In South Florida a bathroom typically takes 2–4 weeks of on-site work, a same-layout kitchen 3–6 weeks, a condo unit the same plus 2–8 weeks of board approval, and a whole home 3–6 months. Add permitting and material lead times before any of that starts, and the honest calendar for most projects is roughly double the construction time.
Ask three contractors how long a bathroom takes and you will get three answers, all of them shorter than the truth. Not necessarily dishonestly — most people quote the construction time and quietly leave out permitting, material lead times, and the week lost when something unexpected turns up behind a wall. Here is what the real schedule looks like.
Renovation timelines at a glance
| Project | Before work starts | On site | Realistic total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bathroom | 4–8 weeks (design, selections, permit) | 2–4 weeks | 5–7 weeks to a usable room once work begins; 2–3 months door to door |
| Kitchen, same layout | 6–10 weeks (cabinet lead time sets this) | 3–6 weeks | 3–4 months |
| Condo unit | Add 2–8 weeks for board approval | Same as above, often slower due to working hours | Add 1–2 months to the house figure |
| Whole home | 2–4 months (drawings, permit) | 3–6 months | 6–10 months |
| Ground-up new home | Several months of design and permitting | About 12 months on our Sky Lake project | Well over a year |
These are typical ranges from the projects we see, not promises. Structural work, an addition, or a slow building management office pushes every row longer.
Bathroom: 2–4 weeks on site, 5–7 to a fully usable room
Demolition takes a day or two. Rough plumbing and electrical, three to five days. Inspection. Waterproofing and flood test, two days, and we let the flood test sit a full 24 hours because that is the only way to know the pan holds. Tile, five to ten days depending on size and pattern. Then fixtures, glass and finish work.
The glass is the item that most often runs past the end. Frameless shower enclosures are measured after the tile is finished, then fabricated. That is typically another one to two weeks in which the bathroom is otherwise complete and unusable. If you have only one shower in the house, plan around that gap now. More on the bathroom process is on our bathroom remodeling page.
Kitchen: 3–6 weeks on site
The critical path is almost never the construction. It is the cabinets. Semi-custom cabinetry typically runs six to ten weeks from order to delivery; full custom can be twelve or more. Stone countertops are templated only after the cabinets are installed and level, then fabricated, which adds one to two weeks during which you have a kitchen with no countertops.
The practical implication: order cabinets before demolition, not after. A kitchen where the cabinets were ordered on day one runs weeks shorter than an identical kitchen where they were ordered when demolition finished. For comparison, industry guides covering Miami put a mid-range kitchen at roughly 6–10 weeks overall and a luxury kitchen with layout changes at four to six months or more, which matches what we see once lead times are counted. Our kitchen remodel timeline breaks this down week by week.
Condo unit: add 2–8 weeks before anything starts
Board approval is the variable. Two weeks in a well-run building with a responsive manager; two months where the board meets monthly and your package needs a revision. This happens entirely before the first day of work.
Once work begins, a high-rise moves slower than a house. Most associations restrict noisy work to weekday daytime hours, and every delivery needs an elevator reservation. On our Bay Harbor Islands apartment the board approval, elevator bookings and a shared plumbing riser all had to be scheduled around the building, not around us. The rules that drive this are covered in condo renovation rules in Miami.
Whole home: 3–6 months
Longer with structural work or an addition. The sequencing is unavoidable: demolition, then structural, then rough mechanical, electrical and plumbing, then inspection, then insulation and drywall, then finishes. Each stage gates the next, and inspections sit between several of them.
Our Hollywood Lake House, a 1960s house taken back to structure with a new roof, windows, a relocated kitchen and four rebuilt bathrooms, is the kind of project that lives at the long end of this range. Ground-up construction is a different scale again: the Sky Lake House took about twelve months of construction.
How long does a permit take in Miami-Dade and Broward?
Florida law sets a clock. As of 2026, section 553.792 of the Florida Statutes gives a local building department 30 business days to approve or deny a complete application for a residential structure under 7,500 square feet when its own plans reviewers do the work, and 60 business days for larger ones. The department must tell you within 5 business days if the application is incomplete.
Two things follow. First, 30 business days is about six calendar weeks, which is a long time to have a crew waiting. Second, the clock only starts on a complete application, and a rejection for code deficiencies gives the applicant 10 business days to respond before the cycle continues. A sloppy submission is the most common way to lose a month. Filing early means review runs alongside material lead times instead of after them. For bathroom-specific detail, see bathroom remodel permits in Miami-Dade.
The four things that actually cause delays
1. Selections made late. This is the biggest one, and it is almost always the homeowner’s side. Tile that has not been chosen cannot be ordered. A vanity ordered in week three arrives in week seven. Every selection should be made and ordered before demolition begins — not “decided in principle”, but ordered, with a confirmed delivery date.
2. Permit review. Weeks, not days, and it varies by municipality. Many cities in Miami-Dade, Miami Beach among them, run their own building departments with their own checklists, so a submission that sails through one office can come back from another.
3. What is behind the wall. Cast-iron waste lines at end of life, aluminum wiring, previous water damage, a “structural” wall that turns out not to be, or one that turns out to be. In a home over thirty years old, plan for one such discovery. Not because we are pessimistic, but because it is what actually happens. If your house still has its original drains, read about cast-iron pipe replacement before you plan the schedule.
4. Change of mind mid-project. Moving a wall after framing is complete does not cost one day. It costs the framing, the rough-in that has already been done to that framing, and the re-inspection. Changes are always cheapest on paper.
South Florida factors that stretch a schedule
- Hurricane season. It runs June through November. Exterior work, roofing and window installs lose days to weather, and a named storm can shut a site for most of a week while it is secured and then cleaned up.
- Product approvals. Miami-Dade and Broward sit in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, where windows, doors and many exterior products must carry approvals for that zone. That narrows the product list and can lengthen lead times for impact glazing.
- Condo working hours. A building that allows noisy work only on weekdays during set hours turns a five-day tile job into a longer one.
- Older housing. A house built before modern codes tends to reveal more once it is opened, which is why our older Florida home guide recommends investigative openings before the schedule is fixed.
Mistakes that cost time
- Setting a move-in date, lease end or party around the contractor’s best-case finish date.
- Starting demolition before the permit is issued “to save time”. It does not; it invites a stop-work order.
- Choosing materials with long or unknown lead times after work has started.
- Living in the house through a whole-home renovation without a plan for which rooms stay usable.
- Assuming the condo approval is the contractor’s job alone. The board usually wants documents only the owner can sign.
What to ask for before you start
A written schedule with milestones, not a single end date. Something like: demolition complete by X, rough inspection by Y, tile starts Z. Milestones make slippage visible in week two rather than week nine, when there is still time to do something about it.
Then ask these questions:
- Which materials are on the critical path, and have they been ordered?
- When will the permit be filed, and who answers reviewer comments?
- Which inspections sit between which stages?
- Who is on site day to day, and how will I hear about delays?
- What happens if a material is delayed?
A contractor who has thought about that last one will have an answer. One who has not is telling you something useful. One more protection worth knowing: under Florida law, a contractor who takes more than 10% of the contract price up front on residential work must apply for permits within 30 days and start within 90 days of the permits being issued, unless there is just cause or you agreed otherwise in writing.
Planning a larger project? Our home renovation page explains how we sequence whole-house work, and renovation budget mistakes covers how schedule slips turn into cost.
Frequently asked questions
How long does a bathroom remodel take in Miami?
Most full bathroom remodels need two to four weeks of on-site work, plus one to two weeks for the frameless glass to be measured and fabricated after tile is finished. Before that, allow time for selections and the permit. Door to door, two to three months is a realistic expectation for a bathroom where plumbing is being changed.
How long does it take to get a building permit in Miami-Dade?
As of 2026, Florida law gives building departments 30 business days to approve or deny a complete application for residential structures under 7,500 square feet, and they must flag an incomplete application within 5 business days. Corrections restart part of the process, so a complete, well-prepared submission is the single best way to keep review short.
Can I live in my home during a renovation?
For a single bathroom or kitchen, usually yes, with some inconvenience. For a whole-home renovation where plumbing and electrical are replaced, most families move out for at least the rough-in and drywall stages, when water, power and dust make the house hard to live in. Plan this before demolition, not during it.
How long does a condo renovation take in Miami?
Expect the house timeline plus two to eight weeks for board approval before work starts, and a slower pace on site because of restricted working hours and elevator reservations. A full condo gut commonly runs four to six months from approval to completion, longer if the building requires acoustic testing or riser work.
Does hurricane season delay renovation projects in South Florida?
It can, mainly for exterior work. Hurricane season runs June through November, and roofing, stucco, window installs and site work lose days to storms and heavy rain. Interior projects are less affected, though a named storm can still close a site for several days while it is secured and cleaned up.
