How long common carpentry jobs take

Same day

Hanging an internal door takes one to two hours if the lining is there and square. Easing a sticking door, fitting a latch or a lock, replacing a fence panel, refixing a loose stair tread, boxing in pipework: all half-day jobs. A carpenter with a list of these will usually take them as a day rate.

One to three days

Skirting and architrave through one room, half a day. A stud wall built and boarded, one day. Loft boarding a typical semi, one to two days. A fitted media wall frame, one to two days before plastering. Replacing spindles and a handrail on a staircase, one to two days.

A week or more

A kitchen is five to ten working days for the fitting, plus a week's gap if stone worktops are being templated. A fitted wardrobe wall is two to four days on site, after a lead time of two to six weeks if the carcasses are made in a workshop. A garden room is two to four weeks on site once the base is in.

Where the time actually goes

Lead times, not labour. Made-to-measure joinery, stone worktops and stock doors in an unusual size all wait in a queue somewhere, and that queue is usually longer than the work itself. When a carpenter quotes six weeks for a two-day job, the six weeks is the workshop.

The other hidden time is other trades. Second fix waits for plastering, plastering waits for first fix, and a one-day delay early can move a carpenter's return by a fortnight because they have booked the days in between.

Common questions