A kitchen looks like a furniture installation — cabinets, a benchtop, some appliances. But behind the cabinets it is one of the most service-dense rooms in the house: water supply and waste, a gas line in many homes, multiple electrical circuits, and the linings that cover all of them. The order those trades work in is not a matter of preference. It is fixed by what depends on what, and getting it wrong means the plasterboard you just closed has to come back off to reach a service that was skipped.
That is why the sequence matters more than the size of the room suggests. A kitchen is not slow or expensive to fix because the work is hard; it is unforgiving because so much of the work is hidden, and hidden work has to go in before the surfaces that cover it. A homeowner who knows the order can see a job running out of sequence before it costs them — which is the entire point of understanding it.
A kitchen hides its plumbing, gas, and wiring inside the walls — sequence the trades wrong and the linings you just closed have to come off.
What follows is the correct order of trades for a kitchen renovation in New Zealand — the sequence, the rough-in that controls it, and the points where it most often goes wrong.
Why the order of trades decides a kitchen renovation
Every trade in a kitchen depends on the one before it, and many of them are buried. The plumber's pipes and the electrician's cabling run inside the walls and under the floor; the linings cover them; the flooring goes under the cabinets; the cabinets carry the benchtop; the appliances and fittings connect last. Each layer locks the one beneath it, which means a layer installed out of turn has to be removed to reach what was missed.
This is why an out-of-sequence kitchen costs so much more than one built in order. Discovering after the plasterboard is up that a circuit or a water point is in the wrong place is not an adjustment — it is opening a lined wall, redoing the rough-in, and re-closing it. The sequence is the cheapest insurance in the project, and it is the same logic that governs every room in the 12 phases of a renovation.
The correct order of trades for a kitchen
A kitchen renovation in New Zealand moves through these stages in this order. The dependencies are what fix the sequence — each stage needs the previous one finished before it can start.
- Strip-out and demolition. The old kitchen, fittings, and floor coverings come out, and the appliances are disconnected. This exposes the existing plumbing, wiring, and framing so the real condition of the room is visible before anything new is planned around it.
- Building work and any layout changes. If a wall is moved, an opening created, or the layout reworked, the building work happens now — before any service is run, and where it is restricted building work it must be carried out or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner, with building consent from the council where the scope requires it.
- Rough-in: plumbing, gas, and electrical. The buried trades go in together while the walls are open. A registered plumber sets the sink supply and waste and any gas line, and a registered electrician runs the circuits for the oven, hob, and appliances. These are restricted trades in New Zealand for good reason, and this is the stage everything downstream depends on.
- Inspection, where the work is consented. If the renovation is under building consent, the rough-in is inspected before the walls are lined, because once the linings are up the work cannot be verified. This is a hold point, not a formality.
- Linings, stopping, and paint. With the services in and any inspection passed, the walls are lined with plasterboard, stopped, and painted. The bulk of the painting is done now, while the room is empty and before cabinets are in the way.
- Flooring. The floor covering goes in and runs under where the cabinets and appliances will sit, so the surface is continuous and a future appliance swap is not fighting a cabinet-height lip.
- Cabinetry install. The cabinets are installed and levelled against finished walls and floor. The cabinetry is the spine of the kitchen, and everything after it depends on it being in and square.
- Benchtop template, fabrication, and install. Only once the cabinets are in can the benchtop be templated, because it is measured to the cabinets as built. The template goes to the fabricator, and stone is cut and returned one to two weeks later — a gap with cabinets in and no benchtop that is the most commonly forgotten part of the schedule.
- Splashback, fit-off, and appliances. The splashback is fitted, the plumber and electrician return to connect the sink, tapware, hob, oven, and appliances, and the kitchen is finished and cleaned. The appliances are last because everything they connect to had to exist first.
- Final inspection and defects. The work is checked — cabinet alignment, drawer action, benchtop seams, appliance function, no leaks under the sink — and any consented work has its final inspection before the project is closed and final payment released.
Price the kitchen before the trades start
The free Renovation Cost Calculator gives you a trade-by-trade estimate in under 5 minutes — before your first trade conversation. It shows you what each trade in the sequence costs, so nothing in the order is a surprise.
The rough-in that has to happen before the linings close
The single most important stage in a kitchen is the rough-in, because the buried trades all have to put their work inside the walls and floor before the linings go on, and each has requirements that cannot be improvised later. The plumber sets the supply and waste for the sink, and the gas line if the hob is gas. The electrician runs the circuits — a kitchen carries more electrical load than almost any room, with dedicated circuits for the oven and hob and multiple outlets for benchtop appliances.
Both are restricted trades in New Zealand, and for the same reason they are also the trades whose work is hardest to reach once buried. Gasfitting and most plumbing must be done by trades registered with the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board, and prescribed electrical work by a registered electrician. All of it depends on the final layout being fixed, which is why building work comes before the rough-in and the linings come after. Move the sink or the hob a metre after the wall is lined and you reopen the work of both trades.
Where homeowners get the kitchen sequence wrong
The kitchen invites two specific sequencing mistakes, both expensive, both preventable.
Lining the walls before the rough-in is complete and checked. The temptation to keep moving and get the plasterboard up is strong, but closing the walls before the services are in and — where consented — inspected means that if anything is wrong, the new lining comes back off. The check is the cheapest part of the job to honour and the most expensive to skip.
Choosing appliances and the layout after the rough-in. A gas hob versus an induction one, a single versus double oven, the position of the fridge and dishwasher — each needs different services in different places. Buying the appliances or finalising the layout after the plumber and electrician have worked means the rough-in was a guess, and a wrong guess is reopened. The appliances and layout are first decisions, not last ones. The errors that cost the most are gathered in the kitchen renovation mistakes that cost the most.
Both mistakes share a root cause — treating the kitchen as a furniture job rather than a services job. The cabinets are the visible part; the plumbing, gas, and wiring behind them are the part that has to be right before anything covers it. Guidance from industry bodies such as Master Builders reinforces the same point: the sequence is what protects the result.
Everything that ends up hidden goes in first: plumbing, gas, and electrical, in one rough-in stage, before a single sheet of plasterboard.
If a trade that belongs inside the wall is being asked to work after the linings are closed, the sequence has already broken. The fix is never cheaper than doing it in order would have been. The order is not a preference; it is the difference between building the kitchen once and building it twice.
How the order protects the budget and the schedule
Running the trades in order is what keeps a kitchen on its quoted price and its quoted timeline. When the rough-in is complete and checked before the linings close, when the flooring is in before the cabinets, and when the appliances and layout were decided before the plumber arrived, each trade walks into a room ready for it and walks out without rework. Nothing is opened twice, and nothing waits on a decision that should have been made earlier.
The prepared homeowner makes that happen by deciding the layout and appliances before strip-out, ordering the cabinetry early so it is on site for the install stage, and booking each trade to follow the one before rather than calling them when the room looks ready. That sequence is the difference between a kitchen that finishes on schedule and one that drags because a lined wall had to be reopened. The budget side of the same room is in the kitchen renovation cost guide.
See The Kitchen Renovation Blueprint
Every stage of a kitchen renovation in order, with the rough-in to confirm, the inspection hold point to honour, and the layout and appliance decisions to lock first — so the kitchen is built once, not twice.
If the cost baseline is the right first step, use the free Renovation Cost Calculator — a trade-by-trade estimate for the specific kitchen, in under 5 minutes, before any trade has quoted.
Frequently asked questions
What is the correct order of trades for a kitchen renovation?
Strip-out first, then any building work or layout changes, then the rough-in of plumbing, gas, and electrical together while the walls are open. The rough-in is inspected where the work is consented, then the walls are lined, stopped, and painted, then flooring, then cabinetry, then the benchtop is templated and installed, then the splashback, fit-off, and appliances, and finally a final inspection and defects check. The sequence is fixed by dependency: each stage needs the previous one finished, and the buried services go in before anything covers them.
What has to be roughed in before the walls are lined?
The sink supply and waste, any gas line for the hob, and all the electrical circuits — including the dedicated circuits for the oven and hob — have to be installed before the plasterboard goes on. In New Zealand most plumbing and all gasfitting must be done by trades registered with the Plumbers, Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board, and prescribed electrical work by a registered electrician. Because all of it is buried, lining the walls before it is in means reopening them.
Do I need building consent for a kitchen renovation in New Zealand?
It depends on the scope. A like-for-like replacement that does not alter structure or relocate plumbing is often exempt, while moving a wall, altering the structure, or new plumbing and drainage can require building consent from the council. Restricted building work must be carried out or supervised by a Licensed Building Practitioner. Confirming what your specific project needs with the council before work starts is part of the planning, not an afterthought.
Should flooring go in before or after the cabinets?
Before. The flooring runs under the cabinets and appliances so the surface is continuous, which avoids a cabinet-height lip and makes a future appliance swap straightforward. The cabinets are installed on top of finished flooring and against lined and painted walls, so they follow both the floor and the linings in the sequence.
Why is there a gap with no benchtop mid-renovation?
Because the benchtop is measured to the cabinets as installed, it cannot be templated until the cabinets are in and level. The template then goes to the fabricator, and stone is cut and returned one to two weeks later. During that gap the kitchen has cabinets but no benchtop or working sink. It is a normal part of the sequence, and planning a temporary setup for it avoids the surprise.
Why does the order of trades matter so much in a kitchen?
Because so much of a kitchen is hidden and locked in by the layer over it. The plumbing, gas, and wiring are buried in the walls and floor, the linings cover them, the flooring goes under the cabinets, and the benchtop sits on the cabinets. A trade working out of order means undoing finished work to reach what was skipped, which is the most expensive work in the project. The order builds the kitchen once instead of twice.