Kitchen Renovation Step by Step
The Right Order of Work, From Layout to Handover (2026)

Why the order matters in a kitchen

A kitchen packs more trades into a small room than any other part of the house: a plumber, an electrician, often a gas installer, a tiler, a ceiling installer, a carpenter and a stone fabricator. Each of them builds on the work of the one before. Pipes are buried before the tiles go on, the cabinets are levelled on the finished floor, and the stone top is cut to the cabinets as they actually stand.

Get the order wrong and you pay twice. A socket point moved after tiling means cutting new tiles. A countertop cut from the drawing instead of the installed cabinets may not sit flat against a bowed wall. A wet kitchen tiled without waterproofing underneath can leak into the room below or into the wall behind. The sequence below is the one most contractors in Malaysia follow, with the reason each step comes where it does. If you are still deciding on budget, start with ClickBina's kitchen renovation cost guide.

Step 1: measure, plan the layout and get approvals

Everything starts with an accurate measurement and a layout. Decide where the sink, hob, hood, fridge and oven go before anything else, because those positions fix where the water, drainage, gas and power points must be. Moving a sink or hob to a new wall is possible, but it is the decision that adds the most hacking and piping, so make it at this stage and not halfway through.

Decide too whether you want a single kitchen or a wet and dry split. ClickBina's wet and dry kitchen guide explains the layouts. In a condo, submit the renovation application to management with the scope and wait for written approval before work starts. On a landed house, check whether any part of the job, such as removing a wall or extending at the back, needs council approval.

Step 2: choose appliances and order the long-lead items

Choose your sink, tap, hob, hood and any built-in oven or dishwasher before the cabinets are drawn. The carpenter needs the exact models to size the cut-outs and the cabinet openings, and the electrician needs to know the power each one draws. Changing the hob model after the countertop is cut is one of the most common and expensive kitchen mistakes.

Custom cabinets are usually the longest wait. ClickBina's cabinet process guide describes two to four weeks of factory fabrication after the signed drawing and deposit, so the order should go in early enough that the cabinets arrive once the tiling is finished, not before the room is ready for them.

Step 3: protect the house and strip out

With materials ordered, the site is protected and the old kitchen comes out. Floors and doorways along the route are covered, and in a condo the lift and corridor protection set by management goes up first. Old cabinets are removed, then tiles, screed or walls are hacked as the scope requires.

Strip-out is the noisiest stage, and it is also where hidden problems show up: corroded pipes in the wall, an old drain at the wrong fall, damp behind the sink. A good contractor stops and shows you what they found, prices any extra work and only then carries on. Debris should leave the site as the work goes, not pile up in the porch.

Step 4: first fix for plumbing, electrical and gas

Once the room is bare, the services that will be hidden go in. The plumber runs the water supply and drainage to the new sink and dishwasher positions. The electrician runs cables for sockets above the worktop, dedicated points for the oven, hob and fridge, and the wiring for lights. If you cook on gas, the gas piping to the hob position is done now by a competent gas installer.

This is the first hold point. Before anything is plastered or tiled over, check that every point is where the drawing says, at the right height above the future worktop, and test the pipes for leaks. ClickBina's guide to inspecting before cover-up lists what to check at each concealed stage.

Step 5: waterproofing and screed in a wet kitchen

A wet kitchen, where you wash and cook with a lot of water, needs a waterproofing membrane on the floor and up the wall at the base, especially in a condo above another unit or a landed kitchen with a room or a porch below. The floor screed is laid to fall towards the floor trap so water does not pond. ClickBina's kitchen waterproofing guide explains where the membrane goes and how it is tested.

A dry kitchen, used mostly for light cooking, does not always need a full membrane, but the area around the sink still benefits from one. Whatever is decided, a ponding test before tiling is the only proof that the floor holds water. Tiling over an untested floor buries the risk.

Step 6: tiling, the ceiling and lighting

Floor tiles go down first, then the wall tiles in the areas that will show. Many contractors tile the floor under where the cabinets will stand, so a future layout change does not leave a gap, though some tile only to the cabinet line to save cost. Agree this before tiling starts. The backsplash behind the worktop is often left until after the countertop is fitted, so the tiles sit neatly on the stone.

The ceiling comes next. If you want a plaster ceiling with downlights or a pelmet for hidden lighting, the frame goes up, the light points wired at first fix are brought through, and the boards are closed. Painting the ceiling and walls follows, before the cabinets arrive, so the carpenter is not working around wet paint.

Step 7: install the cabinets

The cabinets arrive from the factory and are installed on the finished floor. The base run is levelled end to end, because everything above it, including the countertop, depends on it. Wall cabinets are fixed to the wall and the tall units placed, with openings left for the oven, fridge and any built-in appliance.

Be on site when the base run is levelled. ClickBina's cabinet installation checklist lists what to check: level, gaps against the wall, door alignment and that the sink cabinet lines up with the plumbing points left at first fix.

Step 8: template and fit the countertop, then the backsplash

A stone countertop is not cut from the drawing. The fabricator comes once the base cabinets are level and templates the actual line of the cabinets and the wall, including the sink and hob cut-outs for the models you chose in Step 2. The slab is cut and polished off site and returned to be fitted, which is why there is usually a gap of some days between the cabinets going in and the top arriving.

With the top in place, the backsplash is tiled or the panel fitted down to the stone. Doing it in this order gives a clean joint along the back of the worktop, which is where water and grease collect.

Step 9: second fix, testing and handover

The last stage connects everything. The plumber fits the sink, tap and waste trap; the electrician fits sockets, switches and lights; the hob and hood are installed and the hood ducted out; built-in appliances are slotted in. Then everything is tested: water runs without leaks under the sink, the drain clears, every socket works, the hood extracts and the gas hob lights.

Walk through the kitchen with the contractor, open every door and drawer, and make a written list of anything to adjust. Final payment should follow the snag list being cleared.

How long it takes and what it costs

ClickBina's cost guide puts a typical Klang Valley kitchen renovation at three to six weeks from start to handover, with custom cabinets usually the longest lead item. The budget depends mostly on the scope and the cabinet material. These ranges are quoted unchanged from ClickBina's live guides:

Two things push a kitchen past its planned time: decisions made late (appliances, tiles, the hob position) and hidden problems found at strip-out. Fixing the layout and models in Steps 1 and 2 removes the first; a contractor who prices extras before doing them keeps the second under control.

How ClickBina can help

ClickBina is an experienced KL & Selangor contractor for whole-house refurbishment and trade coordination, so a kitchen can be planned and sequenced as one job, from strip-out to the final test. WhatsApp us your job details for a quote: area, property type, kitchen size, whether you want a wet and dry split and what you want changed. We reply within the hour, and the price we agree is a flat price with no hidden charges.

Sources & methodology

• ClickBina kitchen renovation cost guide — cost tiers, wet-and-dry add-on, typical duration.
• ClickBina custom kitchen cabinet process guide — factory fabrication, levelling the base run, templating the top.
• ClickBina kitchen waterproofing and stage inspection guides — membrane, ponding test, concealed-work checks.
• ClickBina bathroom renovation step-by-step guide — the same stage-and-hold-point method for wet rooms.

How we price: every figure is quoted unchanged from the ClickBina guide named beside it; they are indicative Klang Valley ranges, not quotes. Your sequence may differ slightly with the scope, for example when cabinets are kept or only the top is replaced.