How Long Does a Kitchen Remodel Take? [Chicago Suburbs 2026 Timeline]

Every fall somebody looks at their 1994 oak cabinets and decides this is the year. The first question is "how much," which we covered in our Orland Park kitchen cost guide. The second one, the one that matters in September, is "how long." Here's the straight answer, with the week ranges we see on most of our kitchens in Orland Park, Tinley Park, and the south suburbs.

These are typical ranges, not promises. A 1972 split-level behaves differently from a 2004 two-story, and your actual schedule gets written down after I've seen the room.

The quick answer: timelines by type of kitchen

Kitchens sort into three groups, and each one has a different thing setting the pace. Prices are our 2026 ranges for the Orland Park area.

Notice the gap between the last two columns. On a mid-range kitchen, more than half the calendar goes by before anybody touches your house. That's normal.

Phase by phase: where the weeks actually go

This is the order every kitchen we remodel follows. The ranges are typical for a mid-range remodel with semi-custom cabinets and no wall coming out.

Before anyone swings a hammer (usually 6 to 12 weeks)

1. Walkthrough and measure (week 1). I measure the room, look at the electrical panel, and check the pipes from the basement if there is one. Most of the time I can get to your house the same week you call. The itemized proposal follows with a written timeline.
2. Design and selections (2 to 4 weeks). Layout, cabinets, countertop, sink, appliances, backsplash, flooring, lighting. Homeowners underestimate this phase most, because every decision waits on another one. Appliances get picked first, since the cabinets are sized around them down to the inch. A full custom kitchen usually takes 4 to 8 weeks here.
3. Permits (1 to 3 weeks, alongside ordering). Most south Cook County villages issue a kitchen permit in 1 to 3 weeks after a complete application. We submit it as soon as the layout is locked, so the review happens while the cabinets are being made.
4. Ordering and lead times (4 to 8 weeks for semi-custom cabinets). Typical 2026 cabinet lead times: stock 1 to 3 weeks, semi-custom (KraftMaid, Medallion, Wellborn) 4 to 8 weeks, full custom 8 to 14 weeks. Special-order appliances can take 4 to 12. We don't schedule demo until the cabinets have a confirmed ship date. Tearing out a kitchen and then waiting a month for boxes is how a 5-week remodel turns into a 10-week one.

In your house (usually 4 to 7 weeks)

5. Demo (1 to 2 days). Old cabinets, counters, and flooring come out, and the work area gets sealed with zip walls. The loudest two days of the project.
6. Rough-in and inspections (1 to 1.5 weeks). Plumbing, electrical, gas, and the range hood duct move to where the new layout needs them. Then the village inspects the rough plumbing and rough electrical, and nothing gets covered until those pass. In older homes this is also when surprises show up.
7. Drywall, patch, and flooring (about 1 week). Hang, tape, mud, sand, prime. Joint compound needs drying time between coats, and rushing it shows up later under your new paint. Flooring that runs under the cabinets goes in now.
8. Cabinet install (2 to 5 days). Boxes set, leveled, and fastened, then doors, drawers, panels, and crown. Heavily detailed custom work can take a week or more.
9. The countertop gap (1 to 2 weeks). Once the base cabinets are set and level, the fabricator templates, cuts the slab, and comes back to install. For quartz and granite that's typically 5 to 10 working days. This is the stretch where the kitchen looks almost done and you still can't use the sink.
10. Backsplash, trim-out, and appliances (1 to 1.5 weeks). Sink and faucet hooked up, backsplash tile set and grouted, outlets and under-cabinet lights trimmed out, appliances set and connected, paint touched up.
11. Final inspection and punch list (2 to 5 days). The village does its final inspection. You and I walk the kitchen with blue tape and mark anything that isn't right, like a door that needs adjusting or a paint touch-up. Punch items get fixed and the permit gets closed.

Some phases overlap (painting often happens during the countertop gap), which is how a mid-range kitchen lands at 4 to 7 weeks on site.

"The work in your house is the short part. The weeks before demo decide whether the project finishes on time."

Can I have my kitchen done by Thanksgiving or the holidays?

This is the question I get every fall, usually right about now. Thanksgiving is November 26 this year, roughly eight and a half weeks out. Here's the honest math.

A mid-range or full remodel starting from scratch: no. Walkthrough and proposal take a week. Design and selections take 2 to 4 weeks. Semi-custom cabinets take 4 to 8 weeks to arrive, and the permit runs during that wait. The on-site work takes another 4 to 7 weeks. Put the fastest version of every phase back to back and you get roughly 11 weeks, which lands in mid-December. That's the best case, and I'm not going to tell you otherwise to win the job.

A refresh: sometimes. If you're painting or refacing the cabinets you have and putting in new quartz, a new sink and faucet, and a tile backsplash, the work itself is 2 to 4 weeks. If you pick a countertop and backsplash in the next week or two, and both are in stock, Thanksgiving is realistic. If you're still deciding in mid-October, it gets tight fast.

Christmas and New Year's. A refresh started in October should be done well before Christmas. A mid-range remodel could finish before Christmas only if the design is final by early October and the cabinets ship at the short end of their lead time. It can happen. I wouldn't plan a family dinner around it.

The holiday weeks themselves also run slow. Cabinet plants, fabricators, supply houses, and village offices close or run thin around Thanksgiving and between Christmas and New Year's, so a project still going in late December tends to lose days it can't get back.

The plan I'd actually recommend

Use the fall to design. Host the holidays in the kitchen you have. Start demo after New Year's. Sign in October or November, finish selections before the holidays, and order cabinets so they land in January or February. The torn-up weeks happen when nobody is coming over anyway. The version I want you to avoid is a kitchen with no countertops on Thanksgiving morning and twelve people ringing the doorbell.

What slows a kitchen remodel down

When a kitchen runs long, it's almost always one of these.

• Change orders after cabinets are ordered. Moving the fridge, going from a 30-inch range to a 36, adding an outlet in the island. Small on paper. If the change touches a cabinet, it can restart that cabinet's lead time, which is weeks, not days. At ADG every change order is in writing with the price and the schedule impact before anything changes.
• Custom cabinets. Eight to 14 weeks is typical for full custom, and a damaged or wrong box has to be remade, which can add a few more weeks.
• Permit review. An incomplete application is the usual reason a permit takes three weeks instead of one.
• Inspections. A failed rough inspection means fixing the issue and rebooking, and the walls stay open until it passes.
• Back-ordered appliances. Panel-ready refrigerators, pro-style ranges, and specific finishes are the usual culprits, with waits of 4 to 12 weeks. If your model goes on back order, you either wait or pick one with the same cutout.
• What's behind the wall. Galvanized supply lines, a cast-iron stack, an electrical panel with no room for new circuits. In the 1960s to 1990s homes across Orland Park and Tinley Park, finding at least one of these is normal. Each one usually adds a few days, and an electrical service upgrade that needs the utility involved can add more.
• Slow decisions. Every week spent choosing between two backsplash tiles is a week added to the front of the schedule.

Living without a kitchen for a few weeks

On a mid-range remodel, figure on 4 to 7 weeks without a working kitchen, and about 3 to 5 weeks without a kitchen sink, since the sink can't go back in until the countertop is installed. Most of our clients stay in the house the whole time.

• Pick a spot near water. A basement laundry room with a utility sink is ideal. A dining room near a bathroom works too.
• Keep the old refrigerator running. Move it to the garage, the basement, or the dining room instead of hauling it away on day one.
• Set up small appliances. Microwave, toaster oven or air fryer, electric kettle, coffee maker, and a single induction burner if you like to cook. Check that the circuit can handle two of them running at the same time, or you'll be resetting a breaker every morning.
• Cook ahead. A couple of weeks of frozen dinners made before demo takes a lot of pressure off.
• Use the grill. In the south suburbs a grill works fine into November if you don't mind a jacket.
• Budget for takeout. You'll order more than you think.

On dust: we seal the work area with plastic sheeting and zip walls, cover the HVAC returns near the kitchen, and clean up at the end of every day. The first two weeks (demo and rough-in) are the loud, dusty ones. After drywall, things quiet down a lot.

How village permits fit into the timeline

Unless you live in an unincorporated area, your village issues the permit, not Cook County. Most south Cook County villages turn a kitchen permit around in 1 to 3 weeks once the application is complete. Orland Park and Tinley Park typically run 1 to 2 weeks for a kitchen without structural work. Removing a load-bearing wall needs a stamped drawing from an Illinois-licensed structural engineer and usually 3 to 4 weeks. Unincorporated Cook County, handled by the county's Department of Building and Zoning, is slower: plan on 3 to 6 weeks. Fees typically run $150 to $700.

The good news is that permit time almost never decides your finish date, because it runs while the cabinets are being built. We submit the day the layout is final, and on a well-run job the permit is issued before the cabinets land. After that come the inspections: rough plumbing and rough electrical before the walls close, framing if a wall changed, insulation if an exterior wall was opened, and a final. Our Cook County kitchen permit guide covers what triggers a permit and how each village handles it.

Why winter design and a spring remodel work so well

If you're not racing the holidays, here's the calendar I'd pick for most families in the Chicago suburbs:

1. October to December: walkthrough, design, and selections. Take your time in the showrooms and make decisions without a deadline hanging over them.
2. December to January: permit submitted and issued, cabinets ordered. The lead time runs while you're busy with the holidays.
3. February to March: cabinets arrive, demo, rough-in, inspections.
4. March to April: countertops, backsplash, final inspection. You're cooking in the new kitchen before graduation parties and summer cookouts.

Spring start dates fill first. Most people start thinking about a kitchen when the weather turns warm, so the homeowners who designed over the winter get the early spots on the calendar.

Winter barely touches a kitchen. It's interior work. Beyond keeping the driveway clear for deliveries, snow rarely moves the schedule.

You make better decisions without a deadline. A countertop picked in a rush to beat Thanksgiving is more likely to be one you second-guess in a year.

The point is to do the deciding before the tearing out.

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