Kitchen Renovation in Vancouver
The length of a kitchen renovation is decided months before anyone picks up a tool. Cabinets have a lead time, countertops cannot be templated until the cabinets are in, and everything else waits on those two facts.
Trade sequencing week by week
The order is fixed: demolition, then rough-in plumbing and electrical while the walls are open, then inspection, then drywall and paint, then flooring, then cabinets, then countertop templating, then the countertop, then plumbing and electrical final connections, then splashback and finishing.
The pinch point is the countertop. It cannot be templated until the cabinets are installed and level, and fabrication then takes one to three weeks. During that window you have cabinets with no worktop and no sink — which is the part of the project people find hardest and the part most worth planning for honestly.
Cabinet and countertop lead times
Stock cabinets can be quick. Semi-custom and custom run from several weeks to several months, and that clock starts when the final design is signed off — not when you first spoke to anyone. Every change to the layout restarts part of it.
Order cabinets first and let them set the schedule. The most common way a kitchen renovation overruns is starting demolition before the cabinets are confirmed, on the assumption that they will arrive in time. Kitchens here run $55,000–$140,000, and specification rather than floor area drives most of that spread.
Living without a kitchen
Plan for six to ten weeks without a functioning kitchen on a full renovation. Set up a temporary one somewhere else in the house before demolition: the fridge relocated, a microwave and a kettle, and a plan for washing up that is not the bathroom basin — although it will end up being the bathroom basin.
Households with young children or anyone working from home should think hard about whether to stay throughout. Dust, noise and trades in the house from eight in the morning wear people down more than they expect, and week five is when it stops being an adventure.
Where budgets typically overrun
Three places, consistently. Discovery once walls are open — old wiring, failed plumbing, water damage nobody knew about — which is why a contingency of ten to twenty percent is realistic rather than pessimistic. Specification creep, where each individual upgrade is small and the accumulation is not. And electrical, because modern kitchens need far more circuits than older homes provided.
The honest way to protect a budget is to decide early which items you genuinely care about and hold the line elsewhere. A kitchen with excellent cabinets and modest countertops reads better than the reverse, and both cost the same.
What this costs
Bathrooms $32,000–$78,000 · kitchens $55,000–$140,000
Multi-trade renovation, quoted from drawings with a fixed payment schedule. The range reflects specification more than square footage — the same bathroom can sit at either end depending on tile, glass and fixtures.
Materials are always separate from labour and passed on at cost. Quotes are free and written, and the full rate card is published rather than given out on request.
Common questions
How long does a kitchen renovation take?
Six to ten weeks on site for a full renovation, and the real clock starts earlier — cabinet lead times run from weeks to months from final sign-off. The pinch point is that countertops cannot be templated until cabinets are installed, then take one to three weeks to fabricate. That is the stretch with cabinets and no worktop.
When are cabinets ordered?
First, before any demolition. They set the schedule for everything else. The most common reason a kitchen renovation overruns is starting demolition on the assumption cabinets will arrive in time. Note that the lead time starts at final design sign-off, and every layout change restarts part of it.
Can I stay in the home during the work?
Most people do, but set up a temporary kitchen elsewhere before demolition — relocated fridge, microwave, kettle, and a realistic plan for washing up. Six to ten weeks of dust, noise and trades from eight in the morning is harder than people expect, particularly with young children or working from home.