Schedule and lead time
How long the kitchen is out, and the one date that decides it
Two reasons a kitchen runs long are that the cabinets were ordered too late, or that nobody counted the wait between the countertop template and the countertop arriving. Both are waiting rather than working, and waiting may not appear on a contractor's day count.
The dependency chain, and the date it works back to
Latest date the cabinets can be ordered
0.4 weeks ago
The order is already behind the schedule below. The day count on this page adds no delay for that, so the real finish date moves out by at least that much.
Of 45 days in this chain (work days and wait days added; weekends not counted), 26 have someone working in your kitchen and 19 are waits. The total assumes the cabinets arrive on time; it adds no delay for a late order. If the order date shown above is in the past, the real finish date moves out by at least that much.
- The cabinet order needed to be placed 0.4 weeks ago to keep the site moving. The day count on this page adds no delay for a late order, so the real finish date moves out by at least that much.
The chain, phase by phase
| Phase | Days | Kind | What is actually happening |
|---|---|---|---|
| Demolition and haul-out | 3 | work | The kitchen becomes unusable on day one of this phase, not on the day the cabinets come out. |
| Rough plumbing, electrical and framing | 5 | work | Everything that has to happen before a wall can be closed. The scope of this phase is decided by how many services move. |
| Inspection holds | 8 | inspection | 2 inspections at 4 days of waiting each. Nothing can be covered until each one passes, and a failed inspection adds another wait. |
| Drywall, prime and paint | 6 | work | Mud has to dry between coats, which is why this phase resists being compressed by adding people. |
| Flooring | 3 | work | This tool schedules flooring before the cabinets, so the cabinets sit on the finished floor and a future appliance can slide in and out. |
| Cabinet set | 4 | work | Cannot start before the cabinets arrive. This is the point where a late order stops the work. |
| Countertop template to install | 11 | wait | The counter cannot be templated until the cabinets are set and level, and cannot be fabricated until it is templated. This wait is sequential with everything before it and is easy to leave off a schedule. |
| Plumbing and electrical trim-out | 3 | work | The sink cannot be connected until the counter is in, so the plumber returns after the fabricator leaves. |
| Punch list | 2 | work | Doors adjusted, filler scribed, touch-up paint, the drawer that binds. Short, and easy to forget to schedule. |
The Kind column is the one that matters. Work can sometimes be compressed by adding people; the two waits in this chain — inspections and countertop fabrication — are sequential with everything around them in this tool.
Lead time by grade, and why it decides everything else
| Grade | What it means | Band this tool assumes (ours, not a published figure) | What the lead time is doing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock, carried in the warehouse | Boxes already sitting in a warehouse | Days to two weeks | Little: this grade can take the cabinet order off the critical path. |
| Stock line, special order | Standard sizes, built to a batch schedule | Three to six weeks | Waiting for the factory to reach your batch. |
| Semi-custom | Standard boxes, modified sizes and finishes | Six to twelve weeks | A finish queue and a modification queue. |
| Full custom, built for this room | Built for this room by a shop | Ten to twenty-four weeks | A shop's order book ahead of yours, plus the finish. |
These are our own rough bands, not a published survey; the tool uses them only to flag a quoted lead time that looks unusually short or long. Your supplier's written lead time is the number that counts. If a supplier quotes a lead well under the band, that is worth a written confirmation, because the schedule above is standing on it. If they quote well over, ask whether it is the shop queue or the finish, since a finish change can sometimes recover weeks and a queue position cannot.
The cost that is not on any bid
This kitchen is out of service for 43 days. That is not a construction cost and no contractor will put it on a quote. At the $42 a day entered above, that is $1,806; because a temporary kitchen is ticked, this tool counts 45% of it — our own assumption about how much a temporary kitchen saves, not a measured figure — which comes to $813.
- A temporary kitchen — a fridge, a microwave, a kettle and a table in another room — reduces it; this tool assumes it removes 55% of the extra food cost.
- A working sink somewhere on the same floor helps, and a utility sink or a bathroom sink counts.
- Ask the fabricator whether a temporary plywood top with the sink hooked up is permitted during the fabrication wait; some may allow it.
- Plan the out-of-service window around anything already in the household calendar, because the fixed dates in your life will not move for the schedule.
The disruption figure uses a daily amount of ours, and it is a control above so you can replace it: Assumed extra food spending per household per day while the kitchen is out of service, above what the household would have spent cooking at home. It is a placeholder for your own number, and yours is the one that matters.