everything around them. Before each one a change is a conversation. After it the same change costs a restocking fee, a second lead time, or the demolition of work already done.

Model code figure, verify locally. The permit point is the one that is not the same everywhere. Whether your scope needs a permit at all, which inspections it needs and how long review takes are local questions, required in many US jurisdictions, and what applies where you live is decided by your building department. Filing is not the same as issuance: review can still change the drawings, and in most places work waits for issuance rather than for filing.

One detail about the first point catches almost everyone. Closing a decision and releasing an order are different days. What closes in Phase 1 is what goes on the drawing. The order is released in Phase 3, after a contractor is under contract and somebody has field measured the real room, because cabinets are the least refundable thing in the project and they are bought against measurements.

Selections and orders run on other people's calendars

Phase 2 is where the calendar stops being your friend. Everything in this phase is bought, and everything bought has a queue in front of it belonging to a factory, a fabricator or a freight company.

The rule for the phase is short: the order by date is the day the item is needed on site, minus the supplier lead time, minus your own buffer. Most people learn the lead time on the day they try to order, which is one lead time too late.

Typical range, verify with your professional. Across supplier documentation read on September 22, 2026, stock and ready to assemble cabinets were observed at 1 to 4 weeks, semi custom at 3 to 9 weeks, custom at 6 to 18 weeks, and stone countertops at 1 to 4 weeks from template to installation. Those are ranges named suppliers published on that date, not market averages, and the spans they measure are not identical. Confirm every one with your own supplier.

Phase 2 has an order inside it too, because each category sits behind a gate. Cabinets cannot be ordered until the layout is final, the appliance sizes have come off spec sheets rather than showroom labels, and a field measure has been signed by whoever carries the risk if it does not fit. Countertops wait on the cabinet order and the sink and cooktop specifications. Shower glass cannot be measured until the tile is set, which is why it arrives last and decides when a bathroom is usable.

Ask every supplier the same question in the same words: how many weeks from the day I sign the order to the day it is on my site, and what starts the clock. Some suppliers count from their own factory and some count to your door.

Quotes, then contract, then permit, in that order

Phase 3 is where quotes become comparable, which only happens if every bidder prices the same job. Three quotes against one written scope beat five quotes against five interpretations of a conversation.

1. Hand every bidder the same scope document, unchanged.
2. Ask each bidder to mark every line included, excluded or an allowance, rather than asking them to open their costs. Many good contractors price a job as a whole, which is normal.
3. For every allowance, ask in writing what it covers, what quantity it assumes, and the unit price above it. A material only tile allowance meets a herringbone layout and stops being an allowance.
4. Ask what each bidder assumed about what is behind the wall, and what happens if it is different. Two quotes far apart are usually far apart here, not on finishes.
5. Ask how many jobs they run at once, how many days a week a crew will be on yours, and who will be in the house.
6. Check the public register in your own state shortly before you sign, rather than months earlier. What your state requires is a local question.

The waiting in this phase is real and rarely mentioned. In the 2026 Houzz Pro Industry Barometer, construction businesses reported a backlog of about 6.0 to 6.2 weeks at the start of the third quarter of 2026, and architecture and design businesses about 3.9 to 5.1 weeks. Those are market indicators reported by businesses, not promises, and they explain why a signed contract is not a start date.

Model code figure, verify locally. Permit review times are local and they are published locally, never nationally. The City of Austin development services department states 5 business days for a residential interior remodel plan review, and the City of Bellevue states that a single family remodel permit can be issued the same day, or take a three week plan review where the work exceeds that scope. Those are two cities stating their own figures, and neither one applies anywhere else. Whether your scope needs a permit at all, which inspections it needs and how long review takes are local questions, required in many US jurisdictions, and what applies where you live is decided by your building department.

None of the questions in this phase is a contract term and this page supplies none. They are questions to have answered in writing while you still have three bidders and nobody has started. The agreement itself is a matter for you and your own adviser.

Construction has two halves and two waits built in

Phase 4 splits at the moment the walls close. The first half is demolition, framing, the ventilation and plumbing and electrical rough, inspections where they apply, then insulation and board. The second half is tile, flooring, cabinets, template, countertop, backsplash, trim, appliances and shower glass.

Two waits are built into the second half and nobody can remove either one. The countertop cannot be measured until the cabinets are installed and leveled, and the shower glass cannot be measured until the tile is finished. Both are sequence constraints rather than scheduling failures, so a contractor who warns you about them in advance is being accurate, not pessimistic.

One evening in the first half is worth more than any other day of the project. After the inspections pass and before insulation, cement board or drywall covers the framing, everything inside the wall is visible for the last time. Photographing every wall with a tape measure in the frame produces the only record you will ever have of what is behind the finish.

A construction site is your contractor's workplace, and their insurance, not yours, is what would normally cover what happens there. Arrange any visit with them, go when nobody is working, and follow what they tell you about where to walk and what not to touch. Anything you notice goes to your contractor in one message, not to the trades.

Closeout, where attention drops and leverage disappears

Phase 5 exists because the end of a project is where attention drops and leverage disappears at once. The order of the last few steps keeps both alive a little longer.

1. Walk the job properly, in daylight, with a flashlight, a level and a camera.
2. Write the punch list before the final payment conversation, not after it.
3. Agree a date for each item in writing. An item without a date is an item without a plan.
4. Ask when the final inspection is booked where a permit applied, and what is still open on it.
5. Collect the paperwork while people still answer the phone: warranty terms, manuals, model numbers, paint codes.
6. Keep the leftovers, labeled and dry. In year two the same tile lot or paint batch may no longer exist.
7. Then close the money: what was paid, what each change added, how the allowances landed.

Some of what turns up at the walkthrough is neither a punch item nor a change. Caulk lines, hairline grout and wood moving in the first months are normal, and belong to the warranty conversation rather than the punch list.

What a final payment should be conditioned on, and what paperwork is required where you live, is a question for your contractor and your own adviser. This page records the sequence. It does not tell anybody what to sign or what to pay.

How long the whole sequence takes, in two numbers that disagree

Two honest answers exist for how long a remodel takes, and they do not agree, because they are not measuring the same thing.

Homeowners surveyed in the 2026 Houzz and Home study reported an average of 9.5 months of planning and 5.8 months of construction for a kitchen, and 8.4 months of planning and 4.8 months of construction for a primary bathroom. That is elapsed time reported by the people living in it, and it includes every day nobody was working: waiting for a slab, waiting for a replacement door, waiting for an inspection, waiting for the crew to come back.

The contractor number is different. Two US design and build firms and one marketplace publish kitchen construction in the range of 6 to 12 weeks, and one design and build firm publishes bathroom construction at 2 to 4 weeks, which is a single source. Those count weeks of work rather than weeks on the calendar, and neither kind of number should be averaged against the other.

The most useful part of the survey figure is the 9.5 months of planning reported in front of the construction. The noise and the dust are the short part, and the deciding is the long one.

Typical range, verify with your professional. The months come from one survey of homeowners on one platform and are reported as what those homeowners said, not as a fact about remodels. The weeks come from two firms and one marketplace publishing their own timelines, and two firms are not a sample. Your own dates come from your contractor schedule, not from either figure here.