Laundry renovations in Berwick
Laundry renovations in Berwick, from a tidy refit to moving the trough and relocating drainage. Order of works, the decisions to make, and price bands.
A laundry renovation ranges from new joinery and a tiled splashback with nothing touched behind the wall, to a full strip out with the trough moved and the floor re screeded. The price gap between those two is wide, and what decides it is whether any plumbing moves.
That makes the laundry the widest scope of any room in the house, and the one where a quote without a site visit is worth least.
The Berwick laundry you are starting with
The 1970s and 1980s brick veneer belt around the village core has a separate laundry with an external door, a stainless trough in a laminate cabinet, and a tap set on the wall above it. Two things matter there. Anything built or last renovated before 1990 has its wall lining sampled before demolition, and the removal rules are on what the law requires. And the laundry in those houses often holds the only external door at the back of the home, so the door and its threshold become part of the job rather than something to work around.
Timbarra laundries still carry the original laminate benchtop and cabinet. The plumbing is sound, the joinery is not, so the work is usually a refit in the same footprint with a new trough and cabinet, a new benchtop over the machine and new tiling. That is the cheapest version of this job.
The post 2010 estates at Minta Farm, Berwick Waters and Alira took the opposite approach. The laundry is a narrow galley off the passage to the garage, or a European laundry in a cupboard, with the machine and the dryer stacked and almost no bench. The work there is joinery and layout rather than plumbing: getting a fold down bench, a hanging rail and a decent sink into a room that was drawn as circulation space.
In the village core the laundry is often a later lean to addition off the back of an Edwardian or interwar house, sometimes on its own slab, sometimes on stumps at a different level to the rest of the home. Those need a level check before anything is priced, because a step down of 60 mm across a doorway changes the floor build up and the drainage fall.
What the job involves
- Site visit and measure, including a check on where the waste runs and whether there is a floor waste.
- Sheet sampling where the home predates 1990.
- Written fixed price quote with the joinery, the tiling and the plumbing listed separately so you can see what the plumbing is costing you.
- Selections locked. Trough, tapware, benchtop, cabinetry and tile.
- Strip out, with the machine and dryer disconnected by the plumber and the electrician rather than dragged out.
- Plumbing rough in if anything moves, then framing and blocking for wall cabinets and the trough.
- Sheeting, then screed and falls where there is a floor waste.
- Waterproofing where the layout calls for it. How far the membrane runs in a laundry depends on the layout, so it is set on site rather than assumed.
- Tiling and grout.
- Joinery installation, benchtop template and fit.
- Fit off, machine and dryer reconnection, and the safety certificate for any electrical work.
Which decisions drive the price?
| Decision | Effect on the job |
|---|---|
| Does the trough move | A trough staying put keeps the job in joinery and tiling. Moving it means rough in, a new waste and often lifting floor |
| Floor waste or no floor waste | Adding one means new drainage and a screed with falls, which is a different scope again |
| Vented dryer or condenser | A vented dryer needs a duct to outside air. A condenser needs a drain point or a tray, and it changes the cabinet depth |
| Benchtop over the machine | Needs a front loader, and needs the machine height confirmed before the cabinets are made, not after |
| Trough in cabinet or undermount sink | An undermount sink in a stone top costs more and is easier to work at |
| Overhead cupboards or open shelving | Overheads need blocking in the frame, which has to go in before sheeting |
Settle the plumbing question first. A licensed plumber does the work and issues a compliance certificate for it, and the certificate comes to you rather than staying with the trade. Moving the laundry into the garage or a passage cupboard is new drainage rather than a refit, which is a different conversation with a building surveyor. What the law requires covers both the certificate and the permit tests.
What goes wrong
- The benchtop is made before the machine is chosen, so the machine will not slide under it. Confirm the machine model and its height at selection stage.
- The dryer is left venting into the room. In a small laundry with the door shut, that moisture ends up in the plaster.
- The trough is moved 300 mm to suit the joinery and the waste is not moved with it, leaving a fall that runs the wrong way.
- Cabinets are ordered to the drawn wall dimensions in a village core house where the walls are out of square, so the run does not fit. Measure the built wall, not the plan.
What a laundry renovation costs
Laundry renovations land in the $5,000 to $20,000 band, and that band is wide for a reason. A Timbarra same footprint refit with new joinery and no plumbing movement sits near the bottom. A full strip out with the trough relocated, a new floor waste, stone benchtops and a rebuilt external doorway sits near the top.
The rates that move the figure are floor tile at $90 to $190 per m2, wall tile at $75 to $165 per m2 and, where a membrane is called for, waterproofing at $50 to $85 per m2. Joinery is quoted as a supplied and installed item once the layout is settled.
Most laundry work sits under the figure at which a registered builder and a written contract become mandatory, though a large laundry combined with other work will cross it, and the contract is prepared accordingly. Laundries are also often done at the same time as another wet area, which saves a mobilisation. If that is your plan, see full bathroom renovations and small bathrooms and powder rooms, then request a quote with the room dimensions and the year the house was built.