A full apartment renovation takes, on average, ten to fourteen months from the start of design to moving in: roughly three to five months of design and approvals, one month of quoting and contracting, and four to eight months of construction, depending on area, scope and building rules.
Timeline is the most frustrating subject in renovations — almost always because people start counting on the day construction opens, ignoring the months of design and contracting that come before.
The full timeline, stage by stage
- 01Briefing and survey — 2 to 4 weeks.
- 02Preliminary study and design concept — 3 to 6 weeks.
- 03Schematic design and client approval — 4 to 6 weeks.
- 04Construction documents, detailing and finishes schedule — 6 to 10 weeks.
- 05Quoting, comparing proposals and contracting — 3 to 5 weeks.
- 06Construction — 4 to 8 months for a full renovation.
- 07Joinery, furniture and final adjustments — 4 to 8 weeks, partly overlapping with construction.
What delays a renovation most
- Pending client decisions: every postponed choice stalls a work front.
- Building rules: short permitted working windows reduce daily site productivity.
- Lead times: joinery, window frames, stone and imported fittings have their own schedules and must be ordered early.
- Structural and plumbing surprises, typical of older buildings.
- Scope changes mid-construction — the leading cause of timeline and budget overruns.
A fast build is a build decided before it starts. Time invested in design comes back multiplied.
How to shorten the timeline safely
- Complete the construction documents before demolition begins.
- Order long-lead items as soon as the design is approved.
- Keep a single schedule integrating construction, joinery and furniture.
- Schedule weekly site visits so decisions keep pace with construction rather than trail behind it.
If you have a target date — a wedding, a baby on the way, the end of a lease — the way forward is to plan backwards from it. That is how we run the schedules of the studio's interiors projects.
