Master bathroom renovations in Sydney

Designed and built to feel like a hotel

A master bathroom gives you the space to create something far more considered than a standard bathroom renovation. From a generous walk-in shower & double vanity to a freestanding bath with premium finishes. We can deliver that from design through to completion.

Since 2009 we have built over 200 Sydney bathrooms, including rooms designed by Boffi

Free, no obligation. You’ll meet Rick, not a salesperson.

Fixed price
quotes

Quoted &
documented

10 year
guarantee

On all
workmanship

Licenced
217859C

NSW
contractor

270+
reviews

On Google &
Facebook

One
contact

We manage
everything

Nu-Trend renovates master bathrooms across Sydney. 

A larger bathroom normally has the space for features such as double vanities, walk-in showers, freestanding baths, custom joinery, premium tiles and underfloor heating. 

Nu-Trend designs & builds master bathroom renovations throughout Sydney, managing the plumbing, structural work, waterproofing, tiling and finishing from start to completion.

We are a licenced plumbing & renovation company run by Rick Karagiannis and Rob Te Maipi, who have worked on the tools together since 2009 and hold NSW contractor licence 217859C for plumbing, drainage, gasfitting and bathroom renovation. 

A master bathroom renovation with us covers;

  • The design and layout.
  • Demolition & rubbish removal.
  • Product selection & sourcing.
  • The structural & plumbing changes a larger room usually needs,
  • Plumbing and drainage to AS/NZS 3500
  • Waterproofing to AS 3740:2021 
  • Tiling, final fit-off, painting & electrical work.
 

We work across the St George and Sutherland area, the Inner West, the Eastern Suburbs, the North Shore and the Northern Beaches.

HIA Insurance Logo

INSURED
$20,000,000

Public liability & HIA Home Owners insurance provided for peace of mind

Nu-Trend licensed with Sydney Water

Fully
Compliant

We work closely with Sydney Water for all plumbing requirements.

Nu-Trend licensed with Fair Trading

FULLY LICENcED
217859C

A qualified and licenced renovator with valid NSW Fair Trading licence.

Nu-Trend ABN registration

ABN
89 478 782 763

A business operating in Sydney, Australia, with an active ABN.

Nu-Trend complies to Australian Standards

AS/NZS 3500:2025 Compliant

A renovating company that meets all Australian Standards.

What Sydney homeowners say about their master bathroom

270+ reviews & counting. See what home owners have said about getting their main bathroom renovated by our team.

Master bathrooms we have built in Sydney homes

Every photo is a bathroom our team built, we don’t use stock photography it is all our work.

Master bathroom renovations designed around how you live

A master bathroom is the one room in the house that belongs only to you. Not the bathroom the kids use, not the one guests see. It is where the day starts before anyone else is awake and where it ends when the house has finally gone quiet.

That difference is what separates a master bathroom from a standard one and it shows up in every decision. There is room here for two people to get ready at the same time with a double vanity. Space for a shower you can both walk into and use together if you like, wide enough for two shower heads if you want them or even as a steam room. 

Space for a freestanding bath sitting on its own in the light from a window or in front of a feature wall because in a master bathroom a bath is the luxury a couple can enjoy in private.

The materials change too. Stone across a vanity top and up a wall. Large format tiles with barely a grout line to interrupt them. Timber joinery made for your room rather than ordered from a catalogue. Warm floors underfoot, heated rails with a dry, warm, towel waiting for you and lighting you can turn down at night to set the mood instead of a single bright ceiling fitting.

Take a look at some of our projects we have completed below. 

Indicative labour-only pricing: $24,000–$53,000 including GST, depending on layout, structural work, finishes, and inclusions with any final pricing following an on-site assessment and written quote.

We only renovate using premium brands & products

What is included in a master bathroom renovation

Master bathroom with large bath tub and floating timber vanity in Manly

Design and
layout

We plan the layout with you before anything is priced, covering where the bath, vanity, shower and toilet sit, how the door swings and how the tile setout lands on every wall. Master fixtures are large and unforgiving of a plan made up later.

Product &
materials

We help you select and source everything going into the room and pass on our trade discount, often saving up to 30 percent against retail. Only market leading brands, chosen for how they will look and last rather than for what they cost us.

Demolition &
rubbish removal.

The room is stripped back to the frame and the floor structure, with access paths through your home protected on the way in and out. Every load of waste is removed and disposed of, and that cost sits inside the quote rather than arriving later.

Subfloor &
wall preparation.

Once the floor and walls are stripped we set the room out with laser alignment equipment so it sits square, the falls run true and the finished room is usable. What is under the floor and inside the walls is not visible until that point.

Waterproofing to
AS 3740:2021

Carried out by our own waterproofer rather than whoever is free that week, taken to the correct heights up the wall, with a water stop angle at the shower and bond breakers through every internal corner. Your certificate is issued at handover.

Tiling, plumbing &
final fit-off.

Walls are checked and packed straight before a single tile goes up, which matters far more with stone than with anything else, and tiles are set out so cuts land at the ends of walls. Plumbing to AS/NZS 3500:2025, then fixtures and fit-off.

Custom shower screen

Measured and made for your finished room after the tiling is complete, rather than bought off the shelf and retrofitted to walls that were never quite square. It is included in every package we quote, not offered afterwards as an upgrade.

Electrical & lighting

New lights, exhaust fan, power points and any heated rail or underfloor circuit, all roughed in before the walls close up because none of it can be added neatly afterwards. Lighting is planned so the room works at night as well as at seven.

Inspection & certificates

CCTV camera inspection of the plumbing, pressure and circuit testing at each stage, then your waterproofing certificate, compliance paperwork and the written ten year workmanship guarantee, handed over as a complete set on the day we finish.

Every bathroom renovation includes;

✓ Design and layout consultation 

✓ End-to-end project management 

✓ CCTV camera inspect of all plumbing 

✓ Hydro jet to clear all pipes 

✓ Full floor protection of your home 

✓ Disconnection of old plumbing 

✓ Disconnection of electrical fittings 

✓ Demolition of the old bathroom 

✓ All rubbish and debris removal 

✓ Floor framework preparation 

✓ Render or re-sheet all walls 

✓ New waterproofing, with certificate 

✓ Floor tile installation 

✓ Wall tiling to ceiling 

✓ Toilet installation 

✓ Vanity installation 

✓ Towel rail installation 

✓ Shower head & tap installs 

✓ New wall cornice 

✓ New ceiling and cornice painting 

✓ Four new ceiling lights installed 

✓ New exhaust fan installed 

✓ Powerpoints installed to existing locations 

✓ Custom-made shower screen 

✓ Professional room clean

 

Plus whatever else you choose. 

Underfloor heating, heated towel rails, a wall niche, feature tiles, a bathtub, a skylight, custom joinery, a sliding cavity door, mood lighting, a steam shower — all quoted for your room and added to your fixed price before we start.

Free, no obligation.
Appointments available in the next 10 days.

Things that go wrong in high end bathrooms

Nu Trend bathroom renovation company in Sydney explain renovating pitfalls video with Braith Anasta

See it for yourself: a two-year-old bathroom that has to be gutted. Rick walks former NRL player Braith Anasta through a bathroom that was sold as a quality build.

  • No water stop angle on a second storey. 
  • A cracked tile from bad gluing. 
  • A shower screen pulling away from the wall. 
  • A silicone joint disconnected from floor to wall.

It’s less than two years old and it’s coming out. 

Here are three things that go wrong in high end bathrooms, and what they cost to fix. 

Freestanding bath on an unchecked floor

A freestanding bath concentrates a lot of weight on a small area. When it goes onto an upper floor without the joists being checked, the floor deflects. 

Deflection cracks grout first, then tiles, then the waterproofing membrane underneath. 

The failure is slow and it usually shows up as a stain on a ceiling downstairs eighteen months later.

We have replaced bathrooms under two years old for exactly this reason.

How we prevent it:
the bath position and the joist direction are worked out at design stage, from the span, the ceiling below and whatever access exists, so the structural requirement is known before the bath is ordered. 

If the floor is opened and the timber turns out to be damaged, we stop and show you before anything is built on top of it.

Stone onto a wall not packed straight

Large tiles do not bend. If the wall behind them is out by a few millimetres over a metre, the tiles will either lip at the joints or sit with visible gaps at the edges. On a small tile in a small bathroom this is invisible. On a stone panel behind a double vanity it is the first thing anyone sees.

There is no fix short of removing the tiles, and stone rarely survives removal.

How we prevent it:
walls are checked with a straight edge and packed before tiling starts, and the tile setout is drawn so the cuts land at the ends of walls rather than in the middle.

Underfloor heating never commissioned

Underfloor heating is laid in the screed before tiling. If a cable is nicked during installation and it is not tested at the right moments, the fault is sealed under the tiles. It will either not work at all or work in patches, and there is no way to find it without lifting the floor.

How we prevent it:
the circuit is tested before the screed goes down, after the screed and before tiling, and again at fit-off. Three tests, all recorded.

How the renovation runs, start to finish

Since 2009 we’ve built over 200 bathrooms and we have developed a simple process.

Create, Plan, Prepare, Build, Enjoy. 

Nothing gets skipped and nothing gets sprung on you.

 

Typical timeline: 14–28 days. Anyone promising a full bathroom in five days is describing new taps and paint, not a rebuilt, re-waterproofed room.

Create — the visit

Rick comes to your place, looks at the room, and talks through what you want. Thirty to forty five minutes. No obligation, and no follow up calls chasing you afterwards.

Plan — The written quote

You receive a written fixed price with everything itemised. If there are unforeseen items like subfloor repairs we flag that immediately.

Prepare — before anyone picks up a tool

Fixtures are selected and ordered, the program is set, and trades are booked in sequence before anything is demolished.

Build — protect, strip, inspect, then rebuild

Access paths are protected, the room is stripped, the structure is inspected, and the rebuild runs to the program. You are updated at each stage, including who is arriving the next day.

Enjoy — clean, certify, hand over

The room is cleaned, the waterproofing certificate is issued, and Rick walks it through with you before handover.

Timing:
A master bathroom typically takes 14-28 days from demolition to handover. 

It is longer than a standard bathroom for three reasons. 

  • The waterproofing has to cure between coats and cannot be rushed, which is a fixed number of days regardless of how large the room is. 
  • Larger tile and stone installations take longer to set out and lay. 
  • The shower screen is measured after tiling is finished rather than ordered in advance, which adds around a week but means it fits.

 

We will give you a program with dates before we start and we will tell you which of those dates are fixed and which can move.

Practical guides:
Where to shower during a bathroom renovation  

Clever ways to manage pets when renovating

Free, no obligation.
Appointments available in the next 10 days.

8 reasons Sydney homeowners choose Nu-Trend over a cheaper quote

1

You'll deal with Rick the licenced director from the first phone call to the final walkthrough

No salesperson on commission, no account manager, no call centre. The person who quotes your bathroom is the person on the tools building it, and it's written into your contract that you speak to Rick or Rob and nobody else.

2

You'll get a fixed price in writing within 24 hours, itemised line by line

You'll see exactly what you're paying for and what stage each payment falls at 10% on approval, then staged through the build. The number only changes if you change the scope, or if we find something and quote it to you first.

3

You'll know what's behind your walls before we tile over it

Once the room is stripped we inspect the plumbing and electrical, run a CCTV camera through your pipes, and check the room is square. Anything we find comes to you with a quoted solution, not a phone call after the fact.

4

You'll have one licenced team instead of five separate tradies to chase

Rick and Rob are licenced plumbers, drainers, gasfitters and bathroom renovators. Everything else like electrical, carpentry, tiling, painting or glazing is managed for you by people they've vetted since 2009 and who work to their standard.

5

You'll stay living in your home the whole time

Floors and furniture protected with foam matting and taped walkways, photos taken before we start, and the site cleaned at the end of every day. Most bathrooms are done in 14–28 days.

6

You'll get a bathroom built to last decades, not until the warranty runs out

Plumbing and drainage to AS/NZS 3500:2025, Waterproofing to AS 3740:2021 with a certificate issued to you. Water stop angles where they belong. Custom stainless drains. Custom-made shower screens measured to your finished room in every package, not as an upgrade.

7

You'll get the designer's eye without the designer's invoice

Layout, tile selection, fixture choice and how it all works together — sorted with you during the process. Plus if you want, Rick will supply your fixtures at trade cost. That's often thousands back in your pocket versus engaging a designer and buying retail.

8

You'll be told the truth, even when it costs us the job

If the budget won't stretch to doing it properly, Rick will tell you to leave the bathroom alone rather than disturb working waterproofing for a result that won't last. He's said it to plenty of people who could have been customers. It's why 270+ reviews read the way they do.

Free, no obligation.
Appointments available in the next 10 days.

Learn more about how we work

Download our
brochure

Download a
sample quote

Need help designing your new master bathroom?

  • Modern 3D visualisation
 
  • Simple design layouts
     
  • See your ideas
     
  • It makes renovating easy

Start your new project with a design you are happy with

We can help you create 2D and 3D virtual mock up of your room to help get the project started the right way. We can take your ideas & combine them with the room layout to create a simple visual interpretation of the bathroom before any work begins.

This information can then be used to do the planning and keep track of your the project. While this isn’t as accurate or as detailed as hiring an interior designer it does help compared to using drawings on paper.

How much does a master bathroom renovation cost in Sydney?

Basic

$28,500-$38,000

inc gst

Most common

Deluxe

$28,500-$44,000

inc gst

premium

$35,000-$53,000

inc gst

 
  • We pass on our trade discounts for all bathroom products which can create savings up to 30% on retail prices. 
 
  • If your budget is under $20,000 we are not the right fit and we will let you know that up front because a master bathroom renovation in Sydney generally runs between $28,500 and $53,000 for labour. The range is wide because master bathrooms vary more than any other room in the house.
 
  • A large bathroom rebuilt in the same layout with quality standard fixtures sits at the lower end. The same room with the layout changed, a freestanding bath added upstairs, stone walls and underfloor heating becomes much more expensive to build.

 

What pushes a master bathroom above the standard range

  • Moving the toilet, shower or bath from their existing positions, which means new drainage rather than reusing what is there
  • Structural work to carry a freestanding bath on an upper floor
  • Stone or large format tiles, which need a straighter substrate and slower installation
  • Underfloor heating, which adds a circuit and a day to the program
  • Full height tiling to the ceiling rather than to a standard height
  • Custom joinery rather than an off the shelf vanity
 

 

Why there is no single fixed price

We cannot give you a number over the phone, and anyone who does is guessing. What we can do is come out, measure, look at the floor, and give you a written fixed price within a few days. That price does not change unless you change what you have asked for.

Nu-Trend vs a cheaper renovation quote

This is what the $4,000-$8,000 gap between quotes actually buys you.

 

Most of the gap between our quote and a cheaper one is in details you will never see once the room is finished. Here is exactly where it goes.

Item Nu-Trend A cheaper quote
What happens on site
Tile layout Set out before we start, so cuts fall where they should and nothing cracks from being glued and stressed the wrong way. Started at one wall and worked across. Awkward cuts land in the middle of the wall you look at every morning.
Plumbing set-out Laser marked, so pipework lands exactly where the fixtures need it. Measured by tape and eye. Discovered at fit-off, when the wall is already closed.
Water stop angles Installed where they belong. The single detail that decides whether a leak stays in your bathroom or ends up in the ceiling below. Frequently left out entirely. Invisible on handover day, and impossible to add later.
Waterproofing Market-leading brands, applied in-house to AS 3740:2021, with a certificate issued to you. Generic product bought on price, applied by the cheapest subbie available that week.
Plumbing and drainage To AS/NZS 3500:2025, by us. We hold the plumbing and drainage licence ourselves. Subcontracted, often to whoever is free that week.
Floor drains Custom stainless steel, made for your floor. The standard plastic grate that stains and clogs.
Shower screen Custom made, measured to your finished room. Included in every package, not an upgrade. An off-the-shelf unit retrofitted to a space it was never made for. Around $600.
Your home during the build Foam matting, taped walkways, furniture covered, and photos of your home taken before we start so there is no argument about what was already there. $20 painter's sheets, and your word against theirs about the scratch on the hallway floor.
Hidden damage Nobody can price the subfloor or wall framing before demolition, us included. If we find damage we stop, photograph it, price the options, and you decide before anything is covered. Tiled straight over, or a phone call after the fact demanding more money with the room already stripped.
Rubbish removal Every load removed and disposed of, priced inside the quote. Frequently excluded, then billed as a variation, or left in your driveway.
Who you are dealing with
Who quotes the job Rick, the licenced director who then builds it. A salesperson on commission who will not be on site.
Who does the work The same plumber, tiler and waterproofer on every Nu-Trend job. Whoever is available. If something fails in three years, there is nobody left to call.
The price Fixed, itemised, in writing within 24 hours. It only changes if you change the scope. Same line items, no detail on what has been excluded to reach the number.
If something goes wrong One person responsible, and it is Rick. Chase the company, who will chase the subbie, who has moved on.
Licensing, insurance and warranty
Licensing and insurance NSW licence 217859C, $20M public liability. Verifiable on the Fair Trading register. Often bypassed to keep the quote low. Ask to see the licence number.
Home building compensation cover Held for every job over $20,000, certificate provided before work starts. Ask to see the certificate before you pay a deposit. They cannot legally take one without it.
Statutory warranties 6 years major defects, 2 years other, under the Home Building Act 1989 (NSW). The same statutory minimum, assuming they are still trading when you need it.
Workmanship guarantee 10 years, written into your contract, on top of the statutory warranties. Verbal, or as short as the law allows.

Every line above is something you can ask any renovator to put in writing. If they will not, that is the answer.

Bathroom renovator installing custom shower screen

The shower screen.

An off the shelf screen costs around six hundred dollars and assumes your walls are square. They rarely are. We measure and order the screen once the tiling is finished, which costs more and means it fits the opening you actually have rather than the one the catalogue assumed.

Bathroom renovator doing the waterproofing

The waterproofing.

A single coat costs a few hundred dollars and passes a visual inspection. A full system, taken up the walls to the correct height, with a water stop angle at the shower and bond breakers in the corners, costs closer to two thousand. It is the only part of a bathroom that cannot be repaired without demolishing the room.

Bathroom renovator checking the subfloor

The subfloor and the wall framing.

Cheaper quotes tile straight over whatever is there. If the sheeting is soft, the bearers have moved or the studs are wet, the tiles crack and the membrane fails, usually within two years. Nobody can price this before demolition, us included, because nobody can see through a tiled floor or wall. The difference is that we say so, we stop when we find it, and you see photographs and options before anything is covered.

Bathroom renovator removing the rubbish

The rubbish.

A bathroom strip out produces more waste than most people expect. If it is not in the quote, it either appears as a variation or it sits in your driveway.

Rick managing his trades

The trades

We do not subcontract to whoever is available. The same plumber, tiler and waterproofer work on every Nu-Trend job, which is why the guarantee is worth something.

None of this is unusual. 

It is the ordinary cost of doing the work properly, and the gap between our number and a cheaper one is usually close to the value of the five items above. If you have three quotes in front of you and ours is the highest, the difference is almost always in these items. 

They are the things that do not show up in a photograph and do not get mentioned on a walkthrough.

Further reading;
Why you should avoid cheap bathroom renovation quotes

How to spot a low cost bathroom renovator

Free, no obligation.
Appointments available in the next 10 days.

Most quotes for a high end bathroom are guesses dressed up as a number

When you are spending sixty thousand dollars or more on a bathroom, the quote you are handed is doing a lot of work. It is telling you what you will get, when you will get it, and what happens if something goes wrong. The problem is that most quotes at this level are written before anyone has worked out how the room will actually be built.

Here is what that looks like in practice;

  • A builder walks through, takes a few measurements, and writes a figure based on what a bathroom of that size usually costs them. 
  • Nobody has checked whether the floor will carry a freestanding bath full of water. 
  • Nobody has worked out where the waste has to sit for a floor mounted spout, or whether that position clashes with a joist. 
  • Nobody has asked whether the double vanity you want will fit against that wall once the door swing is accounted for. 
 

Those questions get answered later, on site and each answer can turn out badly and become another variation with added costs.

Why the variations always arrive at the same stage

Variations on a master bathroom almost never appear in the first week. 

They appear once the room is stripped and the real conditions are visible, which is exactly the point where you have no leverage. The floor is up, the walls are open, the trades are booked, and you are being told the job needs another eight thousand dollars to proceed. 

Most people pay it, because the alternative is a stripped bathroom and no timeline.

What we do instead, before you get a number

We work the build out first. 

That means measuring the room properly, checking the subfloor and the joist direction if access is available, confirming the plumbing set out for the fixtures you have chosen, and identifying anything structural that will need to change. Only then do you get a price. 

It takes longer to produce and it is usually not the cheapest number you will receive, but it is the number the job gets built for.

The one thing worth checking in every quote you receive

Ask each builder what happens if the subfloor needs replacing. Nobody can answer what it will cost, because nobody can see through a finished floor. 

What you are listening for is whether they admit that. 

A shrug, or a buried line about unforeseen conditions, means the number can move and you will find out late.

Get a fixed price quote for your bathroom

Your details go to Rick directly. Never sold, never shared with anyone else.

We service all areas within Sydney, New South Wales

Is Nu-Trend the right fit for your master bathroom?

Not every renovator suits every project, and a master bathroom is expensive enough that a mismatch is worth avoiding before anyone visits. 

Here is who we work well with.

Raglan Street Mosman new ensuite bathroom in white

You are staying in the house

You are not renovating to sell. You want the room to still look and work the way it does now in fifteen or twenty years, and you are prepared to pay for the parts of that which are invisible on handover day. Most of what separates our quote from a cheaper one is exactly that: the substrate, the membrane, the fixings.
Bathroom renovation with walk in shower in Sylvania vanity next to toilet

You want the layout genuinely reconsidered

Not the same fixtures in the same places with new finishes. You want to know whether the bath can move, whether the vanity can become two, whether the wall can come out, and you want someone to work out what is actually possible before you are invoiced for finding out it is not.
Bathroom renovation in Hurstville with white tiling and wall hung vanity

You want design input without a separate designer

Layout, tile selection and fixture selection are done with you as part of the job. If you would rather engage a designer independently we will build to their drawings, but tell us at quoting stage so we can price it properly.
New main bathroom newly renovated in Haberfield with shower and toilet

You want one person accountable

One contract, one point of contact, and the same two directors from the first site visit to handover. If something needs attention in five years you call Rick, not a company that has moved on.
Premium main bathroom freshly renovated with bath against a glass wall in Bondi

You have a vague quote and want a straight one

You have a number from someone else and it does not explain itself. You want an itemised alternative that says what is included, what is excluded, and what happens if something is found behind the walls.

When you are not the right fit?

  • If you are renovating to sell and want the cheapest presentable result, we are the wrong company and there are others who do that work well. 
 
  • If your budget for the whole job is under $20,000, the same applies. 
 
  • If you want us to build to another designer’s drawings with no input on buildability, we would rather decline than take the job and disagree with it on site.

We will tell you any of this on the phone, before a site visit, rather than after one.

Free, no obligation.
Appointments available in the next 10 days.

Other types of renovations that we do

Standalone, or combined with the bathroom

Strata approval managed from start to finish

The room off your bedroom, planned properly

Layouts that make a tight room work harder

Our bathroom renovation service in Sydney

Bathrooms that are in hotels or public spaces

Sydney suburbs we renovate master bathrooms in

North
Shore

Mosman, Chatswood, Manly, Lane Cove, Willoughby

St George & Sutherland

Hurstville, Sylvania, Cronulla, Kogarah, Oatley, Caringbah, Miranda, Sans Souci

Eastern
Suburbs

Bondi, Randwick, Coogee, Maroubra, Vaucluse

Inner
city

Surry Hills, Paddington, Newtown, Alexandria

Inner
West

Haberfield, Lewisham, Marrickville, Balmain, Leichhardt, Ashfield 

Not sure if we cover your suburb? Call Rick on 0401 165 779.

About Nu Trend

Rick Karagiannis is the director of Nu-Trend, a licenced plumbing and bathroom renovation company he has run in Sydney since 2009. 

He holds a NSW contractor licence (217859C) covering plumbing, drainage, gasfitting and kitchen, bathroom and laundry renovation, and works on the tools at every project alongside co-director Rob. 

Every article and case study on this site is based on real projects Nu-Trend has completed in Sydney homes and apartments, not stock photography or content written by outsiders.

Verification:

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between a master bathroom and an ensuite?

An ensuite is defined by its position, it opens directly off a bedroom and is used by the people in that room. A master bathroom is defined by its scale and specification. Many homes have both. If the room you are renovating opens off your bedroom and is fairly compact, our ensuite renovation page is the better fit.

What happens if you find damage under the floor?

Two parts of your bathroom are invisible until the room is stripped: what is underneath the floor, and what is inside the walls. You cannot see through a tiled floor or a tiled wall. Neither can we, and neither can anyone who quotes you.

In some older homes there is a subfloor void we can get under and inspect, which gives a partial view of the bearers and joists. It is not always possible, plenty of homes are on a slab, and it tells you nothing at all about the wall framing behind the tiles. Beyond that, the honest answer is that the condition of the structure is unknown until demolition day.

What we find ranges from nothing at all, to one soft sheet near the old shower, to bearers and joists that have been quietly wet for a decade, to wall studs that have to be cut out and replaced. The cost across that range runs from zero to many thousands of dollars. Anyone who gives you a fixed figure for it before the room is open is guessing, and you pay for the guess either way, whether it is padded into the quote or added to it later.

So here is exactly what happens. If we open the room and the structure is sound, we prepare it and carry on. If it is not, we stop. We photograph what we have found, we show it to you, we set out the options and what each one costs, and you decide before anybody picks up another tool. Nothing gets covered until you have seen it and agreed what to do.

What we will not do is tile over it. Covering damaged framing or a rotten subfloor is faster, cheaper and completely invisible on handover day, and it is the single most common reason we get called back to somebody else's work two years later, usually by an owner looking at a stain on a ceiling. Your fixed price covers everything that can be seen and specified. The structure is the one thing that cannot, and we would rather tell you that now than put it on an invoice later.

Can you put a freestanding bath in an upstairs bathroom?

Usually yes, but the floor has to carry it. A freestanding bath full of water concentrates a lot of weight on a small footprint, which on a timber floor often means doubling joists or adding a bearer. We work that requirement out at design stage so the strengthening is planned and priced. The condition of the existing timber is a separate question, and nobody can answer it until the floor comes up.

Do I need a bathroom designer as well as a renovator?

Not with us. Layout, tile selection and fixture selection are done with you as part of the job, and we do not charge separately for it or hand you to an external designer. If you already have a designer engaged, we are happy to build to their drawings, but you should tell us that at the quote stage.

How much does underfloor heating add to a bathroom renovation?

Underfloor heating can cost between $1,650 and $3,850 depending on the room size. It has to be installed before tiling and cannot be retrofitted without lifting the floor, so it is a decision to make at the planning stage rather than partway through.

AreaTypical cost
2–3 m²$1,650–$2,000
4–5 m²$2,000–$2,750
6–8 m²$2,400–$3,000
8–10 m²$2,800–$3,850+

How long does a master bathroom renovation take?

14 to 28 days from demolition to handover, driven mainly by waterproofing cure times and the tile setout rather than the size of the room.

Can I stay in the house during the renovation?

Yes, in almost every case, provided you have another bathroom available. Access paths are protected and the work is contained to the room. If the master bathroom is your only bathroom we will talk through the options before you commit.

Free, no obligation.
Fixed-price quote within 24 hours.