Full bathroom renovations
Full bathroom renovations in Narre Warren and Narre Warren South: strip out, new waterproofing to AS 3740, tiling and fit off, quoted as a written fixed price.
A full renovation takes the room back to the frame, replaces the membrane, and renews every service in it. On a 1970s Narre Warren bathroom that is normally the right scope, because the failure that started the search sits under the tiles where no surface repair can reach.
What is in scope
On a standard single bathroom in the older brick veneer belt, a full renovation covers:
- Demolition of the wall tiles, wall sheet, floor covering and substrate, bath, shower base, vanity, toilet suite and screen.
- Removal and disposal of the waste, handled under controlled conditions where the old wall lining tests positive.
- Plumbing rough in by a licensed plumber, including relocating waste and water if the layout is changing.
- Electrical rough in for lighting, power, heating and the exhaust fan.
- New wet area wall sheeting, new floor substrate, and a screed that falls to the waste.
- Waterproofing to AS 3740, allowed to cure before anything is laid over it.
- Wall and floor tiling, grout and silicone.
- Fit off: tapware, mixers, shower screen, vanity, toilet, mirror, rails, heating and lighting.
- Making good the doorway, architraves, cornice and paint, and a clean before handover.
Outside the base scope: structural changes, moving a wall, a new window, raising a ceiling, or pushing the room past the existing external walls. Each of those changes the price and the paperwork, so they are quoted separately and named in the scope. Whether a strip out of this size needs a permit, a registered practitioner or a signed contract turns on its value and on what gets altered, and all of that sits on what the law requires.
The order the work runs in
- Site visit and measure, including a look at the ceiling or subfloor near the shower where access allows.
- Written fixed price quote, with the scope set out so you can see what is in it.
- Selections locked in. Tiles, tapware, vanity and screen are ordered before demolition starts.
- Demolition and waste removal, with sampling and clearance first where the age of the house calls for it.
- Plumbing and electrical rough in.
- Wet area sheeting, floor substrate and screed.
- Waterproofing, then the cure time the product data sheet requires.
- Tiling, then grout.
- Fit off, silicone, compliance paperwork and handover.
Skipping step 3 is the most common cause of a bathroom sitting idle mid job. A special order tile or a made to measure screen can run weeks, and trades cannot be held on site waiting for a delivery.
Where the scope changes between old and new stock
Two age groups account for nearly every full renovation quoted in postcode 3805, and the difference shows up as scope rather than as finish.
In the older single storey half of Narre Warren the room and its services have both run out of life together, so the quote assumes the membrane, the base, the vanity, the fan and usually the wall lining all leave the house. That is the widest scope, and it is the one where a test result can move the price before a single tile comes off. Past 15 years a membrane is treated as finished rather than merely suspect, and this stock is well past that.
In the newer half the room still suits the household and the waste and water sit where a plumber would put them today, so the same work happens between walls that never move. Nothing is redesigned, which is why a same footprint rebuild is the least expensive version of a full renovation. The street by street detail is on Narre Warren and on Narre Warren South.
Decisions and when they are needed
| Decision | Needed by | Why it matters at that point |
|---|---|---|
| Layout: same footprint or moved | Before the quote | Moving the waste changes the plumbing scope and the price band |
| Tile size and finish | Before demolition | Tile size sets the screed, the setout and the substrate |
| Bath: keep, drop in, or freestanding | Before demolition | A freestanding bath needs its own waste and tap position |
| Shower screen type | At rough in | Screen fixings have to be noggin backed before sheeting goes on |
| Vanity and tapware | At rough in | Tap centres and waste height are set at rough in and cannot move later |
| Heating and fan | At rough in | Cabling and ducting run before the sheets close the wall |
What goes wrong, and how it is avoided
A re grout sold as a fix. Grout is not the membrane. Perished silicone in the corner, hairline cracks along the bottom course and a wet patch in the room behind that wall together mean the water is already past the tiles, and new grout buys a few months. See shower rebuilds and waterproofing.
The exhaust fan ducted into the roof space. Almost every original fan in the 1970s and 1980s stock here discharges into the roof cavity instead of out through the eave or roof, which is why the ceiling sweats and the cornice stains. A new fan gets ducted to outside air.
Falls to the waste. A floor that ponds will find the weak point in the membrane eventually. The screed is set before waterproofing and checked with water rather than by eye.
Asbestos found after the first sheet is off. On a pre 1990 house the sample is taken at quote stage, so the clearance cost sits inside the fixed price instead of arriving later as a variation.
A bathroom out of service longer than the household planned for. In a one bathroom house that is the part people feel, so the program and the out of service window go in the quote alongside the price. How long a renovation takes sets out the stages day by day.
What it costs
A small or budget full bathroom in the older single storey stock generally lands at $10,500 to $21,000. A standard mid range renovation, where most same footprint jobs in Narre Warren South sit, runs $21,000 to $36,750. A larger room, a moved layout, stone tops and a freestanding bath push into $36,750 to $57,750. Room size, how much plumbing moves and the finishes set the band, and the quote is a fixed price for the written scope. The cost guide breaks the bands down line by line. Send the job through the quote form with your street and the age of the house.