A real day-by-day Orange County timeline: quote, slab selection, template, fabrication, install. Most kitchens are done in 7 to 14 days.
Nobody publishes this, so here it is plainly. Below is the same project broken out day by day so you know what is happening and who is in your house.
Day 0 — free in-home measure and written quote. Days 1–3 — you pick your material, ideally by walking a slab yard. Day 3–5 — template appointment, 45 minutes to 2 hours. Days 5–12 — fabrication in the shop, 3 to 7 business days. Day 10–14 — install day, 4 to 8 hours, including removal of old countertops. Day 11–15 — plumbing reconnected after a 24-hour cure.
Prefab material in a stock color can compress this to under a week. A special-order or imported slab can stretch it to four to eight weeks. The variable is almost never the installer — it is whether your stone is sitting in a local warehouse right now.
A licensed fabricator from our network comes to your kitchen, measures your runs, counts your corners and cutouts, and writes a real number. This is a rough measure, not the template — it exists so you can compare quotes without paying anyone. Ask for the quote to itemize material, fabrication, edge profile, sink cutout, removal of old countertops, disposal, and install labor separately. A quote that is one lump number is a quote you cannot compare.
If you are buying a full slab, go see it. Orange County has serious stone inventory — the slab yard corridor around Anaheim and Santa Ana holds thousands of pieces — and a 3″ sample chip tells you almost nothing about how a slab's veining will land on your island. You can tag and hold a specific slab. If you are going prefab, this step is a color choice off a stock list and takes about ten minutes.
This is the step that most often adds a week to a project, purely because people take their time deciding. That is fine — just know the clock has not started yet.
A technician arrives with a laser or digital templating rig and captures your kitchen to about 1/16″. Cabinets must already be installed and level, and your sink, faucet, and cooktop must be on site or at least fully specified — the cutouts get cut from the model, not adjusted later.
Three decisions get locked in at this appointment: your edge profile, your overhang, and where every seam will fall. Walk the kitchen with the templater and put your hand on the spots. Do not let a seam land in the middle of the sink if it can be avoided, and get the seam locations noted on the paperwork.
Your slab goes on a CNC bridge saw. The shop cuts the outline, drills the sink and faucet holes, grinds and polishes the edge profile, and dry-fits the pieces on the shop floor so the seam can be tightened before it ever reaches your house. Natural stone gets sealed here; quartz does not need sealing.
This is the true bottleneck. A busy Orange County shop in spring can be booked out; the same shop in January might turn it in three days. Ask for your fabrication window in writing.
Morning starts with removal of old countertops — laminate, tile, or old stone comes out and goes on the truck. Plumbing is disconnected first. The new pieces come in, get dry-set, get shimmed level, and then the seam is joined with color-matched epoxy and pulled tight with a seam setter. Undermount sinks are attached from below with clips and epoxy. Perimeter silicone goes in last.
A single-run kitchen can be done in three hours. A big kitchen with an island, a peninsula, and a full backsplash is a full day.
Sink and disposal get reconnected once the adhesive has cured, normally the next day. Keep weight off the seam and off any unsupported overhang for the first 24 hours. Then walk the whole run in daylight, run your hand across every seam, and check the edge profile is consistent from end to end — punch-list anything now, while the crew is still local and the job is still open.
By far the biggest one. In-stock local material means fabrication starts in days. A slab that has to be transferred from another warehouse adds 1 to 3 weeks; something imported can add 4 to 8. Ask “is this in stock in Southern California right now?” before you commit to a color.
Nothing can be templated until the cabinets are installed, level, and secured. If you are doing a full remodel, book the template for the day after your cabinet installer signs off, not the same day.
The cutout is fabricated from the actual sink. No sink at template means either a delay or a guess, and a guess means a re-cut.
Once the slab is cut, it is cut. Moving a seam or changing an edge profile after fabrication starts means new material and a restarted clock.
Shops are busiest spring through early fall and around the holidays. The same kitchen quoted in January often installs a week sooner than one quoted in May.
Installation day itself takes 4 to 8 hours for a typical Orange County kitchen. The whole project — from the day you approve the quote to the day you have finished countertops — normally runs 7 to 14 days, with the bulk of that being fabrication time in the shop.
The template appointment takes about 45 minutes to 2 hours depending on kitchen size. A technician arrives with a laser or digital templating system, measures every run, marks sink and cooktop locations, checks your walls for square, and confirms your edge profile and seam placement with you before leaving.
Fabrication takes 3 to 7 business days after templating. That covers cutting the slab on the CNC, cutting the sink and faucet holes, grinding and polishing the edge profile, and dry-fitting the seam in the shop before anything ships to your house.
If the material is in stock at a local slab yard, nothing is ordered — fabrication starts within days. A special-order color or a slab that has to come from a distributor's other warehouse typically adds 1 to 3 weeks. Imported or exotic stone can take 4 to 8 weeks. Ask about stock status before you fall in love with a color.
Usually 24 hours. The plumber disconnects before demo on install day, and the sink gets reconnected the following day once the silicone and seam adhesive have fully cured. Some installers reconnect same-day on a drop-in sink; undermount sinks almost always need the overnight cure.
Not for a custom job — the slab cannot be cut before it is measured. Same-day and next-day countertops advertised locally are almost always prefab pieces in a stock size that need only minor cutting. If your kitchen genuinely fits standard prefab dimensions, a very fast turnaround is possible.
Yes. Removal of old countertops and haul-away is standard on nearly every Orange County countertop job and is normally included in the quote. Confirm it in writing, and confirm who is responsible for disconnecting and reconnecting plumbing and the cooktop.
Give us your name and number and a licensed Orange County fabricator will call with a real timeline for your kitchen — including whether your material is in stock locally, which is the single thing that decides whether this takes 8 days or 8 weeks.
Name and number is all we need — we'll call you with pricing.
Everything homeowners ask us before they book a template appointment.
The #1 material. Cambria, MSI, Caesarstone, Silestone and more.
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Read the guide →Get matched with a licensed local fabricator in your city.
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