A bathroom renovation with Van Dycke Projects takes about three weeks, from the first day of work to the day the bathroom is finished. That timeline is set in the schedule you get before you commit, along with the price and plan. Most of the three weeks is hands-on work, though drying time between coats adds several days.
Where do the three weeks of a bathroom renovation actually go?
Van Dycke Projects, based in Steinbach, Manitoba, plans a bathroom renovation across about three weeks of work. The time splits between demolition, rough-in for plumbing and wiring, taping, tiling, and installing fixtures. Taping is the mudding and smoothing of the seams between drywall sheets.
Each stage depends on the one before it. Fixtures cannot go in until the tile is set, and tile cannot go on until the walls are taped and dry. The three weeks is the sum of those steps done in order.
Here is roughly how the days fall, though the exact order lives in your schedule:
- Day 1: demolition of the old bathroom
- Days 1 to 2: rough carpentry, adjusting the framing
- Days 2 to 3: electrician and plumber, kept on separate days where the bathroom size allows
- Inspection day, ideally on its own
- One day to close the walls with insulation and drywall
- Four to five days of taping, with drying time between coats
- One day each for painting, fixtures, flooring, and the vanity
- One day of finished carpentry, for baseboards, casings, and doors
- One day of final touch-ups and cover plates
That adds up to about eleven or twelve days of hands-on work, stretched across two to three weeks because the trades cannot always follow each other back to back. Choosing tile adds roughly another week, since it is slow work and no one else can be in the bathroom while it is laid. And if this is your only bathroom, the crew will sometimes compress the schedule so you are not without it for long, even if that means waiting a little longer to start.
Why does drying time between taping coats take five days?
On a Van Dycke Projects bathroom, taping alone needs about five days of drying between coats. Taping is the compound crews spread over drywall seams, then sand smooth once it hardens. Each coat has to dry fully before the next one goes on, or the wall will not hold a clean finish.
That drying is not padding in the schedule. It is the wall curing on its own time, and rushing it shows up later in cracks or uneven paint. The crew works on other parts of the bathroom while the taping dries, so the days are not wasted.
When do you find out the schedule?
You get the schedule before you commit, alongside the price and the plan. Van Dycke Projects does not ask you to sign first and learn the timeline later. You see the length of the job up front and decide with that in hand.
A kitchen runs on a similar clock, at about three weeks as well. Van Dycke Projects also builds a couple of spare days into every schedule, so a small slip does not blow up the finish date.
The finish point has a name: substantial completion. That is when the bathroom is done and you can use it, and it is where the one-year workmanship warranty begins. You know that endpoint before the first day of work.
What can make a renovation take longer than planned?
The usual cause of a delay on a Van Dycke Projects job is material lead time, meaning how long ordered pieces take to arrive. The more custom the item, the longer and less predictable that wait can be. A stock vanity ships fast, while a made-to-order one may not.
You are not left guessing while you wait. You get a text most days that outlines the next day's work, so you can watch the timeline move in real time. A slow material shows up as a change you hear about, not a silent gap.
Before your walk-through, note anything custom you have your heart set on, since made-to-order pieces drive the timeline most. You can read what a bathroom renovation costs in Manitoba, or see the renovation FAQ on the Van Dycke Projects homepage.