How long does a kitchen or bathroom refit take?

A straightforward bathroom refit with the layout staying as it is runs to days rather than weeks: strip out, any pipework alterations, boarding and tanking, tiling, second fix and sanitaryware, then making good. The variable that changes it most is whether the floor has to come up.

Moving the soil connection, converting to a wet room, or discovering the floor has too much flex under a shower tray all mean the floor gets rebuilt, and that is a different job sitting inside the first one. If you want a wet room, expect the longer answer.

Strip out, then the unglamorous middle: floors levelled, walls made good, services moved to suit the new layout. Then fitting, worktops, tiling, flooring and decoration. Worktops are frequently the pinch point, because stone tops are templated after the units are in and then fabricated, which is a wait nobody can compress.

That is worth knowing in advance because it is the week people are most frustrated by: the kitchen looks finished and cannot be used yet.

Decisions made late. A tile chosen in week two rather than before the start is days. Materials ordered late, particularly anything on a lead time. Something found behind the old units or under the old floor, which is the one nobody can eliminate. And trying to keep the room usable throughout, which slows everything down.

Three of those four are inside your control, which is genuinely good news. Choose everything before the strip out and have it on site, and most refits run to the timescale they were quoted.

A start date, a realistic duration, and an honest note about anything on a lead time. What it should not do is give you an optimistic number to win the job. If somebody tells you your kitchen will be done in three days, ask them when the worktops are being templated.

It is also fair to ask what happens if it overruns, and to get that answer before rather than after.