Bathroom Renovations in Shellharbour, Village Homes and New Estates

In the older homes near the water the problem is usually age and exposure. Original bathrooms were built without a membrane, so water has been getting past the tiles for a long time. Floors are often concrete here rather than timber, which helps, but the wall sheeting behind a shower that has been leaking for twenty years still has to come out. Tapware, screen hardware and exhaust fans wear faster this close to the harbour, so the fittings get chosen for that rather than picked from a catalogue.

In the estate homes the problem is different. The room is sound and the layout is usually fine, but the original fit out was the cheapest option the builder could put in. Vanities swell at the base, the shower screen seals have gone, the waterproofing was done to the minimum, and the tile choice dates the room more than anything else does. A lot of these jobs are a full strip out of a room that is only twenty five years old, which surprises people until they see what comes out of it.

There is a third thing worth saying about the estates. A lot of these houses have a main bathroom and an ensuite that were built at the same time, with the same fittings, and they fail at the same time. Doing both together costs less than doing them a year apart, because the trades, the set up and the waterproofing happen once rather than twice. We will price both and you can decide.

The trade off on doing two rooms at once is the household, so we stage it where the house cannot be without a bathroom and tell you up front which days will be the awkward ones. The same thinking applies to the laundry, because a lot of these floor plans put it next to the bathroom sharing the wall and the drainage. If both are getting old, doing them together saves opening the same wall twice, and we will quote them separately so you can see what that actually saves rather than taking our word for it.

More on bathroom renovations, kitchen renovations, home renovation work and property maintenance.

We do not publish rates, and anyone who gives you a figure over the phone for a bathroom is guessing. The number moves on the size of the room, whether the layout changes, whether the plumbing moves, what the strip out finds, and what you choose for tiles, tapware and the vanity. Those last three alone can double a job without the work changing at all.

What we do instead is come and look, then give you an itemised written quote with a firm figure and the exclusions listed, so you can see what is in and what is not. If the strip out finds something, you get a written variation before the extra work happens.

Worth knowing for a job this size in New South Wales: a written contract is required when the contract price is over 5,000 dollars including GST, the maximum deposit that can be asked for is 10 per cent, and home building compensation cover is required when the contract value is over 20,000 dollars including GST. A lot of bathroom jobs sit across those lines, so it is worth knowing where yours lands.

Renovation work in NSW comes with consumer protections worth knowing before you sign anything. A written contract is required once the contract price is over $5,000 including GST. Work between $5,000 and $20,000 can run under a small works contract; above $20,000 it needs a full home building contract, and home building compensation cover with the certificate that goes with it. The maximum deposit anyone can ask for is 10 per cent, on a small job or a large one. Variations should be agreed in writing before the varied work happens, not reconciled at the end. None of that is unique to us, and you should expect it from whoever you use.

Every job gets quoted on what it actually needs. We look at the access, the condition of what is already there, the materials you want and how much of the existing work can be kept, then give you a figure before anything starts. Two jobs that look identical in photos can be very different once someone is standing in the room, so we do not publish a rate card. You get a price for your job, and it does not move once we have agreed it.

Shellharbour, Shell Cove and Oak Flats are a regular run for us, with Albion Park and Warilla the next ones across. Marcio is based in Wollongong, which is a straight drive down the highway, and work in this group gets batched where the timing allows so travel stays off the invoice. A first look here means establishing which kind of house it is, because an original bathroom near the harbour and a first refit on an estate home are two different quotes.

Plumbing and electrical work is carried out by licensed partners, not in-house.

Shellharbour jobs we also cover include home renovations and welding. Close by, there is bathroom renovations in Albion Park and bathroom renovations in Kiama.