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Renovation timeline: how long does it take?

Timeline · 03.08.2026 · 8 min

In discovery calls this is the question that follows cost: how long will it take? There is usually a concrete date behind it — the end of a lease, the start of the school year, an opening. The honest answer is not a single number. A renovation schedule is built from the order in which trades wait on each other, from when materials reach the site, and from how quickly decisions are made. This article takes that schedule apart: where the time goes, where most of it is lost, and what a realistic plan looks like.

Why we can't give you one number

Two flats of the same size finish on very different dates. A refresh that stays at the level of paint, lighting and textiles is a matter of weeks. A transformation that moves wet areas, renews plumbing and produces the kitchen and wardrobes to measure runs into months. The difference is not floor area but scope: every wall taken down, every pipe run moved and every made-to-measure item adds its own time. That is why "how many months does a renovation take" has no realistic answer before someone has seen your space.

Where the time goes: four stages

At mimarsanat the process runs in four stages, each with its own rhythm. Discovery takes about a week; the space, the brief and the investment range become clear here. Concept runs 3-4 weeks — layout, material language and visuals are prepared in that window. Production and site work range from 8 to 14 weeks depending on scope, with renovation, custom production and installation overlapping. One more week is set aside for handover: final checks, touch-ups, cleaning. Added up, a comprehensive transformation usually lands somewhere between three and five months.

Time on paper is not time lost

The three or four weeks of concept are where clients are least patient; the urge to "just start already" appears here. Yet most of the expensive mistakes on site come from cutting those weeks short. A wardrobe dimension that takes ten minutes to change on paper costs weeks once it is in production. That is what concept visuals are for: you can argue about the finished space while nothing has been demolished yet.

The order on site: which trade waits for which

Site work largely proceeds in sequence, and the sequence is not negotiable. Plumbing is not opened before demolition ends; walls are not closed before water and electrical routes are set; floors are not laid before screed and plaster have dried; joinery is not installed before the floor is finished; the final coat of paint waits for installation. A delay in one link pushes everything after it. So when you read a schedule, the number to look at is not the sum of the tasks but the longest link in that chain.

The most common cause of delay: lead times

In most projects the item that strains the schedule is material rather than labour. A tile that is out of stock, an imported tap, a made-to-size glass panel or a natural stone worktop: their production and shipping times can exceed the work on site. The right reflex is to close the selections during concept and to write lead times into the schedule from the start. If a material decision is left to the site, that waiting time is added straight to the handover date.

The second cause: decisions that change on site

"While it's open, let's take that wall down too" is a natural part of the job; it comes up in almost every project. But a new decision made on site invalidates the plan that preceded it: new dimensions, new material, sometimes a new permit question. Banning such changes outright is unrealistic; pulling them forward into the concept stage is not. Asking "will I want this later?" early is the cheapest protection a schedule has.

What comes out of an older building

In an older building, demolition day is a survey in its own right: plumbing that has been leaking for years, a rotten frame, a floor level that differs from the drawing, a duct that appears on no plan. These are possibilities rather than accidents, and an experienced team leaves room for them. The schedule equivalent of a budget contingency is a week or two of flexibility. A plan without it falls apart at the first surprise, and everything after that is catching up.

Renovating while you live there, or while the business stays open

Not every renovation happens in an empty space. In an occupied home or a business that keeps trading, the work is split into phases: one section is closed off, finished, and then the next one starts. This lengthens the total duration — the crew sets up again at every phase and noisy work is squeezed into fixed hours — but it avoids the cost of moving out or closing down. Which of the two is cheaper is a calculable question, and it belongs in the discovery conversation.

In a commercial space, the schedule is money

Every closed day in a cafe, a shop or an office is a day with a matching line in rent and turnover. That is why in commercial work the schedule becomes as decisive a criterion as the design itself. In practice it means this: everything that can be produced in the workshop is produced without waiting for the site, and installation is put on a compressed programme. For a space in Europe two more items join the schedule — shipping time and the planning of the installation crew. Both are written down at the start rather than discovered later.

What a realistic schedule looks like

A realistic schedule is more than a single handover date. It contains stages, a finishing week for each stage, the items on the critical path, and the room set aside for surprises. It also states which decision has to be made by which week — part of every delay originates on the client side, and saying so up front protects both parties. At mimarsanat a weekly progress note removes the "where are we?" question as well.

What you can do to shorten it

On the client side, nothing speeds up a schedule like decisiveness. Making selections together and early, not sitting on the concept approval, getting the building management's work permit at the outset, having the space emptied on survey and demolition days: each of these buys days on site. The habit that costs the most time, by contrast, is postponing a decision with "we'll see when we get there".

If you want to see what a realistic schedule looks like for your project, describe the space, your goal and any fixed date you have in the appointment form. After the site visit we will put a plan in front of you with the stages and their finishing weeks.