It helps to separate the two clocks. There is the lead-time clock, which starts when a product is ordered and is entirely outside anyone's control on site, and there is the on-site clock, which is the crew working. A well-run kitchen overlaps them so the lead-time clock has almost run out by the time the on-site clock starts. A badly run one puts them end to end, and that is the job that takes five months.
A realistic week by week
- Before anything: design, selections and ordering. Weeks, and it is not on site. Cabinets are commonly four to eight weeks out, longer for anything custom. Nothing should be demolished until the cabinets have a confirmed delivery date.
- Week one — demolition and rough-in. The old kitchen comes out in a day or two. Then electrical and plumbing are moved to suit the new layout, and that work is done by the licensed trades who carry those licenses themselves.
- Week two — walls, floor prep, paint. Drywall repair and finishing, subfloor made flat, and priming. Ceilings and walls get painted before the cabinets arrive, because cutting in above finished cabinets is slower and worse.
- Weeks three and four — cabinets set and leveled. The visible turning point, and faster than people expect. A kitchen can go from empty to looking finished in a few days.
- Then the wait — counter template to installation. Stone counters cannot be templated until the cabinets are set and level. Template to installation is commonly one to three weeks, and this is the pause everybody forgets to plan for. No sink, no cooktop cut, no backsplash until the stone is in.
- Final weeks — backsplash, plumbing set, trim, hardware, punch list. The backsplash needs the counter under it. The sink and faucet get connected after the stone. Then trim, hardware, touch-up, and the list of small things that decides whether the job feels finished.
What actually causes overruns
In our experience it is rarely the crew and almost never the demolition. It is these four, in order.
Selections made late. A tile chosen in week three is a tile that arrives in week six, and the whole tail of the schedule moves with it. Every finish decision that can be made before demolition should be — this is the single most effective thing a homeowner can do to protect the timeline, and it costs nothing.
Something found behind the wall. Older North Atlanta kitchens hide plenty: a drain line that is not where the plan assumed, framing that was cut for a duct, water damage under a dishwasher that has been weeping for years. This is real and it is why an honest contract has an allowance for it. It is also why the walls get opened early rather than late.
Scope added mid-job. Perfectly reasonable — the floor looks tired next to the new cabinets — but every addition has to be sequenced into work already in motion, and it usually costs more days than the work itself takes. Better to decide it up front, even if the answer is not now.
Counter lead time, treated as a surprise. It is not a surprise; it is a known one-to-three-week gap that sits in the middle of every stone kitchen. It only becomes a problem when nobody said it out loud at the start.
The two decisions to make before anyone starts
First, whether the layout moves. Keeping the sink and the range where they are keeps plumbing and electrical work small; moving them is a genuine improvement in a lot of kitchens and it adds both cost and days. It is a fair trade, but it should be a decision and not a discovery.
Second, how you will live. Six to ten weeks without a kitchen is the actual experience of this project, and it is worth planning: a working fridge and microwave somewhere else in the house, a temporary sink if there is one available, and a realistic view of which weeks are the loud ones. Demolition and rough-in are loud. The counter wait is quiet.
The short answer
Six to ten weeks on site, plus the ordering that should happen before it. Choose everything before demolition day and the schedule mostly holds; choose as you go and it will not. And build the counter template gap into your expectations from the beginning — it is the week people are most surprised by, and the one that is entirely predictable.