You want a number. Fair enough — everyone does, and they ask it about thirty seconds into the conversation.
So here it is. Around the Illawarra, a bathroom reno usually lands somewhere between $15,000 and $35,000. Plenty of jobs sit either side of that.
That's a wide spread, I know. But there's a reason for it, and once you've seen what's actually going on behind a bathroom wall the spread stops looking like guesswork. A bathroom is a tiny room with a stupid number of trades crammed into it. That's the whole story, really.
Budget, mid and high — roughly where the lines fall
A budget refresh keeps the layout exactly where it is. New vanity, toilet, tapware, tiles — but the plumbing doesn't move an inch. Standard-sized bathroom, that's about $12k to $18k. Nothing's getting relocated, so nobody's labour blows out.
Step up to a mid-range reno and you're stripping the room back to the frame. New waterproofing, tiles floor to ceiling, decent fixtures, maybe a frameless screen and a wall-hung vanity. This is where most people land once they're in it properly. Call it $20k to $30k by the time every trade's been through.
High-end is a different animal. Move the layout around, drop in a freestanding bath, floor-to-ceiling stone-look tiles, underfloor heating, the good tapware — you're past $35k without trying. A big one in a nice home can get to $50k.
These are honest Gong numbers. Not the cheapest quote anyone will ever wave at you, not a scare story either. The minute you start shifting plumbing or you open a wall and find trouble, all of this moves.
What actually moves the price
Size is the obvious one. It's also not the whole story. A little bathroom still needs every trade to rock up — waterproofer, tiler, plumber, sparky, chippy — so there's a fixed lump of cost no matter how small the room. A bigger one doesn't cost double; you're mainly paying for more tiles and a touch more of everyone's day.
Moving plumbing, though — that's the big lever. Leave the toilet, shower and vanity roughly where they sit and the plumber's bill stays sensible. Shift the shower to the far wall, or spin the whole layout, and now there's pipework to re-run, slab or subfloor to open up, and waste falls to get right. That one decision can swing a job a few grand on its own.
Then waterproofing. This is not where you cut corners, and I'll die on that hill. It's licensed, certified work, and it's the only thing between your new bathroom and a rotten floor in five years. It's a small line on the quote. Skimp it and you'll pay for the whole reno twice.
Tiling is where the hours hide. Floor-to-ceiling beats a half-height splashback — more square metres, more days on the tiler's knees. Big-format tiles, mosaics, herringbone, a feature niche — every fiddly bit adds labour. The tiles themselves run from about $30 a square metre to well north of $100.
Fixtures and finishes are where budgets quietly disappear. A vanity, toilet, screen and tapware can be done sensibly or you can go nuts. Brushed brass taps, a stone benchtop, a freestanding bath — adds up quick, and barely changes the labour. It's all in what you pull off the shelf.
And then there's the one nobody puts in their budget: what's behind the walls.
The hidden stuff in older Illawarra homes
A lot of the housing out here is older fibro and brick. Post-war places all through Wollongong, Corrimal, Warrawong and down the coast. Pull the tiles off a bathroom in one of those and you genuinely don't know what's waiting for you.
Rotten studs and bottom plates where a shower's been weeping for a decade. A subfloor that goes soft underfoot. Termite damage nobody had a clue about. Old galv pipes that really ought to come out while the wall's open anyway. None of it shows until the room's stripped, and all of it has to be sorted before the new bathroom goes back.
This is the carpentry side, and it's where we come in. We do the building work — the strip-out, the rotten framing, new subfloors, sheeting walls and ceiling, building any new walls when the layout's changing, and hanging the vanity, cabinetry and doors at fit-out. When there's hidden rot, we're the ones making the structure sound again before the waterproofer and tiler get their turn.
What we don't touch is the wet trades. A carpenter is not a plumber, a sparky or a waterproofer, and anyone telling you they do the lot themselves is having you on. Roughly who does what:
- Plumber — rough-in, drainage, taps, toilet, shower, final connections. Licensed.
- Electrician — lights, exhaust fan, heated towel rail, GPOs, wiring the heating. Licensed.
- Waterproofer — the certified membrane before a single tile goes down.
- Tiler — floor and walls; the finish you actually stare at every morning.
- Carpenter (us) — framing, subfloor, linings, cabinetry and the fit-out everything else hangs off.
A good bathroom reno is really just those blokes turning up in the right order, each one waiting on the last to clear out. That sequencing is half the reason a bathroom eats two to four weeks even though it's a small room.
We do the carpentry and work alongside local plumbers, sparkies, waterproofers and tilers we've known for years. Already got your own trades lined up? Even better — we'll slot in and do our part. If you haven't, we'll point you at people who actually show up when they say they will. Approvals and certification sit with the licensed trades, not with a chippy.
So you get a $15k quote and a $32k quote for what sounds like the same bathroom. Neither bloke is wrong. One's a refresh with everything staying put. The other's a full strip-out, layout moved, walls opened up. Different jobs, that's all.
Weighing one up anywhere from Helensburgh down to Nowra? Give Dave a bell on 0414 007 351, or grab a free quote. We'll come and look at the actual room, tell you straight what the carpentry side involves, and give you a real read on what the whole job's likely to run. Local, licensed and insured — no guessing off a webpage.
Want a hand with this at your place? Get a free quote or call 0414 007 351.