Cabinet timeline

The lead-time clock does not start when you sign. It starts when the final design is approved and measurements are confirmed, which is often weeks after the deposit. Ask every supplier which event starts their quoted clock.

Alliance Woodworking is blunt about the red flag: a four-week promise on work that every serious shop quotes at ten-plus weeks "usually signals either an empty pipeline or a promise made to collect a deposit." Competent shops that handle large cabinetry projects maintain a work queue and are not sitting idle. They also recommend touring the actual production floor rather than just the showroom, and asking for references from completed projects, to tell a real manufacturer from a middleman.

Plan the whole sequence backwards from cabinet delivery, because most of a kitchen depends on it. Countertop templating cannot happen until cabinets are set, and fabrication takes time after templating. Backsplash follows countertops. Final plumbing and electrical trim follows both.

Build in slack for the discoveries. Walls out of plumb, floors out of level, an unexpected pipe, or a damaged panel in the delivery all add days. Do not schedule an event in your kitchen the week the job is "supposed to" finish.

How to choose

Ask when the clock starts

Signing, final design approval and field measurement are different dates. Get the one they are quoting from.

Treat a very short custom quote as a warning

Four weeks on a job others quote at ten-plus usually means an empty pipeline or a deposit grab.

Inspect the delivery before signing for it

Open boxes and check for damage and count against the order list. Replacements have their own lead time.

Sequence countertops after cabinets

Templating requires set cabinets, and fabrication adds more time after that.

Do not live without a kitchen unplanned

Set up a temporary kitchen before demolition, not during.

Ask to see the shop

A production floor tour and real project references separate manufacturers from resellers.