If it has been done on time, it should be in the Guinness Book of World Records! I had my kitchen remodel timed perfectly and planned over a period of time so I would be without a sink for a very short period of time. That DID happen due to me with my cat 'o nine tails, being VERY bossy, but it's still not finished. Doors can arrive with damaged corners (looked like it was dropped off a truck), things are not as designed and must be changed - you name it. I'm HOPING to be finished by Labor Day, but not planning on it.

My daughter is in the business of supervising the building of a chain of boutique hotels. Between inspections, permits, things that arrive broken or wrong, it is rare for them to actually open "on time" so they now just estimate in ways such as "early winter" or "late spring" which can mean anything in about a 3 month period.

Just remember - if it can go wrong, it will go wrong! And no, I did NOT have a bad contractor/KD/subs/cabinet manufacturer - just lots of little things that have had to be changed/fixed.

I think it depends on what you're doing, age of the House and if you're moving things. My last kitchen didn't need any electric, gas, or plumbing to be moved. The layout was already good, the house wasn't that old, and we didn't have any disasters or find any messes when we demoed the old kitchen. Ours was about 5 weeks total.

It helped that we had the new appliances already sitting in the garage before demo started, and our cabinets were built for us so no deliveries to wait for.

Ours started about a month late and took about a month longer than predicted. Sigh.

I must have used the most organized crew in the world! They insisted that all appliances and lighting, sinks, plumbing, etc. had to be on site (they supplied the cabinets) before they would even start. They moved things and tore out some small sections of wall. They tore out all of the flooring in the kitchen and adjoining family room - gave us the weekend to lay our own floor heating wire before their tile guy showed up to lay the new floor. I swear we would have been done in 2 weeks flat if it hadn't been for a problem with the counters being delayed due to a delivery truck breaking down (I did not use their guys). When that happened, they took off to start another job and had to "fit us in" to finish up. It really was't much of a delay. Not only were they very efficient and well organized, their crew was great to work with and did an excellent job. Maybe you'll be lucky like me!

Ours mostly took long due to the cabinet and countertop people being slower than they promised. We were taking down a wall and the cabinet people wouldn't measure or start until the walls were down. We got dekton countertops from HD and they had some issues getting the color of dekton we wanted so that delayed at least a week as well beyond the anticipated 2 weeks to fabricate. Our GC was actually pretty efficient at everything he did and I think if we had used all of his people (especially his cab guy) it would have been finished on time or certainly within a week or two. So it depends a lot on how much you are doing and who you are using for things. That being said it took about the amount of time that the other 2 GCs we interviewed said it would take for everything, so.... no real surprises there!

Getting construction work done on time depends on how valuable and/or a repeat customer you are which gives you clout.

This is why a contractor can turn a used car lot into a state-of-the-art Chase bank in 90 days. Chase doesn't care if the truck with the computers was wrecked on 1-75. Get a new truck, driver, and computers and get my dang bank open now or you won't be building the next branch.

You can't tell General Motors that they have to lay off 3,000 people at a plant because you can't get the new front end alignment machine working by the end of Christmas shutdown if you'd like to stay on the bid list.

You are one little kitchen in a highly competitive field. All that competition keeps prices low for you, but margins razor thin. When are you gonna buy another kitchen anyway? And if you're foolish enough to be your own GC, you've got little leverage over all your subs. So they're late and you're mad; you're one little job. They've got guys that throw them lots of work that can't be disappointed.

When we were renovating our whole condo 6 years ago, during the recession when everyone was begging for work, I asked my GC how long it would take to finish. This was the beginning of June. He told us 3 months.

I looked him in the eye and said, "So what you're telling me is we can finally move in the end of November" He gave me a dirty look.

BTW: We were finally able to move in the end of November and even then there were still punch list items. Things happen. Delays happen. Surprises happen.

In other words, whatever schedule you were given, double it.

I planned on 2 weeks, acting as my own gc, but it ended up taking 3 weeks - I didn't factor in the 4th of July long weekend.

I'm with Jakuvall on this one - a good contractor wants to finish on time, and manages his projects so they do (barring the truly unforeseen).

My contractor was on time with everything. The cabinetmaker? Well, let's just say, take the estimated time frame and double or triple it.

I didn't move any gas/plumbing/electrical and used existing appliances. The KD/GC VASTLY underestimated how long it would take to install the cabinets and the installer was slow and kept jumping around and not finishing what he started. Some things that were to be ordered had not been - that's a 3 wk wait. Some had to be changed as they were FAR smaller than the drawings - again, a 3 week wait. Luckily, I was on vacation for 4 weeks and they did come the Wed after I returned (my request), but some things still weren't quite right, I decided to change out a cabinet (another 3-4 wk wait). I found with the installer I had to pull a chair into the doorway between the kitchen and DR and sit there while he worked. If I did not, when he got to a difficult spot, he'd just jump to something else and not finish the first. I felt like an elementary school teacher saying "Stay on task! Stay on task!". He admitted that he tended to do this and we got on just fine. It will finally be finished when the replacement upper cabinet arrives along with the damaged side panel for the refrigerator - in 3-4 weeks, hopefully. Then they can finish the trim above the cabinets and the light trim on the cabinet's bottoms. Of course, that could have already been done if I had not decided to change the cabinet.

When I had the soffits removed back in March and a new ceiling put in and painted, they told me it was a 3 -4 day job; it took 10 days including the weekend. Painting of walls and woodwork was quick - right on schedule. Electrical work done VERY promptly. Same with removal and re-installing countertops and plumbing work. Did I mention that I was the GC for those subs - arranged them myself? Ha!

Biggest reasons for delays-

"client watches the sausage being made"

I love that, MarkJames & Co!