Nobody warns you about this bit. The units go in, a templater spends an hour in your kitchen with a laser or a sheet of clear board, and then everyone leaves, and you are standing in a room with base cabinets, no work surface, and a sink sitting in its box on the floor. It is the single most disruptive stretch of a worktop job, it is the part the brochures skip, and it is entirely predictable, which means it is entirely plannable.
01 / 06
Why there is a gap at all
The short answer
- The gap exists because stone is cut to a copy of your actual kitchen, and the copy cannot be made until the kitchen exists.
- Expect somewhere between a few days and a few weeks depending on who you buy from. Ours is 5 to 10 working days from template.
- The thing you will actually miss is the sink, not the work surface. Plan around water, not around worktop.
A stone worktop is not bought off a shelf and trimmed on site the way a laminate one is. It is cut, in a workshop, from a slab, to a template taken from your room. That is the whole reason the gap exists: the template has to be made first, and the cutting cannot start until it has been. Everything between those two visits is manufacturing time, not queue time, the slab is being cut, the cut-outs machined, the edges profiled and polished, and the joins prepared.
This is also why nobody can shorten the gap by being keen. The templating appointment is a survey, and the fabrication that follows is a physical process with a fixed floor. A company promising same-week fitting is either holding stock in your exact material and thickness, or has not yet told you which week they mean.
Where the gap sits
- Units infixed and level
- Template1–2 hours
- Fabricationthe gap
- Fithalf a day
- Plumberafter fit
02 / 06
What you actually lose, and it is not the worktop
People brace for the loss of work surface and are then blindsided by something else. In an undermount installation the sink is bonded to the underside of the stone, so until the stone arrives there is nowhere for the sink to live. No sink means no tap, no waste, no washing up and no filling a kettle at the kitchen tap. The counter is an inconvenience. The water is the problem.
“The most annoying thing was not being able to have a working sink.”
A homeowner describing the same gap, Mumsnet property board, 2015
That comment is more than a decade old and it is still the most accurate summary of the experience anyone has written down. A second thread from the year before puts the question even more plainly, and it is worth reading because it is the question almost every customer asks a week too late.
“Can anyone tell me what usually happens during this gap? I am concerned about not having a kitchen sink and working space; is it normal to put something temporary in?”
Mumsnet property board, April 2014
- No sink, no tap, no waste. This is the one that changes how you live.
- No hob, if your hob drops into the worktop rather than sitting in a range.
- No usable work surface, unless you put something down temporarily.
- Your dishwasher may still work if it was plumbed independently of the sink trap. Check before you assume.
03 / 06
The four ways people bridge it
There are really only four approaches, and they trade money against inconvenience in a straight line. The threads above are full of people who worked this out the hard way, so here they are in order of cost.
Do nothing and camp
Washing-up bowl carried to the bathroom or downstairs cloakroom, kettle filled in the bath, dishwasher run if it still works, and a run of freezer food and paper plates. Costs nothing. It is genuinely fine for three or four days and genuinely grim for three weeks, which is why the length of your gap matters more than anything else in this article.
Lay a sheet of something over the units
A cheap offcut of laminate worktop from a DIY shed, or a sheet of ply, simply laid on top of the carcasses. It is heavy, it is not fixed down, and it will not give you a sink, but it gives you somewhere to put a chopping board and it costs very little. This is the most common answer in the threads and the most sensible one for most people.
Keep the old worktop until template day
If you are replacing rather than fitting a new kitchen, the old top can sometimes stay until the morning of the template, then come off and be laid back loosely over the units afterwards. It is precarious and it is not a work surface you should lean on, but it keeps a sink in the room for a few more days. Ask whether your fitter will do this before you assume it.
Pay for a temporary top and a temporary sink
Some companies will fit a temporary MDF top with the sink plumbed into it for the duration. It is the only option that gives you running water in the kitchen throughout. It also has to be fitted, plumbed, removed and disposed of, so it is charged for, one contributor to the 2014 thread was quoted around £150 for the plumbing element alone, and most people in that discussion declined it.
04 / 06
Making the gap as short as it can be
You control less of this than you would like, but you do control some of it, and the parts you control are all at the front end.
- Get everything ready before we arrive. A template that has to be aborted because the sink is still in transit does not cost you a day, it costs you a slot, and the next one may be a week later.
- Choose from a stocked range rather than a special order. A slab that has to come in from the importer adds its own lead time in front of the fabrication time, and nobody mentions this until you have chosen the colour.
- Fix your sink and hob choice before the template, not after. Changing a cut-out after fabrication has started means a new piece, not an adjustment.
- Ask, in writing, how many working days the company means. Some quote calendar days, which over a bank holiday weekend is a materially different promise.
The last one matters more than it sounds. A firm that templates, fabricates and fits with its own team is scheduling one diary. A firm that subcontracts the stonework is bidding for someone else’s, and the gap you experience is the sum of two companies’ availability rather than one company’s workshop time. It is a fair question to ask before you book, and the answer tells you a great deal about the number you have been quoted.
05 / 06
What to do the week before, in order
| When | What to do | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Before the template | Have the sink, tap and hob physically in the room, and the units fixed and levelled. | These are what the cut-outs are machined from. Photographs of a model number are not enough. |
| Template day | Decide where you will wash up for the next week, and move the kettle and toaster somewhere with a socket. | The room stops being a kitchen the moment the old top comes off. |
| The gap | Lay a temporary sheet if you want a surface. Order nothing that changes the spec. | A spec change after fabrication starts means a remake, not an amendment. |
| Fitting day | Clear the run completely and keep the route from the door free. | Slabs are carried in on edge by two or three people and cannot be put down halfway. |
| After fitting | Book the plumber for the following day, not the same afternoon. | Joins and undermount bonds need time before the sink is loaded and the waste is stressed. |
06 / 06
Questions people actually ask
01Can I use the kitchen at all during the gap?
Yes, with caveats. You will have power, and usually a fridge, a kettle and a microwave. What you will not have is a sink or, in most kitchens, a hob. Treat it as a kitchen without water rather than a kitchen without a counter, and plan meals accordingly. It helps to know where this sits in the order a kitchen goes in, because the trades either side of it are booked around these same two dates.
02Why can they not template before the units go in?
Because the template is a copy of the finished room. Units that are not yet fixed will move, and units that are not level will change the plane the stone sits on. A template taken from an unfinished kitchen produces a worktop that fits a kitchen that no longer exists.
03Is it normal to pay before the worktop is fitted?
Practice varies widely. Some firms take a deposit on signature, before anything has been surveyed or cut. Taking it at the template instead means nothing has been consumed before you pay. No slab committed, nothing irreversible. Ask when the money is due and what has physically happened by that point.
04Can I shorten the gap by paying more?
Rarely, and be careful of anyone who says yes without qualification. Fabrication has a floor. What can genuinely be shortened is the waiting in front of it, choosing a stocked material rather than a special order, and being ready on the day so the template is not aborted.
05What if the units are late and I miss my template slot?
Ring the worktop company the day you know, not the day you were meant to be ready. Slots are diary space; given notice they can usually be moved, and given no notice they are simply lost. This is the single most common cause of a one-week gap becoming a four-week one.
What to take away
- The gap is manufacturing time, not queue time. It exists because the stone is cut to a copy of your actual room, and that copy cannot be made until the room is finished.
- Plan around losing the sink, not around losing the work surface. The water is what changes how you live for those days.
- A sheet of cheap laminate or ply laid over the carcasses is the answer for most people. A plumbed temporary top is the only option that restores running water, and it is charged for.
- Ask whether the quoted days are working days or calendar days, and whether one company or two is involved. Both change the real number.
- If your units slip, telephone immediately. A moved slot costs nothing; a missed one can cost weeks.
Sources
Every figure quoted above is traceable to one of these. Where a source is a price survey rather than our own quoting, it is named as such in the text.
- [1]Worktop Templating, homeowners describing the gap between template and fitting, Mumsnet, retrieved 25 August 2026
- [2]Installing quartz worktops: what happens before they are fitted?, Mumsnet, retrieved 25 August 2026
- [3]How to Draw Up a Timetable for Your Kitchen Renovation, Houzz UK, retrieved 25 August 2026
- [4]Your Comprehensive Guide to Quartz Installation, Wren Kitchens, retrieved 25 August 2026
- [5]Gas cooker and hob appliance guide, who may legally install a hob, Gas Safe Register, retrieved 25 August 2026
