Bathroom Renovations in Thirroul, Built for Old Timber and Salt Air

Three things turn up again and again in the older houses here, and they are all connected.

The first is the floor. A timber floor on piers moves. The original bathroom was built with no membrane and often no proper fall, so water has been getting into the joists and bearers for decades. By the time the tiles are lifting, the damage underneath is usually worse than what you can see. We pull the floor up and look before we quote the rest, because a sheet of new tiles over soft timber is money thrown away and it is the one stage that cannot be skipped in a house of this age.

The second is the wall framing behind the shower. Studs and noggins in these houses are hardwood, which is a good thing, but hardwood that has been wet for twenty years still has to come out. We cut back to sound timber and splice in new, then sheet with the right board for a wet area rather than ordinary plasterboard. A floor that moves also needs the membrane detailed for that movement, particularly at the junctions and the shower hob, and we flood test before any tile goes down.

The third is everything metal. Thirroul is close enough to the water that tapware finishes, hinges, screens and exhaust fans wear faster than they do five kilometres inland. We specify fittings and fixings for that exposure rather than picking whatever is on the shelf, and we tell you which finishes will hold up and which will look tired in two summers.

The last thing worth saying is that the gain in these rooms almost always comes from the layout rather than the floor area. Moving the door swing, changing to a sliding screen, putting the vanity on a wall rather than in a corner and rethinking where the toilet sits can open a small room up more than an extension would, and an extension means touching the roof, the floor structure and often the drainage, which turns a bathroom job into a building job.

More on bathroom renovations, home renovation work, carpentry and timber repair and kitchen renovations.

The honest answer is that the strip out decides it. A room where the floor turns out to be sound runs to a fairly predictable programme. A room where the joists have gone adds structural work before anything else can start, and that cannot be known properly until the floor is open.

What we can do is tell you the likely range before we start, and then tell you straight away if the strip out changes it. You get a written scope with the stages set out, and if something is found underneath you get a written variation before the extra work happens rather than a surprise at the end. Variations get agreed in writing before the varied work starts, which is how it should be done on any job.

Most people here are living in the house while it happens, so we also talk through which days the room is out of action and what that means for the rest of the household.

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.

Thirroul is a straight run up the coast road from Wollongong, with Austinmer, Bulli, Coledale and Woonona all close by. Jobs in the northern villages get grouped rather than treated as one offs, which keeps travel sensible and makes a return visit for a part or a finish practical rather than something to avoid. A first look in a timber cottage means getting under the floor where we can, because the floor structure is what moves the figure more than anything you can see from the doorway.

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

While we are in Thirroul, we also take on home renovations and welding. Nearby: bathroom renovations in Shellharbour and home renovations in Bulli.