The first thing every homeowner asks us on a kitchen consultation is how long will it take. The second thing they ask is whether we can start next week. The honest answer to the first question is eight to fourteen weeks on site for a full gut renovation in the GTA, plus another six to twelve weeks before we break a hammer on anything. The honest answer to the second question is almost never.
Most of what makes a kitchen renovation feel long isn't the swinging of hammers. It's the waiting. Cabinet lead times, countertop templating gaps, appliance delivery windows, permit review queues at city hall — those are the weeks that eat the calendar, and they're the ones nobody prices into the story at the first consultation. So here's the whole thing, week by week, written from the last fifteen full-gut jobs we've done in Oakville, Burlington, Mississauga, and Toronto. If you want the cost side first, our full GTA kitchen renovation cost breakdown is the companion piece.
The full timeline at a glance
Before we go week-by-week, here's the map. A full gut kitchen reno in the GTA — new cabinets, new counters, new backsplash, new appliances, new lighting, sometimes a small wall change — takes roughly fourteen to twenty-four weeks from deposit to final walkthrough. The front end is paperwork and lead times. The middle is the six to twelve weeks you actually see us in the house. The back end is the two-week gap between cabinet install and countertop install that nobody warns you about.
- Weeks 1–3: Design sign-off, final measurements, cabinet order placed.
- Weeks 3–6: Permit application (if walls are moving), appliance ordering, tile and counter selection locked.
- Weeks 4–10: Cabinet lead time running in the background — this is the wait.
- Week 8 or 9 (ideally): Demo day.
- Weeks 8–11: Rough-ins — plumbing, electrical, HVAC, framing changes, drywall.
- Weeks 10–12: Cabinet delivery and install.
- Week 12: Countertop template — and then another 10 to 14 day wait.
- Weeks 13–14: Counter install, tile backsplash, plumbing trim, appliance hookup.
- Week 14 or 15: Final punch list, paint touch-ups, handover.
That's the ideal version. Every real job slips by a week or two somewhere. The ones that go clean are the ones where the homeowner made the cabinet decision six weeks before demo, not the week before. We'll get to why.
Weeks 1 to 4: the part that happens before anything visible
The first two weeks after you sign a deposit are measurement, design finalization, and specification. We come back to the house with a laser measure and a site checklist, pull exact dimensions off every wall and window, locate the plumbing stack, find the panel, check ceiling heights in three spots because old Oakville bungalows are never level. This is also when we make the call about whether a wall is coming out — and if it is, whether it's load-bearing. If it is, you're also looking at the load-bearing wall removal process, which adds its own timeline on top.
Week 2 is usually the cabinet tier decision. This is the single biggest lever on your total timeline. IKEA SEKTION cabinets are in stock and can arrive in 5 to 10 days — the whole point of IKEA. Semi-custom cabinets (Kraftmaid, Merit, Cabico) are on a 6 to 9 week lead time in the GTA in 2026, sometimes longer in spring. Full custom shop-built cabinets run 10 to 16 weeks, and the good shops are booked out. The cabinet tier comparison is its own rabbit hole — we wrote up IKEA vs semi-custom vs full custom cabinets so clients can make that call faster.
Week 3 we lock in appliances, tile, countertop material, and hardware. Appliances are the sleeper. A standard stainless KitchenAid or Bosch package from Caplan's or Tasco is usually 2 to 3 weeks out. A 48-inch Wolf range, a Sub-Zero column fridge, or anything specialty lands in the 8 to 14 week lead time bracket — longer than most cabinets. We've had three jobs in the last year where the pro range was the last thing holding up final walkthrough, and two of those were because the homeowner changed the range selection in week 6.
Week 4 is the permit application, if the job needs one. Most kitchen refreshes don't — swapping cabinets in the same footprint is not a permit job. But anything that moves a wall, moves a plumbing stack, relocates a gas line, or changes the electrical panel triggers a building permit under OBC Part 9. Permit review in most GTA municipalities runs 10 to 20 business days for a residential kitchen scope. Toronto and Burlington are slower than Oakville and Mississauga in our experience — expect closer to three weeks in those two.
Weeks 5 to 7: the dead zone nobody talks about
Weeks 5 through 7 are the weeks where it feels like nothing is happening. The cabinets are being built, the permit is in review, the appliances are on order. You haven't seen us in a couple of weeks and you start to wonder if you got scammed. You didn't. This is the background-wait phase, and it's the single most important reason to lock the design in early — every week you spend second-guessing the layout is a week added to the back end of this phase.
What we're actually doing during the dead zone: finalizing the cabinet shop drawings with the manufacturer, chasing the electrician for a load calculation if the panel is getting touched, confirming the plumbing rough-in with our plumber, and usually one site visit in week 6 to verify the cabinet shop drawings against the as-built dimensions before the cabinets actually get cut. A bad number on a shop drawing found in week 6 is a free fix. Found in week 10 when the cabinets arrive wrong, it's a three-week delay.
The permit usually comes back in this window too. If it comes back with comments (revisions requested by the examiner), we resubmit inside a week and get re-queued. We've had jobs where the permit added a full two weeks because of a comment about kitchen ventilation CFM or a detail the examiner wanted on the structural drawing. It's normal and it's survivable — as long as you've started the permit process in week 4 and not in week 8.
Week 8: demo day and the first honest delay
Demo day is the week everyone has been waiting for. It's also where most schedules take their first honest hit. A full kitchen gut — cabinets out, counters out, appliances disconnected and moved, flooring up if it's continuing under the new cabinets, drywall off any wall that's coming out, plumbing capped, electrical killed at the panel — runs one to two days with a crew of three. It looks and sounds like chaos. It is chaos. We run dust containment (plastic walls, zipper doors, negative-air HEPA fan) and we still find drywall dust in a drawer in the upstairs hallway two weeks later.
The delay isn't the demo itself. The delay is what demo reveals. On roughly one in three kitchens we gut, we find something the original inspection didn't see. Knob-and-tube wiring in the wall behind the old fridge. A cast iron drain stack that's rusted through and leaking into the basement wall. Mold behind the dishwasher from a slow supply-line leak. A hidden support post holding up a second storey that the previous owner boxed into a pantry. These are the surprise days, and they're why we build a 5 to 8 day buffer into every kitchen schedule.
- Knob-and-tube or aluminum wiring that has to be remediated — adds 1 to 3 days and $800 to $2,800 CAD.
- Cast iron drain stack that's cracked or weeping — adds 2 to 5 days and $1,400 to $4,500 in plumbing.
- Mold on the back of drywall or subfloor — adds 1 to 2 days and $400 to $1,600 in remediation.
- A wall we thought was non-bearing that turns out to be bearing — add the engineer, the beam, and 1 to 2 weeks on top.
- Flooring that wasn't glued and wasn't floated — the subfloor is fine but the level isn't, add a day to self-level.
Most kitchens don't hit any of these. Some kitchens hit two. We don't charge for the buffer if we don't use it — we just don't promise week 14 as a hard date when we know one in three jobs gets a surprise. The honest contractors in the GTA all budget this way. The ones who promise a 12-week fixed date on a full gut are either new or lying.
Weeks 8 to 11: the rough-ins
Once demo is done and any surprises are handled, we're into rough-ins. This is the most labor-dense phase of the job and the one that feels most like construction. A typical week runs like this: plumber one day, electrician one or two days, HVAC half a day, our crew framing any wall changes and blocking for upper cabinets and the hood vent, drywall and mud for two to three days. If the ceiling is getting a recessed pot light package (twelve or more fixtures, which is where most upgraded GTA kitchens land), add a full extra day for the electrician to cut, wire, and prep for inspection.
Rough-in inspection is the second permit inspection, if you pulled a permit. The inspector comes out before drywall goes up, checks that all the electrical, plumbing, and framing match the permit drawings, and stamps the file. Scheduling the inspector is the hidden variable — some municipalities will book you in two days, some in a week. Toronto has been slower than Oakville and Burlington through 2025 and into 2026, and that's a real consideration if you're on a tight schedule.
Drywall and mud is three days minimum — one to hang, one to tape and first coat, one to sand and second coat. We don't skip the third coat unless the homeowner is doing a full wall tile finish. Paint primer goes on before the cabinets arrive so the walls are sealed and any touch-ups after install are faster. The week we finish rough-ins is usually the week we breathe.
Weeks 11 to 12: cabinets go in, and then you wait again
Cabinet install is the week the project suddenly looks like a kitchen. Uppers go in first, then lowers, then fillers and trim pieces. A clean install on a ~30 linear foot kitchen runs 3 to 4 days for our crew. IKEA installs faster because the boxes are flat-pack and ready; custom installs sometimes slower because the shop-built cases are heavier and we're shimming to 1/32 of an inch across a 12-foot run.
Here's the part nobody warns you about. The countertop can't be templated until the cabinets are installed and fully level. And the template is not the install — it's a measurement appointment that triggers another two-week wait while the stone fabricator cuts your slab. So the sequence is:
- Cabinets finish install on Friday of week 11.
- Countertop fabricator comes Monday of week 12 with a laser template or a physical template.
- Fabricator takes the template back to the shop, confirms your slab, and cuts.
- Fabricator returns 10 to 14 days later to install the counters.
- During those 10 to 14 days, you have a kitchen with no counters and no sink.
This is the two-week gap that surprises every homeowner. We can't shortcut it. The fabricator won't cut a slab off cabinet drawings because cabinet drawings lie by a quarter inch at the ends, and a quarter inch on a quartz countertop costs $800 to replace. Template and install are always separate appointments. The only way to compress the gap is to choose a stone yard that's local and not booked out — Stone Depot in Vaughan and Ciot in Concord both run 7 to 10 day turnarounds in 2026 when they're not slammed. In April through June they're slammed.
During the counter gap, we're not gone. We're installing the backsplash tile (which can go in with the cabinets but before counters only if the layout allows), hanging the range hood, running the under-cabinet LED wiring, installing any open shelving or built-in pantry pull-outs, and starting the handover punch list. But the sink isn't connected, the dishwasher isn't connected, and you're still on the temporary kitchenette. Plan the beach week here. We tell every homeowner this at week 9 so they have time to book it.
Weeks 13 to 14: counter install, backsplash, final trim, handover
Counter install day is the week the kitchen becomes usable. The fabricator shows up with the cut slabs, dry-fits each piece, sets the undermount sink with Epoxy anchors from below, seams the pieces with matching color-stone adhesive, and polishes the seams. One full day for most kitchens, sometimes a day and a half if there's a complex island with a waterfall edge. The sink plumbing gets reconnected the next day — we schedule our plumber for the morning after counter install every time.
Backsplash tile runs one to two days — one for the tile setter to cut and install, one for the grout to set before we come back. If the homeowner chose a herringbone or book-matched marble slab backsplash, add a day. After backsplash comes the final trim round — toe kicks, crown on top of the uppers if the design calls for it, filler strips caulked, cabinet doors adjusted. Every hinge gets a final tweak because cabinet doors always need a second adjustment once the house settles back to normal humidity.
Final inspection (if permitted) happens this week, and it's the inspector checking that everything matches the permit file, the GFCIs are in the right outlets, the range hood venting terminates outdoors, and the tempered glass on any window adjacent to a prep area is in place where code requires it. Handover walkthrough is the last day — we walk the kitchen with the homeowner, mark a punch list of anything that needs a touch-up, schedule a follow-up in two weeks to close those items out. The punch list always has four or five items and they're always small.
What shortens a kitchen timeline and what stretches it
After enough jobs the patterns are obvious. The kitchens that finish on schedule have three things in common. The homeowner made the cabinet selection in week 2 and didn't revisit it. The appliances were ordered the same day as the cabinets. And nothing structural moved — the footprint stayed the same and no walls came out. Those three things alone shave three to five weeks off the average.
What stretches it: changing the cabinet style mid-process (sends you back to week 2), specialty appliances ordered late, custom tile that has to ship from Italy (ask the tile dealer for lead time before you fall in love with a pattern), wall changes that trigger a load-bearing review, and permit revisions. Weather is not a factor for kitchens — we're working indoors — but holidays are. A job that starts in early November and runs through Christmas will lose roughly two weeks to the holiday window regardless of how fast everyone else is moving.
If you're wondering what life looks like during the weeks the crew is in the house — temporary kitchenette, takeout budget, the dust, the noise, the kid's birthday party you have to move — we wrote living through a kitchen renovation in the GTA as the day-to-day companion to this timeline. This post is the calendar. That one is the coping guide.
“The part that surprised me most wasn't the demo or the dust — it was the two-week wait for the counters after the cabinets were already in. Nobody mentioned that until Marcus explained it at week 9. I booked a hotel for that week and it was the best decision of the whole project.”
The thing we want every homeowner to understand before they sign a deposit is that a kitchen renovation is a scheduling problem more than a construction problem. The construction is the part we do well. The scheduling is the part where homeowner decisions made in week 2 save entire weeks at the back end. If you want to talk through your specific footprint, scope, and realistic timeline, our kitchen renovations service page is the starting point, and every consultation call we run starts with the calendar question first.
