Your benchtop install, day by day
Accepted quote to finished bench is 2 to 3 weeks in Mandurah. Templating takes 45 to 90 minutes once the cabinets are in and level, fabrication runs 5 to 10 business days, and install day itself is 3 to 7 hours for a standard 4 to 5m² kitchen. You lose the kitchen sink for about 24 hours and nothing else. Everything below is what actually happens in between.
Most of the anxiety about a benchtop replacement is not about the stone, it is about the disruption: where the truck parks, how much dust ends up in the house, whether the dog can stay inside, and how many nights the family eats off the coffee table. Here is the honest version, stage by stage, with the timings we quote in the Peel and the things that stall a job. If you are still deciding on material or money, start with choosing a benchtop material or the budget guide.
Stage by stage timeline for a Mandurah kitchen
Timings are for a standard 4 to 5m² kitchen with an island. Add a day to fabrication and a few hours to install for two slabs, book matching or a full height splashback.
| Stage | How long | What happens | What you need to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Free measure and quote | 30 to 45 minutes on site, written quote within 1 business day | Rough sizes, aspect, access, cut-outs and edge options discussed. The quote comes back itemised: slab, edges, cut-outs, removal, install. | Have the appliance and sink details handy, and say if the cabinets are not built yet. |
| 2. Slab selection and deposit | Same week, 1 to 2 hours if you visit a slab yard | Colour, finish and slab availability confirmed. A deposit is normal at this point, commonly 20 to 50 per cent, because the slab has to be purchased. | Look at the full slab, not a 100mm sample. Veining varies enormously between slabs. |
| 3. Cabinets fitted and levelled | Your joiner, typically 1 to 3 days | Carcasses fixed, packed and levelled. Nothing gets templated before this, because stone copies whatever it sits on. | Book the joiner and the template a couple of days apart, not the same morning. |
| 4. Digital template | 45 to 90 minutes | Laser or digital template of every run, wall shape, overhang and cut-out. Sink and cooktop are measured off the actual appliance, not a brochure. | Have the sink, tap and cooktop on site. This is the last chance to change an overhang. |
| 5. Fabrication | 5 to 10 business days | Slab cut, edges profiled, mitres glued, cut-outs polished, all wet cut with extraction in the workshop under the WA silica rules. | Nothing. Use the time to sort the splashback decision if it is still open. |
| 6. Old top removed | 1 to 3 hours, install morning | Plumber disconnects first, then the old top is broken out. Legacy engineered stone is controlled work: suppression, extraction, respiratory protection and WorkSafe WA notification. | Empty the cupboards underneath and be out of the room while it comes out. |
| 7. Install | 3 to 7 hours | Pieces carried in, dry fitted, levelled and packed, joins glued with colour matched epoxy, waterfall mitres closed, sink bonded, silicone tooled. | Keep pets and children out of the carry path. Expect 15 to 30 minutes of real noise. |
| 8. Plumbing and power back on | Same day or next morning, 1 to 2 hours | Licensed plumber reconnects the sink, waste and dishwasher. Any hardwired appliance is reconnected by a licensed electrician. | Do not run water into an undermount sink for 24 hours. |
| 9. Splashback and final check | 2 to 4 hours, same day or a second visit | Stone splashback fitted and siliconed, joins inspected in daylight, surface cleaned, care instructions and warranty paperwork handed over. | Walk the bench with the installer before they leave and point at anything you are unsure about. |
Typical timings for Mandurah, Halls Head, Greenfields, Dawesville, Falcon and Pinjarra jobs in 2026. Regional runs out past Pinjarra are grouped, so template and install dates may be set around a weekly route.
Prepare for the crew: printable checklist
Tick these off in the week before install. Your ticks are saved in this browser, and the print button gives you a clean copy for the fridge.
Two weeks out
The day before
Install morning
Before the crew leaves
Stop the job if you see these
Access, parking, power and water
Twenty millimetre stone weighs roughly 50kg per square metre, so a 3 metre by 600mm run is around 90kg and an island piece can be heavier again. It is carried on suction lifters by two to four people. That single fact drives most of the access questions. We need a vehicle and trailer within a reasonable carry of the door, a path clear of hose reels and bins, and gates that actually open wide. Older streets in Mandurah and Silver Sands often mean a verge park, canal homes at Port Mandurah and Wannanup often mean a long side path, and first floor units at Halls Head mean a stair carry that we need to know about at quoting time, not on the morning.
Power is one standard 10 amp point for a vacuum and a polisher. Water is an outside tap for wet trimming and clean up. Almost all cutting happens in the workshop, so on site work is limited to small adjustments, and every one of them is wet cut or done under on-tool extraction because that is the law, not a preference. If the property is vacant, tell us in advance so power and water are on.
Noise, dust, smell, pets and working from home
The loud part is short. Breaking out an old top is 15 to 30 minutes of genuine noise, and it is the worst of the day by a distance. After that it is drills, a vacuum, and occasional grinder work outside. Wet cutting produces slurry rather than airborne dust, which is why a compliant crew leaves your house cleaner than a tiling job does. The smells are mild and short lived: two part epoxy on the joins for about an hour, and acetic silicone with its vinegar smell for a day. Open a window and it clears.
Pets should be shut away at the other end of the house or out for the day, mostly because doors stay open and a 90kg slab being walked through a hallway is not the moment for a dog underfoot. Kids the same. If you work from home, plan to take calls elsewhere between about 8am and 11am, which covers the removal and the first fit. Most people go out for the noisy part and come back for the interesting part, which is watching the joins close up.
Want your install date locked in?
Send the room and your rough timing. We reply within one business day with a written quote and the template and install dates we can hold.
Weather, delays and what a clean finish looks like
Between June and August a Peel storm front can move a job. Slabs are carried on suction lifters and heavy rain or a strong gust makes that dangerous, so a wet winter morning is the most common reason an install slides a day. February heat above about 38 degrees changes the shape of the day rather than cancelling it: earlier start, faster silicone skin, more breaks. The other common stall has nothing to do with weather. It is cabinets that are not ready, a sink that has not arrived, or an appliance changed after templating, and it is why we ask for the real appliances on site before we measure.
A finished site should look like this. Offcuts and the old top gone, unless you have asked to keep a piece as a spare. Cupboards vacuumed out. No slurry on the paving, in a garden bed or down a stormwater drain, which matters in a City of Mandurah street where those drains run to the estuary. Silicone tooled in one continuous line rather than smeared. Joins that you have to hunt for from a low angle. Your old benchtop leaves with the crew and goes to a licensed waste facility, which is why removal and disposal is $150 to $400 on the quote, plus $200 to $600 if it is legacy engineered stone handled as controlled work.
What we do not do: plumbing and electrical work, because that has to be a licensed plumber and a licensed electrician in WA, and we would rather book them alongside us than pretend otherwise. We do not remove tiled splashbacks as a standard inclusion, and we will not template a kitchen where the cabinets are not level, because the fault would be baked into the stone. If we arrive and the room is not ready, we reschedule instead of pushing on, which is annoying on the day and a great deal less annoying than a benchtop with a wave in it.
Install day questions
How long does a benchtop installation take in Mandurah?
How long am I without a kitchen sink?
How much noise and dust does a stone benchtop install make?
What do I need to move before the crew arrives?
Can weather delay a benchtop install in Mandurah?
What happens to my old benchtop?
Next: what the warranty covers once the crew leaves, how to look after the new stone, and how much stone your kitchen needs.
Book a template date for your kitchen
Send your suburb and when the cabinets will be in, and we reply within one business day with a written quote and the next available template and install dates.
One day of noise, twenty years of bench
Free measure, digital template, compliant wet cut fabrication, clean install across Mandurah and the Peel.