A bathroom reno is half a dozen trades taking turns in one little room. The carpentry is the part that sets the rest up. Get the floor and framing square and solid and the waterproofer, tiler and plumber all have something proper to work to. Get it sloppy and it bites you later — usually a cracked tile, or that sinking soft patch by the shower.
We do the building side. Stripout, reframing, subfloor, cabinetry, the fit-out at the end. What we don't touch is the waterproofing, tiling, plumbing or electrical — those carry their own licences and you want the right ticket on each one. So we do the carpentry and work in around the wet trades, right through Wollongong and the Illawarra.
Worth being straight about that split before you ring anyone. Plenty of "full bathroom" mobs gloss over it.
What we actually do
When the old bathroom comes out we're the ones taking it back to the bones and building it up again. Old vanity gone, linings off, any rotten floor lifted. Then we reframe walls, fix or replace the subfloor and joists, and lay the new floor sheet ready for the waterproofer.
A big chunk of our bathroom work is subfloor and joist repair. It's the part that catches people out. The older fibro and brick homes round the Gong — Corrimal, Warrawong, the Wollongong terraces, half of Dapto — have often been leaking quietly under the tiles for years. Pulled up a floor in a Coniston cottage last year that looked dead level on top. Underneath, two joists you could push a screwdriver straight through. Water gets past the old waterproofing, tracks into the timber, and you end up bouncy. We cut out what's gone, splice in new treated timber, get it flat and dead solid again. No sense laying $80-a-metre tiles over a frame that's halfway to compost.
We also frame the bits that make a bathroom feel built rather than bodged:
- Shower niches and shelves framed into the wall so the waterproofer and tiler get a clean recess to work to, not something stuck on after.
- Vanity and cabinetry install — hanging it, scribing it into a wall that's never quite straight, fitting the top once the plumber's roughed in.
- Wall reframing for moving a doorway, squaring up an old out-of-true wall, or building a new stud wall for the shower.
- New door, jamb and architraves, plus wall and ceiling linings ready for the painter.
That's the carpentry. Most of the structural graft in the room, and the bit that decides whether the finished bathroom lasts twenty years or starts weeping again in five.
How it works in with the other trades
A bathroom only runs sweet if the trades go in the right order, and someone's got to keep that moving. Happy to be that someone on the building side.
Rough run of it: we strip out, frame, and sort the subfloor. The plumber and sparky do their rough-in while the walls are open. Then the waterproofer and tiler get a clear run. Then we're back at the end for the vanity, the door and the fit-out. We work our days around theirs so nobody's treading on fresh membrane or sitting idle for a week.
Already got a plumber, sparky and tiler you trust? We'll slot straight in. Haven't? Dave's worked alongside good licensed local trades for years and can put you onto people who turn up and do it right. What we won't do is pretend a chippy can sign off plumbing or waterproofing. That's not how it works in NSW. You want the proper trade and the proper cert on each part of the job — protects you, protects us.
What it costs and how long
Comes down to the floor, mostly. Until we lift it we don't know if it's a tidy reframe or a full subfloor rebuild, and that's the swing on both price and time. Rough feel: the carpentry and building side of a standard bathroom — stripout, framing, subfloor sorted, fit-out at the end — usually lands in the few-thousand range. More if there's serious rot or you're shifting walls about. That's our slice. Separate to what your plumber, tiler and waterproofer charge.
Our work bookends the job. A few days to a week up front for stripout and framing, then we clear out for the wet trades, then a day or two back for the vanity and the finishing touches. Dave'll walk the room with you, tell you straight what he reckons that floor's hiding, and you get a written quote on the carpentry before anything comes apart.
Got a bathroom reno on the cards? Give us a bell on 0414 007 351 or grab a free quote. Happy to swing by, have a look, and tell you straight what's involved.
Common questions
- Do you do the whole bathroom, or just the carpentry?
- We do the building and carpentry side — stripout, reframing, subfloor and joist repairs, the new floor structure, vanity and cabinetry install, niches and linings. The waterproofing, tiling, plumbing and electrical are done by the relevant licensed trades. We work in with them and can point you to good local ones if you don't have anyone.
- My floor feels spongy near the shower — is that a big job?
- It usually means water has been getting past the old waterproofing and rotting the timber underneath, which is common in older Illawarra homes. Once we lift the floor we'll see how far it's gone — sometimes it's a couple of joists, sometimes a bigger section of subfloor. We'll show you what we find and quote the real fix, not paper over it.
- How long does the carpentry part take?
- The stripout and framing stage is usually a few days to a week or so, depending on what the floor's like once it's open and whether walls are moving. Then the wet trades and tiler get their run before we come back for the vanity and fit-out. We'll lay out the order with you up front so the trades aren't tripping over each other.