Can I Live in My House During a Kitchen Remodel?

Yes, and almost everybody does. Moving out for a kitchen is rarely worth what it costs.

Expect roughly six weeks with no usable kitchen on a full remodel — demolition to the day the sink is reconnected. On a same-layout replacement it is often three to four. The rest of the project happens around you with the kitchen partly working.

Set up a temporary kitchen before demolition, not after

Do this the weekend before. Once demolition starts you will not have the energy or the counter space to organize it.

• A folding table somewhere with an outlet. Dining room, garage, basement landing.
• Microwave, kettle, toaster oven, and the coffee maker. Coffee is not optional and finding it in a box on day three is genuinely demoralizing.
• The refrigerator, relocated rather than unplugged. Talk to your contractor about moving it to the dining room or garage on day one. An unheated garage in January is fine; in August it is not.
• A dish tub and a drying rack. You will wash dishes in the bathroom sink or a laundry tub. A tub keeps you from putting greasy pans directly into a bathroom basin.
• Paper plates, and permission to use them. This is six weeks, not a lifestyle.
• One box of the things you actually use daily — a good knife, a cutting board, two pans, the can opener. Pack the rest away properly.

What the six weeks are actually like

• Demolition, days 1 to 3. The loudest and dustiest part. If anyone in the house works from home, take those days elsewhere.
• Rough plumbing and electrical, week 1 to 2. Water may be off for a few hours at a time. Ask for notice the day before.
• Cabinets, week 2 to 3. Quiet, tidy, and encouraging. This is the week the kitchen starts looking like a kitchen.
• The counter gap, week 3 to 5. The hard one. Cabinets are in, no counters, no sink. Nothing appears to happen for one to three weeks while the counters are fabricated. Know it is coming and it is much easier.
• Counters, plumbing, backsplash, week 5 to 6. Fast and visible.
• Punch list. A day here and there over a few weeks.

Dust, and how much to expect

More than you think, and it does not stay in the kitchen. Ask your contractor specifically about:

• Plastic sheeting with zippered doorways at every opening into the work area, not a sheet taped across a doorway.
• Covering the HVAC returns in the work zone — otherwise the system distributes drywall dust through the whole house.
• Floor protection on the path from the door to the kitchen. That route takes more abuse than the kitchen does.
• Daily cleanup, and what “broom clean” means to them specifically.

Kids, pets and working from home

• Pets: the front door is open all day. Every year contractors lose someone's cat this way. Put the animals in a closed room with a sign on the door.
• Calls and meetings: ask for the loud days in advance. Any decent crew will tell you which days are demolition, tile cutting and floor work.
• Small kids: the work zone is genuinely unsafe — nails, blades, open electrical. A physical barrier, not a rule.
• Access hours: agree the start time on day one. Seven in the morning is normal for construction and startling if nobody told you.

When you should actually leave

Moving out is worth it in a few specific cases: the kitchen is the only route to the bathroom, the job includes floor refinishing across the whole floor, somebody in the house has a respiratory condition, or the remodel is part of a larger gut where multiple rooms are down at once.

Short of that, stay. A six-week rental costs more than most of the kitchen upgrades people talk themselves out of.

The shortest version

The single biggest reduction in disruption is not moving the plumbing and not waiting on factory cabinets. A same-layout kitchen with in-stock cabinets can be three to four weeks of inconvenience instead of ten to twelve.

Our installed kitchens run $20,000 to $30,000 — cabinets, quartz counters, an island, a new sink and the plumbing, demo and haul-away, and labor. Not included: backsplash, appliances, flooring, and handles on most sets. The price works for a specific and finite reason: the cabinet sets came from projects that were cancelled after the cabinets had already been ordered, so they are paid for and sitting in our warehouse. When they are gone the price goes back to market.

Towns we do kitchens in

We are based in East Patchogue and most of our kitchen work is in Brookhaven and Islip, but we go where the job is. If you are inside an incorporated village, the village building department governs rather than the town.

• Brookhaven — Patchogue, East Patchogue, Medford, Holbrook, Farmingville, Coram, Selden, Bellport, Shirley, Mastic, Centereach
• Islip — Islip, Bay Shore, West Islip, East Islip, Sayville, Bohemia, Oakdale, Brentwood
• Smithtown — Smithtown, Nesconset, Commack, Kings Park, St James, Hauppauge
• Huntington — Huntington, Northport, Dix Hills, Melville, Greenlawn, Huntington Station
• Babylon — Babylon, West Babylon, North Babylon, Lindenhurst, Copiague, Deer Park
• Brookhaven villages — Port Jefferson, Patchogue village, Bellport and Lake Grove run their own building departments

If your town is not on the list, call anyway — the list is where we work most, not a boundary. Anything from Nassau through the Twin Forks is fair game; we tell you honestly if travel makes a small job uneconomical.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I live in my house during a kitchen remodel?
Yes, and most people do. Expect roughly six weeks without a usable kitchen on a full remodel, or three to four weeks on a same-layout replacement. Set up a temporary kitchen with a microwave, kettle and relocated refrigerator before demolition starts.

How long am I without a kitchen sink?
From demolition until the counters are installed and the plumbing is reconnected, which is usually four to six weeks. The countertop fabrication gap of one to three weeks after cabinets are installed is the longest single stretch.

Where do I wash dishes during a kitchen remodel?
Most people use a bathroom sink or a laundry tub with a dish tub and a drying rack. Set this up before demolition rather than improvising on day one.

How much dust does a kitchen remodel create?
A lot, and it travels. Ask your contractor for plastic sheeting with zippered doorways at every opening, covered HVAC returns in the work zone, and floor protection along the route from the entry door to the kitchen.

When should I move out during a kitchen remodel?
Consider it if the kitchen is the only route to a bathroom, if floors are being refinished throughout, if someone in the house has a respiratory condition, or if several rooms are down at once. Otherwise staying is usually the better call.

Related Reading

• Kitchen remodel timeline — phase by phase
• Cabinet lead times — the biggest variable in the schedule
• Cheapest way to redo a kitchen — shorter is cheaper
• What belongs in a quote — including dust protection
• Small kitchen remodels — shorter projects, less disruption