Bathroom renovations in Endeavour Hills
Bathroom renovations in Endeavour Hills 3802, built for split level homes on sloping blocks, with step free shower conversions and honest access planning.
Endeavour Hills is a planned suburb and it renovates like one. Lewis Land Corporation bought the 1,032 acre site in 1970, the name was gazetted on 14 July 1971, the first land sales were on 24 November 1973 and the estate opened in 1974. The plan put in parks and sports grounds, integrated the schools and shops, and ran the power underground. By the end of the 1970s the Gleneagles estate was under way and about half the suburb was under residential development. The practical result for us is a suburb of mid 1970s to early 1990s houses, on hilly ground, with generous lots and no overhead wires to work around.
Split level houses and where the water goes
The terrain is what separates Endeavour Hills from the flat estates further south. A large share of the housing is split level, built to step down a sloping block, which puts the main bathroom on a half level and often directly over a lower room or the garage. That changes the diagnosis. In a single storey house a failed shower shows up as damp carpet in the hallway. In an Endeavour Hills split level it shows up as a stain on the garage ceiling or a bubble in the plaster on the lower landing, a long way from the actual leak, and by the time it is visible the floor structure under the shower has usually been wet for a while.
Sloping blocks also mean stepped floor levels inside the wet area itself, partial subfloor under the high side of the house, and drainage that runs a longer route to the street. Mature street trees, planted with the original estate, add root intrusion to the list of things worth checking in an old drain before anyone commits to a price.
What the typical job is
Most of this stock is now 35 to 50 years old, so the original wet areas have had their run and a first generation Endeavour Hills bathroom is not a re grout candidate. The work is a strip back to the frame, correction of the floor structure and fall where the leak has done damage, and a new membrane laid to AS 3740 and carried up the shower walls to the height the code sets.
Bathrooms in these houses are usually a bit bigger than the Narre Warren equivalent, and a good number of the homes have an ensuite that was either original to a late 1980s build or added later, so two room jobs are common.
| Feature of the stock | What it means for the job | Band |
|---|---|---|
| 1970s and 1980s main bathroom, generous size | Full strip and rebuild, often with a layout change | $21,000 to $36,750 |
| Split level with damage to the floor below | Rebuild including structural repair and new falls | $36,750 to $57,750 |
| Ensuite, original or added | Strip and rebuild, frequently done with the main bathroom | $14,000 to $25,000 |
| Step free shower conversion | Hobless shower, linear waste, grab rails and a wider door | $21,000 to $36,750 |
First generation wet areas here are sampled for the old wall lining before demolition, and the result is in the quote before a price is agreed.
Staying in the house
The people who bought here in the 1970s and 1980s have now been in the same house for decades, and a fair number of our enquiries in this suburb are about staying put rather than about style. A stepped hob and a 1980s shower base are the first things that stop working for someone with a hip or a knee that is not what it was. A hobless shower with a linear waste, a fall set properly across the whole floor, timber noggings behind the sheeting for grab rails, and a door that swings the right way will do more for that than any fitting you can buy later. Accessible bathrooms sets out the details we get right during the rebuild because retrofitting them afterwards costs more.
Access, parking and the skip
Steep driveways are the main logistical issue in Endeavour Hills. A loaded skip on a sharp slope is not safe and can mark a drive, so on the steeper blocks we either use a smaller bin on the flat section near the kerb line or barrow the strip out to the street. A bin placed beyond the property line brings council permit fees into the quote, and we check the current rate before booking rather than repeating a figure from the last job.
The upside of the original estate planning is real. The streets are wide, the lots have room beside the house for materials, and with the power underground there is nothing overhead to clear when a tipper tips or a delivery truck lifts a pallet of tiles over a fence.
What it costs
A full strip and rebuild on the common Endeavour Hills bathroom sits in the $21,000 to $36,750 range, with jobs that involve repairing the structure below running into $36,750 to $57,750. An ensuite done at the same time is $14,000 to $25,000, and a new frameless screen is $1,200 to $3,500.
Moving a wall in a split level house is exactly the sort of change that can reach a structural member, and that is the test described on what the law requires. Use the quote form and we will book an inspection, with the written fixed price to follow.