How long does a full home renovation take?

Published 23 May 2026 · Last updated 12 July 2026 · Written and fact-checked by Paul Whitmore, Lead Reviewer · Reviewed against our published judging process

A full home renovation typically takes around three to six months for a standard refurbishment, and six to twelve months or more once structural work, extensions or a full strip-back are involved. Single rooms run in weeks; whole houses run in seasons. Anyone promising you a transformed house in a fortnight is selling something.

Every project is its own animal, so treat those as honest planning ranges rather than promises. What decides where you land in them is scope, decisions and surprises, in that order.

What a realistic timeline looks like

Before a tool comes out, there is design, planning and procurement, and this thinking phase can easily take as long as the building work. Once on site, a typical full renovation moves through strip-out, first fix for the wiring and plumbing, plastering, second fix, kitchens and bathrooms, then decoration and snagging. Each stage waits on the one before it, which is why a delay early on echoes down the whole programme.

A cosmetic whole-house refresh, new kitchen, new bathroom, redecoration throughout, sits at the shorter end. Knock a wall through, extend the back, or rewire and replumb the lot, and you are firmly in the six-to-twelve-month world.

What actually causes delays

In my experience it is rarely the trades. It is late decisions, that kitchen not ordered until the fitters are a week away, and it is discovery, the things a house only tells you once it is opened up. Old wiring, damp behind units, joists that are not where the drawings say. Good firms build in contingency for discovery. Nobody can build in contingency for a client who has not chosen their tiles.

From the tools: The fastest full renovation I have ever seen finished ahead of schedule for one reason: every single product, from the flooring to the door handles, was chosen, ordered and sitting in a lock-up before the strip-out began. The slowest one had a client choosing bathroom fittings while the plumber stood on the landing waiting. Same size house. Four months apart on the finish date. Decisions are the schedule.

How to keep a renovation on programme

Finalise the design and order the long-lead items before work starts. Agree a written programme with your contractor, stage by stage, and hold a short weekly catch-up against it. Make decisions fast when the house surprises you, because open questions are the only thing on a site that costs money while standing still.

Choosing who runs the job matters more than anything else on this page, so start with our guide to the best home renovation companies in London, and if the kitchen is the heart of your project, budget it properly with our London kitchen renovation cost guide.

Paul has spent more than twenty years around the trades and writes practical guides for The UK Trades Awards.

Paul Whitmore, Lead Reviewer. Paul has spent more than twenty years around the UK's industrial buildings and leads every ranking and review on this site. Read his full profile.