Bathroom Renovations

A bathroom is the most technically demanding room in a house to renovate, because almost everything in it is hidden behind tile. Once the old room is stripped back, the sequence is fixed: rough-in plumbing and electrical, then waterproofing, then screed and falls, then tiling, then fit-off. Each stage has to pass before the next can start, which is why a bathroom cannot be rushed the way a bedroom repaint can.

The part that matters most is the part you will never see again. Waterproofing to AS 3740 is what stands between your shower and the joists underneath it. Membranes need correct thickness, proper bond breakers at junctions, and adequate cure time before anything is laid over them. The overwhelming majority of bathroom failures we are called to repair are not tile problems — they are waterproofing shortcuts from a previous renovation.

Floor falls are the second thing that separates a good bathroom from a callback. Water has to reach the waste without pooling, which means the screed has to be graded correctly across the whole wet area, not just near the drain. Get it wrong and you get standing water, staining, and eventually mould in the grout.

Relocating the toilet, shower or vanity is the single biggest cost driver, because moving a waste means opening the floor and re-running drainage to fall. Keeping fixtures in their existing positions can save thousands. After that it is tile choice and size (large-format tiles need flatter substrates and more labour), tapware, and whether the room needs new ventilation to meet the National Construction Code.