Full bathroom renovations in Berwick

A full bathroom renovation takes the room back to the studs and the floor structure, then rebuilds it across about 15 stages in a fixed order. Get the order wrong and every trade after the waterproofer is working on a substrate that is not flat or not dry.

What you start with in Berwick depends almost entirely on which part of the suburb you live in, so the first thing we do on a site visit is work out what sits behind the wall sheet before anything is priced.

What is behind your wall sheet?

Where the house is	What the bathroom usually looks like	What the job becomes
Heritage village core along High Street and the streets north of it	Victorian, Edwardian and interwar homes on irregular blocks, timber floors, out of square walls, floor levels that vary across the room	A level entry shower or a linear grate turns into structural floor work, so the quote carries a real contingency
The 1970s and 1980s brick veneer belt on quarter acre blocks	A combined bathroom, a separate toilet beside it, tile stopped part way up the wall, a steel bath with the shower over the top	Sheet testing first, then usually a reconfiguration rather than a straight swap
Timbarra	Plumbing and layout still work, but the original shower base and membrane are finished	A same footprint strip and rebuild, which is the cheapest and quickest version of this job
2000s estates such as Eden Rise, Parkhill, Bellbird Park and Bryn Mawr	Double storey four bedroom project homes with the main bathroom upstairs	Upstairs waterproofing, plus protection of the stairs and the hallway for the whole build
Post 2010 estates such as Minta Farm, Berwick Waters and Alira	Two or three wet areas to builder specification, none of them old enough to have failed	Targeted upgrade work, covered on the ensuite renovations page

The order of works

1. Site visit and measure. We check the floor structure, the framing behind the sheet, the age of the house, and where the waste and the vent run.
2. Sheet sampling where the home was built or last renovated before 1990. That happens before demolition, never during it, and what the law requires covers who is allowed to take the material away.
3. Written fixed price quote, with the inclusions listed item by item rather than as a lump sum.
4. Selections locked in. Tiles, tapware, vanity, screen and floor waste.
5. Protection. Floor coverings and a dust barrier across the hallway.
6. Strip out, down to the frame and the structural floor. The old screed and membrane come out with everything else.
7. Rough in. The plumber and the electrician set out the new positions. This is the last point at which moving a fixture is cheap.
8. Framing and blocking. Noggins go in for the vanity, the screen fixings and any grab rails you may want later.
9. Sheeting. Wet area rated sheet to the walls, and a compressed sheet or a levelled substrate to the floor.
10. Screed, with the falls set to the floor waste.
11. Waterproofing. The membrane is left to cure and is photographed before anything covers it. Heights and coverage are set by the standard, and shower rebuilds and waterproofing sets out which one.
12. Tiling, then grout.
13. Fit off. Vanity, toilet suite, tapware, screen and accessories.
14. Electrical fit off by licensed trades, with the safety certificate. The exhaust fan is ducted to outside air.
15. Silicone, clean, and a walk through with you.

What does the quote cover?

• Strip out and removal of all debris from site.
• Plumbing rough in and fit off by a licensed plumber, with the compliance certificate handed over at the end.
• Electrical rough in and fit off by licensed trades, with the safety certificate.
• Sheeting, screed, waterproofing, tiling and grout.
• Installation of the fixtures listed in the quote.

What sits outside the quote is listed just as plainly: painting beyond the bathroom itself, floor structure repair that only shows up once the old floor is out, removal of hazardous material, and any council permit for a skip bin or asset protection. Those council fees move, so they are passed through at cost.

Decisions, and the point they have to be made

Decision	Latest sensible point	Why it locks then
Layout and fixture positions	Before rough in	Moving a waste afterwards means opening the floor a second time
Tiled hob or level entry shower	Before floor work starts	Level entry needs the substrate dropped, which is framing work
Floor waste type	Before the screed	The falls are set to the waste, and a linear grate changes the fall direction
Wall mixer or deck mixer	Before rough in	It fixes the position of the pipework inside the wall
Tile size	Before sheeting	Large format tile needs a flatter substrate than mosaic does
Niche position	Before sheeting	Niches sit between the studs, so the frame decides where they can go
Shower screen	After tiling	Glass is measured off the finished tiled surface

What goes wrong

The exhaust fan venting into the roof space is the single most common fault in the brick veneer belt. The moisture has nowhere to go, so the ceiling paint peels and the cornice goes mouldy while the bathroom itself looks fine. Every fan we install is ducted to outside air.

The other recurring problems are falls that do not run to the waste, a membrane covered before it has cured, and hazardous material found halfway through a strip out with the job then stopped for a week. The first two are handled by a flood test and by a cure period written into the program. The third is handled by testing before demolition rather than during it. In the village core, out of square walls are the trap: large format tile makes every millimetre of wind in a wall visible, so the set out and the packing are done before the first tile goes on. Choosing a bathroom renovator covers what to ask about all of this before you sign anything.

Who is allowed to do the work

Past ten thousand dollars a bathroom job needs a registered builder working under a written contract, the deposit you can be asked for is capped by statute, and past a higher figure again the warranty scheme covers the work. Whether a permit is needed turns on structure, floor area, underpinning and loadbearing elements rather than on the tiling. All of it sits on one page: what the law requires.

What it costs

Scope	Usual band
Small or budget full bathroom	$10,500 to $21,000
Standard mid range full bathroom	$21,000 to $36,750
Large or high end bathroom	$36,750 to $57,750

Component rates that move a quote between those bands include waterproofing at $50 to $85 per m2, wall tile at $75 to $165 per m2, floor tile at $90 to $190 per m2, glass at $1,200 to $3,500, the vanity at $500 to $3,700 and a freestanding bath at $1,600 to $5,300. A Timbarra same footprint rebuild sits low in its band because nothing moves. A village core bathroom with a level entry shower sits high, because the floor becomes carpentry.

Send the room size, the year the house was built and the estate name through the quote form. Replies go out inside one business day. The bathroom renovation cost breakdown for Berwick goes further into what drives the number.

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