In what order should you renovate a kitchen?

A kitchen renovation runs in 9 steps: strip out, structural work, first fix, plastering, flooring, units, worktops, second fix with tiling and splashbacks, then decoration and snagging. The order exists because each stage protects the one after it, and getting it wrong means paying for the same work twice.

Kitchens punish improvisation more than any other room.

Water, gas, electricity, extraction, cabinetry and stone all meet in a few square metres, and each belongs to a different trade who needs the previous trade finished. That's the whole logic of the sequence below.

What are the 9 steps of a kitchen renovation, in order?

1. Strip out, 1 to 2 days. The old kitchen comes out. Units, appliances, worktops and any flooring that's going, plus a skip on the drive. This is also the moment the walls tell you their secrets, which is why contingency exists.
2. Structural work, 2 to 5 days. Openings get formed and steels go in. It happens before any service is routed, because a new opening changes where pipes and cables are allowed to run. Anything load-bearing needs a structural engineer's calculations and building control sign-off, so this stage is booked weeks ahead rather than decided on site.
3. First fix, 3 to 5 days. Pipework and wiring run to their new positions. Everything invisible happens now, because now is when it's cheap. This is also where building regs live: kitchen electrics are notifiable work under Part P, so they're done by a registered electrician who self-certifies, any hob or boiler that moves is Gas Safe work, and extraction needs to actually duct somewhere.
4. Plastering, 2 to 3 days plus drying time. Walls and ceilings are made good, then left alone. Drying takes three to seven days depending on the room and the weather. Rushing this stage haunts every stage after it.
5. Flooring, 1 to 3 days. Lay it before the units go in. The floor then runs continuously and future layout changes aren't hostage to tile lines that stop at cabinet legs. The honest exception: with very expensive stone or tight budgets, some projects floor around the units instead. Continuous wins on flexibility and finish; around wins on cost. Decide it deliberately, not by default.
6. Base units and wall units, 2 to 4 days. Cabinetry is installed level and square. Everything from here forward is measured off this work, so this is where quality shows.
7. Worktops, 2 to 3 weeks from template to fit. Templating happens only once the base units are fixed. Fabrication then takes two to three weeks for stone, and nothing else can happen to that run of kitchen while you wait. Plan the gap; don't discover it.
8. Second fix, tiling and splashbacks, 3 to 5 days. Sink plumbed, appliances connected, sockets and lighting finished. Tiling and splashbacks come after the worktops land, because both are cut to the surface underneath them. The kitchen starts working again.
9. Decoration and snagging, 2 to 3 days. Paint last, once the dust-making is done. Then a proper snagging walkthrough before final sign-off.

What does the sequence look like week by week?

On a typical no-walls-moving kitchen, the programme runs roughly like this: week one is strip out and first fix, week two is plastering, drying and flooring, week three is units and the worktop template, and week four is second fix, tiling, decoration and snags, with the stone arriving somewhere in between.

Notice the quiet week.

The template-to-fit gap on worktops is the piece nobody warns you about: the units are in, the room looks nearly done, and then very little happens for two to three weeks while the stone is cut. It isn't a delay. It's the programme. Builders who know kitchens schedule second-fix jobs elsewhere in that window and come back the day the worktops land.

And plan your temporary kitchen like it's a real room, because for a month it is. Kettle, microwave, air fryer, a washing-up station in the bathroom, and the old fridge running in the hallway. The families who set that up on day one complain roughly half as much by week three. We've watched it happen.

Why does the order matter so much?

The order matters because kitchen stages physically depend on each other: worktops can't be templated before units are fixed, units can't sit on a floor that isn't there, and nothing can be positioned until the services are in the right walls. Break the sequence and the cost isn't delay, it's rework.

It's also most of the timeline. A kitchen renovation usually takes four to ten weeks in the UK, stretching to 10 to 12 weeks for major overhauls that move walls or services [1]. Add up the durations in the nine steps above and you get two to three weeks of actual trade time, which tells you where the rest of the calendar goes.

Where projects blow past those ranges, it's rarely because anyone worked slowly. It's because something was done out of order and had to be done again. We've broken down stage-by-stage timings in our guide to how long a kitchen renovation takes.

What has to be decided before work starts?

Lock four decisions before strip out: the layout, the appliances, the worktop material, and the flooring. Each one determines physical work in the first two stages, which means changing your mind later doesn't cost a conversation, it costs a trade coming back.

Appliances are the sneaky one.

An oven isn't just an oven; it's a housing size, an electrical load and a ventilation requirement, all of which got built in at first fix. Swapping a 60cm single for a 90cm range in week five reopens three finished trades. Same story with moving the sink a metre: what sounds like a preference is actually pipework, which is actually a floor coming up.

This is why the planning stage is where kitchens are really won, long before anyone owns a crowbar. Lock those four decisions in order of urgency and the rest of the sequence looks after itself.

What are the lead times, and when do you order?

Lead times set the programme far more than trade availability does. These are the ones that decide your start date.

Trades book against the same calendar. Structural engineer and building control before step 2, electrician and plumber for first-fix week, plasterer for the week after, floor layer and fitter for week three, a Gas Safe engineer for any hob or boiler connection at second fix, tiler behind the worktops, decorator last. Good fitters and stone fabricators in London are often four to six weeks out, so the booking belongs at design sign-off rather than the week you pick up a crowbar.

None of it works without measurements you trust, because a 10-week unit order that arrives 20mm out is a 10-week problem. Our guide to how to measure a kitchen for a refit sets out the checks to do before anything is ordered.

What are the most common order-of-works mistakes?

The classic mistakes are: decorating before the dust is finished, booking the worktop template before units are fixed, choosing appliances after first fix, tiling before the worktops are in, and leaving extraction until second fix when the ducting needed a hole in the wall two stages earlier.

Every one of them is a sequencing error, not a skill error.

Which is the quiet good news: they're all preventable with a written programme. A kitchen doesn't need heroics to run to time. It needs the boring version of the plan, respected in order, with lead-time items (stone, bespoke cabinetry, imported tiles) ordered against the programme rather than the mood.

The last step catches whatever the first eight missed, so treat it as work rather than a handshake. A written snagging list is what turns a walkthrough into a defect list somebody has to close out.

Budget behaves the same way, and the two travel together: our breakdown of kitchen renovation costs in the UK shows where the money sits stage by stage.

How does Beams run a kitchen renovation?

Beams locks the design and specification first, prices the whole sequence as one fixed contract, then has a vetted builder deliver it against milestone payments: 20% at break ground, 30% at first fix, 20% at practical completion and 30% at sign-off.

The order of works stops being your job.

Design decisions get made when they're cheap, trades arrive in the right sequence because one accountable team owns the programme, and the last 30% of the money waits patiently for the snagging list. That's a kitchen renovation in London the boring, on-time way, which is the exciting kind to live with.

Get your free estimate and see what your kitchen should cost before anything comes off the walls.

Kitchen renovation order of works FAQs

Should flooring go in before or after kitchen units?
Before, on most projects. A continuous floor laid at step 5 gives you a better finish underfoot and leaves future layout changes possible, because the tile or board lines don't stop at cabinet legs. Flooring around the units afterwards saves material where the surface is expensive, so treat it as a budget decision made on purpose rather than a default.

How long does a kitchen renovation take?
Four to ten weeks for most UK kitchens, and 10 to 12 weeks where walls or services move. Only two to three weeks of that is trades working in the room. The rest is lead times, plaster drying and the two to three week wait between the worktop template and the fit.

Do you need planning permission for a kitchen renovation?
Not for a refit inside an existing room. Planning permission comes into it if you extend, change the external appearance, or the property is listed or in a conservation area. Building regulations are a separate thing and they do apply: a structural opening needs building control approval, kitchen electrics are notifiable under Part P, and gas work must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer.

When should you order your kitchen?
As soon as the design and final measurements are signed off, which for units means four to ten weeks before strip out. Bespoke joinery wants eight to twelve. Worktops are the deliberate exception, because stone cannot be templated until the base units are fixed and level, so it is ordered mid-project rather than up front.

What order do trades come in?
Strip-out labour first, then the builder and structural engineer for any opening, electrician and plumber for first fix, plasterer, floor layer, kitchen fitter, worktop templater and fabricator, then electrician and plumber back for second fix alongside the tiler and a Gas Safe engineer where there is gas, with the decorator last. Two trades in the room at once usually means one of them is working on top of unfinished work.

Sources

[1] Checkatrade, "How long does a kitchen renovation take?" – a kitchen renovation usually takes four to ten weeks in the UK; major overhauls involving moved services or walls can run 10 to 12 weeks.