Remodeling timelines, Greater Seattle Area
How Long Does a Remodel Take in Seattle?
A remodel in the Seattle area takes from 2 to 5 weeks on site for a kitchen refresh to 9 to 14 months for a whole home gut renovation, according to our October 2026 pricing guides. Design and permits come first. On our own invoice-dated jobs, bathrooms took about 2 to 18 weeks and one whole home about seven months.
Below are the on-site ranges from each pricing guide, our own jobs with their dates, and Seattle's permit review numbers. For a written schedule for your own project, Book a Consultation.
How long does a bathroom, kitchen, basement or whole home remodel take in Seattle?
Weeks for one room or a bump-out, months for a whole home, a second story or an ADU. Our pricing guides publish a typical time on site for each scope, counted after design and permits. The right column lists our own jobs with invoice dates on their project pages. Where it says none, we have not yet published a dated job of that kind.
| Project | Pricing guide range on site | Our dated jobs |
|---|---|---|
| Bathroom | Small 4 to 8 weeks; medium 6 to 10 weeks; large 8 to 13 weeks; primary 10 to 18 weeks | Seven jobs, about 2 to 18 weeks (2022 to 2024) |
| Kitchen | Refresh 2 to 5 weeks; small and galley 6 to 10 weeks; medium 8 to 12 weeks; large and open 10 to 16 weeks | Burien kitchen and laundry, about 10 weeks (2022) |
| Basement | Refresh 3 to 6 weeks; finish without a bath 6 to 10 weeks; with bedroom and bath 10 to 16 weeks; lower-level suite 14 to 22 weeks | None yet |
| Whole home | Condo or townhome 3 to 5 months; whole home refresh 4 to 7 months; layout changes 6 to 10 months; gut renovation 9 to 14 months | Split-level whole home, about seven months from signing (2021 to 2022) |
| Home addition | Bump-out 8 to 12 weeks; room addition 12 to 20 weeks; primary suite 16 to 24 weeks; second story 6 to 9 months | None yet |
| ADU or DADU | Garage or basement conversion 3 to 5 months; attached ADU 5 to 8 months; DADU of 300 to 600 sq ft 5 to 8 months; DADU of 600 to 1,000 sq ft 6 to 10 months | None yet |
Sources: our bathroom, kitchen, basement, full home, home addition and ADU and DADU pricing guides, each updated October 2026 (times on site, after design and permits); our project pages, with dates from each job's invoices.
How long did our own bathroom remodels take?
From about 2 weeks to about 18 weeks. These are our seven bathroom and shower remodels with start and finish dates on their project pages, taken from the jobs' invoices:
- Walk-in shower in Renton: about two weeks, April 3 to April 14, 2023, with the glass door fitted in May.
- Master bathroom in Auburn: about three weeks, from demolition in early March to March 27, 2023.
- Glass subway tile bathroom in Seattle: about 9 weeks, November 18, 2022 to January 17, 2023.
- Basement bathroom in Redmond: about 12 weeks, February 26 to May 16, 2024.
- Master bathroom with a wood slat wall in Redmond: about 13 weeks, May 20 to August 15, 2024.
- Tub to walk-in shower bathroom in Kirkland: about 13 weeks, March 15 to June 14, 2023.
- Open walk-in shower master bathroom in Redmond: about 18 weeks of construction, August 8 to December 14, 2023.
The two week job rebuilt one shower and left the rest of the room alone. The Kirkland job took the tub out for a walk-in shower. A two bathroom job in one Seattle house ran longer still: demolition in March 2022, with the tile for the house finished that October.
How long did our kitchen and whole home remodels take?
About 10 weeks for a kitchen and about seven months for a whole home, on the two jobs with invoice dates on their project pages. Each figure comes from a single project. Your own schedule is written for your scope.
The White Shaker Kitchen and Laundry Remodel in Burien, WA ran from April 11 to June 22, 2022. The design drawings were approved before demolition, so the build ran to a settled plan for both rooms.
The Split-Level Whole Home Remodel with a Marble Fireplace was signed in November 2021 and completed in June 2022, about seven months. That count starts at signing, so it includes time before work began. Our full home pricing guide puts a remodel with layout changes at 6 to 10 months on site. How that job was sequenced room by room is in How to Plan a Major Home Renovation.
How long does planning a remodel take before construction?
Often longer than the build. In the 2024 U.S. Houzz & Home Study (March 27, 2024), Houzz Research reported that "Kitchen renovations had the longest timeline in 2023, with 9.6 months of planning and 5.1 months of building on average." The study surveyed 17,713 renovating U.S. homeowners.
National bathroom averages, and how a 5x8 room compares, are in How Long Does a 5x8 Bathroom Remodel Take?
With us, planning runs in four steps: a call about your vision, budget and timeline; a consultation with a tailored estimate; design; then construction management, which includes the permits.
How long does a remodel permit take in Seattle?
From a few days for a small permit to about two months of City review for a house addition or alteration, by SDCI's own figures. We do not promise a permit date, because the city sets it.
- Small projects. SDCI's Subject-to-Field-Inspection permit page (read October 2026) covers jobs such as remodeling a portion of a house, and says: "This application and screening process takes a few days."
- Larger remodels. The Addition or Alteration permit page (read October 2026) says SDCI tries to finish its initial review of simple applications in 2 to 3 weeks and complex ones in 8 weeks.
- Recent results. SDCI's Construction Permit Performance page (read October 2026) sets a goal of 30 days in City control for a single family addition or alteration and lists the current 75th percentile as 64 days. It adds that the total time an applicant sees "is roughly twice the calendar days in City control."
SDCI's Addition or Alteration page adds that the time to a final permit depends on how complex the project is and how many corrections you need to make. Which work needs a permit at all is covered in Do you need a permit to remodel in Seattle?
What makes a remodel take longer?
Scope, lead times, permits and phasing. On our full home pricing guide, a whole home refresh is 4 to 7 months on site and a remodel with layout changes 6 to 10.
Special orders come next. Our kitchen pricing guide says custom and inset cabinets "add 8 to 12 weeks of lead time", and our bathroom guide notes that custom glass and stone add lead time, because frameless glass and slab stone are measured after the tile.
Phasing a whole home so you can stay in it adds time, as our renovation planning guide explains. Houzz also warned in its July 21, 2020 remodel timeline report that "The average remodeling time for each room should not be added up in order to estimate the timeline for a whole-house remodel."
When can a remodel start, and is the schedule in writing?
Every project gets a written schedule with milestones. After the contract is signed, your project manager reviews that schedule against your own timeline to start as soon as possible. The start date depends on design decisions, any permit review your city requires and when special order materials arrive.
For a whole house, one plan and one schedule cover every room. See Whole Home Remodeling Across the Greater Seattle Area. For work in the city, see Home Remodeling Contractors in Seattle, WA.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you live in the house during a remodel?
It depends on the size of the project and on your tolerance for inconvenience. Living on site means dust, debris, noise and disruption, and a bathroom may be out of use for a period. For larger projects we generally advise staying somewhere else during construction.
Are national remodel time averages a good guide for a Seattle project?
Only roughly. Houzz said in its July 21, 2020 report that its averages "include both DIYs and projects done with the help and guidance of a professional." Your own schedule comes from your scope, your city's permit review and your material orders.
How long does a roof replacement take?
Our roof replacement pricing guide (October 2026) lists 2 to 4 days for shingle and 1 to 2 weeks for metal on site, after permits, for a simple 1,500 to 2,000 sq ft roof. Larger and steeper roofs take longer.
