What a full renovation actually covers
A full renovation means the room comes back to its structure. Fixtures out, tiles off, sheeting off, floor exposed. Then the real work begins: repairs, new plumbing and electrical, insulation, a fresh membrane, screeds and falls, tiling, then fit-off.
In a mountains house the strip-out is where the job gets honest. Old bathrooms here have usually leaked at some point, often slowly, often for years, and the evidence is in the frame rather than on the surface.
What we look for once it is open
Water damage at the perimeter. The bottom plate under a shower wall and the joists near the waste are the usual victims. Soft timber is replaced, not covered over.
Floor movement. A timber floor has to be stiff before it can be tiled. Bouncy floors crack grout, then tiles, then the membrane. Extra blocking, sistered joists or a new sheet floor are all common and all much cheaper than a second renovation.
Ventilation that goes nowhere. A surprising number of older fans vent into the roof space. In a cold climate that pushes the damp problem upstairs. New ducting runs to an external vent.
Insulation. Where the ceiling is open, batts go in above the bathroom. A warm ceiling is a ceiling that stops growing mould in the corners.
Hidden material. Pre-1990 wall sheeting, floor coverings and adhesives are tested before demolition. If asbestos is present, a licensed removalist does that part first and the program allows for it.
The order of work
The program is covered in detail on the how a renovation runs page, but briefly: protect and demolish, repair the structure, rough-in plumbing and electrical, sheet the walls, screed and waterproof, let the membrane cure, tile, grout, then fit-off and clean.
The step people want to skip is the cure time on the membrane. It is not negotiable, and in cold weather it can take longer than the label says because the product is working at the bottom of its temperature range. A renovation that respects that is one you only do once.
Specifying for cold and damp
A mountains main bathroom is specified a little differently from one on the plain:
- A ducted exhaust fan sized to the room, running on a timer or humidity sensor so it keeps going after the shower stops
- Ceiling insulation above the bathroom, installed while the ceiling is open
- Underfloor heating under the tiles, or a heated towel rail, or both
- A larger shower where it fits, because a cramped shower in a cold room is miserable
- Sealants and grouts chosen for a wide temperature swing rather than a benign one
- Window treatment that handles condensation: a thermally broken or double-glazed unit if the window is being replaced anyway, and a sill that can take water
Layout, and whether to change it
Keeping the shower, toilet and vanity where they are is the biggest single saving in any bathroom. On a slab, moving a waste means cutting and repouring concrete. On a timber floor — far more common up here — relocating a fixture is genuinely affordable, which is why mountains bathrooms are often worth replanning rather than simply refacing.
Common changes that pay for themselves: taking out a separate toilet wall to make one larger room, turning a hobbed shower recess into a step-free shower with a single fixed panel, and moving the vanity off the wall where the door swings.
Benchtops and the engineered stone ban
Engineered stone has been banned in Australia since 1 July 2024 and is not offered. For bathroom vanities we use porcelain, natural stone, solid timber or quality laminate depending on the room and the look. If you want a timber or timber-look vanity, read what actually lasts in a wet room first.
If you are weighing up a freestanding bath against a built-in one for the main bathroom, the bath comparison covers space, plumbing and cleaning properly.
Period homes
A good number of mountains houses deserve a sympathetic bathroom rather than a showroom one. That might mean a shallow-set basin on a timber vanity, square-edge tiles laid in a simple pattern, traditional tapware, and skirting and architraves profiled to match the rest of the house.
It does not mean doing the hidden layer the old way. The membrane, the fan and the falls are built to today's standard behind a room that reads as its own age.
Access, delivery and parking
Steep driveways, bush blocks, tight turning circles and a single highway. Materials and the skip are planned at the measure: where the skip can legally sit, whether the tiles get carried, whether a truck can get in at all. It sounds minor until a pallet of tiles is sitting at the top of a driveway nobody can reverse down.
Cost and quoting
What a full renovation costs depends on the size of the room, the floor construction, what the strip-out finds and your selections. The cost page explains the planning tiers and the factors that move them, and a free on-site measure produces a fixed, written, itemised quote for your room.
In NSW the deposit on residential building work is capped at 10 per cent of the contract price, and home building compensation cover must be in place before a deposit is requested on larger work.
Renovation work is carried out in partnership with Coastal Renovation Group, a licensed NSW builder; licence and insurance details are provided on request.
Call 02 4705 3295 or send the room details through.