How Long Does a Remodel Take? A Week-by-Week Seattle Timeline
A realistic week-by-week schedule for kitchen and bathroom remodels in Seattle, including design lead times, permit waits, and the ordering deadlines that decide your start date.
"How long will I be without a kitchen?" is the second question every client asks, right after cost. The honest answer has two halves: the weeks before anyone swings a hammer, and the weeks your house is a construction site. Most people only plan for the second half, then feel blindsided by the first. Here is the whole timeline.
The two clocks
A remodel runs on two clocks, and only one of them is loud:
- Pre-construction: design, selections, proposal, permits, and material lead times. Typically 6 to 12 weeks. Your kitchen still works during all of it.
- Construction: demo through final walkthrough. 4 to 12 weeks for most kitchens and baths. This is the part you feel.
Add them up and a kitchen that takes 9 weeks to build is realistically a 4-month project from the first phone call. Knowing that up front is the difference between a calm remodel and a stressful one.
Pre-construction, week by week
Weeks 1–2: Consultation and scope
We walk the space, measure, open the panel, look under the sink, and talk about what is not working. You get a realistic budget band. If it matches what you had in mind, we move to design.
Weeks 2–5: Design and selections
Layouts and elevations, then the selections that actually gate the schedule: cabinetry line and door style, counter material, tile, plumbing fixtures, and appliances. This is where most projects lose time, because choosing tile is genuinely hard and there is no deadline pressure yet. We set one anyway.
The single biggest delay we see: appliance selection. Panel-ready refrigerators and pro ranges often carry 8 to 16 week lead times, and cabinets cannot be finalized until the exact model numbers are known. Choose appliances first, not last.
Weeks 5–6: Fixed proposal and contract
A line-item proposal, a schedule with real dates, and payment milestones tied to completed phases. Three to five business days to produce, then as long as you need to read it.
Weeks 6–12: Permits and ordering
These run in parallel, which is the good news. Typical Seattle-area permit timelines in 2026:
| Permit type | Typical wait |
|---|---|
| Trade permits only (electrical, plumbing) | Same day to 1 week |
| Subject-to-field-inspection remodel | 2 – 4 weeks |
| Full building permit with plan review (structural work) | 6 – 14 weeks |
| Historic district or shoreline review | Add 4 – 12 weeks |
Meanwhile cabinetry is ordered (6 to 10 weeks for semi-custom, 10 to 16 for local custom millwork), tile and stone are reserved, and fixtures are staged in our warehouse. We do not start demo until the long-lead items are in hand. A kitchen sitting gutted for three weeks waiting on cabinets is the worst version of this experience, and it is entirely avoidable. More on permits in our Seattle permit guide.
Construction: a typical 9-week kitchen
Week 1 — Protection and demolition
Zip walls and floor protection go up, negative air machines run, and the old kitchen comes out. Homes built before 1978 get lead-safe practices by law. By Friday the room is down to studs and subfloor, and we know what we are actually dealing with.
Week 2 — Rough plumbing and electrical
Drain lines and supply lines relocated, circuits pulled for the range, dishwasher, disposal, microwave, and lighting. Any knob-and-tube in the opened walls comes out now.
Week 3 — Framing changes and inspection
Soffits removed, walls patched or reframed, beam installed if the plan calls for one. Then the rough-in inspection. Nothing gets covered until an inspector signs off.
Week 4 — Insulation, drywall, and primer
Hang, tape, three coats of mud, sand, prime. Drywall dries on its own schedule, which in a damp Seattle February is slower than in July.
Weeks 5–6 — Flooring and cabinet installation
Floors first, then cabinets scribed and shimmed level — the part where a hundred-year-old house tests a finish carpenter's patience. Cabinet day is when clients finally see the room they have been picturing.
Week 7 — Template and countertop fabrication
Stone cannot be templated until cabinets are set and level. Fabrication takes 7 to 12 days after templating. This is a real, unavoidable pause in the middle of your project, and it is why a plywood temporary counter is worth asking for.
Week 8 — Counters, backsplash, and trim
Stone sets, sink and faucet get plumbed, backsplash goes up, then trim, crown, and toe kicks.
Week 9 — Finish trades, punch list, and final inspection
Appliances installed and tested, outlets and switches trimmed out, lights hung, paint touched up, hardware set. We walk the room with you, write the punch list together, and finish it. Final inspection closes the permit.
Bathrooms run shorter
A full bathroom remodel is typically 4 to 7 weeks of construction: demo (2 days), rough-in and inspection (week 1), waterproofing and tile (weeks 2 to 4 — tile is the long pole), fixtures and glass (week 5, with frameless shower glass adding 2 to 3 weeks of its own after templating), then punch list. Our bathroom cost guide covers what each tier includes, and you can see the full scope on our bathroom renovation page.
What actually causes delays
- Late selections. A tile decision made in week 3 of construction instead of week 3 of design costs a week.
- Mid-project scope changes. "While you're in there" is the most expensive sentence in remodeling — in both dollars and days.
- Hidden conditions. Rot, failed wiring, unpermitted past work. Usually 3 to 10 days to correct.
- Inspection scheduling. Not the inspector's speed, but the calendar slot. Build 2 to 4 days into the plan for each one.
- Backordered fixtures. Which is why we stage materials before demo.
Living through it
For a kitchen, set up a temporary station somewhere else in the house: fridge, microwave, coffee maker, and a folding table, ideally near a sink. Plan on takeout more often than you think. Our crews work Monday through Friday, roughly 8 to 4, so you get your evenings and weekends back. If you have a single bathroom and it is the one being remodeled, that is the case where we genuinely suggest arranging somewhere else to stay for a few weeks.
Every Friday of the build you get a written update: what got done, what happens next week, and anything we found that changes the plan. No wondering.
Planning around a holiday, a new baby, or a listing date? Tell us your deadline and we will tell you honestly whether it is achievable — call (818) 808-6902 for a free walkthrough anywhere in the Greater Seattle area.
Written by Cyrus Arya, founder of Pro Remodeling LLC.
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