A temporary kitchen during renovation, without the microwave in the lounge
A temporary kitchen during renovation keeps the family cooking at home while the old kitchen is ripped out and the new one goes in. Plan the weeks with the guide below, then check dates for a kitchen pod on your drive.
No obligation. Pick the size, the weeks and the date that suit you.
Longer than the fitting days on the quote
The fitter’s quote shows the days they are on site. Your family lives with the whole gap between the old kitchen coming out and the new one working. That gap has stages, and some of them are waiting, not working.
The one that catches people out is the worktop. Stone and quartz tops are templated once the base units are fitted, then made off site and brought back to fit. Until they are in, the sink and hob are not connected, so the kitchen is not usable even though it looks nearly finished.
Plan it like this: ask your fitter for their written programme, count from strip-out to the day the sink runs, and add a buffer week. Book the temporary kitchen for that. Hire runs by the week, so an over-run costs you one more week of hire, not a month of takeaways.
An example refit, stage by stage
Illustration only, not to scale for your job. Yellow bars are the waiting and the buffer: the weeks people forget to plan a kitchen for.
A DIY temporary kitchen set up against a kitchen pod
Most guides to surviving without a kitchen tell you to set up a camp in the dining room. Here is what that looks like next to a kitchen on the drive.
| Job | DIY set up indoors | Kitchen pod on the drive |
|---|---|---|
| Cooking | Microwave, air fryer, maybe a single hob ring | Electric oven, 4-ring hob and extractor |
| Washing up | Bath, basin or a bowl in the garden | Sink with hot and cold water |
| Food storage | A spare fridge in the hallway, boxes on the floor | Fridge freezer and cupboards |
| Dust and noise | In the room next to the builders | Outside, with its own door |
| Laundry | Washing machine unplumbed for weeks | Washing machine in the 12ft and 14ft |
| Set-up time | A weekend of moving furniture | Our team delivers and connects it |
Seven things that make the weeks easier
- Book the kitchen pod with the fitter. Delivery the day before strip-out means no gap at all.
- Pack a “keep out” box. Two pans, a baking tray, plates, cutlery, mugs, a chopping board, a sharp knife and tea towels go straight to the pod.
- Empty the freezer before strip-out. Eat it down, then restock the pod’s freezer.
- Plan a simple week of meals. Tray bakes, pasta and one-pot dinners suit a four-ring hob and one oven.
- Keep the route clear. Agree with the builders where the skip and deliveries go so the path to the pod stays open.
- Do the washing in the pod. On the Family sizes, the washing machine means no laundrette runs.
- Add a buffer week. If the worktop is late, you extend a week and carry on cooking.
Want to see the pod itself? The kitchen pod hire page shows everything inside, and the sizes page helps you pick.
Your temporary kitchen, from strip-out to the new kitchen
Worried about the budget? Run the takeaway calculator with your own numbers first.
Check your dates
Five taps: size, reason, dates, postcode and your details. Your weekly price and delivery date follow.
We deliver and connect
We tow the kitchen to your drive, level it on its corner steadies and connect it to your household power and outside tap.
You cook at home
Breakfast, packed lunches and Sunday dinner carry on, a few steps from the back door.
We collect it
New kitchen in? Tell us and we disconnect, hitch up and tow it away. Build running over? Add another week.
Renovation questions
How long does a kitchen renovation take?
Ask your fitter for their written programme. A like-for-like swap is a short job; a refit with new plumbing, electrics, plastering and a stone worktop runs for several weeks, and extensions and knock-throughs run for months. Book the temporary kitchen for the fitter’s programme plus a week, then extend if you need to.
When should I book a temporary kitchen?
When you book your fitter. Give us the date the old kitchen comes out and we plan delivery for that day or the day before.
What is the best temporary kitchen set up?
A working oven and hob, a sink with hot water, a fridge freezer and a worktop, somewhere dust and noise cannot reach. That is exactly what the kitchen pod gives you on the drive.
Where does the pod go during the building work?
On your driveway, as close to the house as access allows, and out of the way of skips and deliveries. Tell us where the skip is going when you book.
Can the builders use it too?
It is your kitchen for the length of the hire. If you are happy for the trades to boil a kettle in it, that is your call.
Book the kitchen with the fitter
Tell us the size, the weeks and the postcode. We reply with a weekly price and a delivery date, and our team levels and connects the kitchen on the day.
No obligation. Extend a week at a time if the build runs on.
- Call 0800 870 8885
- Email info@temporarykitchensltd.co.uk