The five stages, and why the order is fixed
Strip-out — one to two days. Fittings out, tiles off, screed up, often the wall sheeting back to frame. This is also when the room tells you the truth about itself.
Rough-in — two to three days. Plumber and electrician set waste, water and cable positions while the walls are open. Everything decided here is effectively permanent: the shower mixer height, the niche position, the cable for a mirror light. That is why selections have to be finished before demolition day rather than during.
Screed and falls — one to two days, then drying. The floor is built up so water runs to the waste.
Waterproofing — one to two days, then curing. The membrane goes on in coats with drying time between them. Together with the screed, this is where several days of apparent inactivity sit in the middle of your job. It is not slack and it is the worst possible place to make up lost time.
Tiling and fit-off — four to eight days. The longest skilled stage, then the room becomes a bathroom in about a day and a half at the end, which is why the whole thing feels like it finishes suddenly.
What a 1960s Bankstown bathroom hides
Most of the housing across Bankstown, Yagoona, Condell Park and Punchbowl went up in the two decades after the war, and most of those bathrooms have been updated at least once since.
The realistic finds on strip-out:
- Asbestos cement sheeting behind the tiles. Standard material for the period. Handled by a separately licensed removalist, not by the renovation crew — the cost page shows it as its own variable for that reason.
- Deteriorated wall framing where a shower has been leaking quietly into the studs for a decade or more.
- Cast-iron waste pipe at the end of its service life.
- Previous unpermitted work — a shower relocated without a licensed plumber, or waterproofing that was never done at all.
None of these are reasons to hesitate. All of them are reasons to make sure the quote sets out how a discovery is priced and approved before work continues. A quote that stays silent on the subject is not cheaper — it is less specific.
The separate toilet question
The standard arrangement here is a compact bathroom with the toilet in its own room next door, sometimes with a second door to the hallway.
Combining them produces one properly proportioned room with space for a real shower, a decent vanity and somewhere to stand. It is the change that most alters how these houses live, and it is affordable because the floor is usually suspended timber — the drainage can move without cutting concrete.
Two things to establish first. Whether the dividing wall is carrying load, which it often is not. And whether the resulting room still leaves a toilet accessible when somebody is showering, which in a larger household is a real consideration rather than a detail. If it is the only toilet in the house, think carefully before merging.
Where the money goes
Labour is somewhere between 55 and 70 per cent of a bathroom quote. Four trades attend across three to four weeks, most of them more than once, and the sequencing means nobody works continuously.
The practical consequence: moving the finishes moves the total less than people expect. Upgrading tapware from mid-range to premium might add four per cent. Choosing a cheaper tiler could cost you the room.
What to check before you compare two quotes
- Fittings and tapware named by brand and model, not "quality tapware"
- The tile allowance per square metre, and who buys them
- Waterproofing cure time shown in the program as its own line
- Skip hire and disposal as a line, not an assumption
- Making good the doorway, cornice and paint where the new room meets the old
- The variation method — how a discovery is priced and approved
- A program in working days with the trades sequenced
Licensing
Renovation work here is carried out in partnership with Coastal Renovation Group Pty Ltd, holder of NSW contractor licence 493393C, Class: Builder. In NSW, residential building work above a set value must be done by an appropriately licensed contractor, and plumbing and electrical work must go to separately licensed trades regardless of job size. Current thresholds are published by NSW Fair Trading.
Check the licence number yourself on the public register before anything starts.
Call 02 4404 0504 or send the room details through.
The rest of what we do
| Ensuite & Powder Room | Ensuites and powder rooms, where every millimetre counts and the set-out has to work around an existing bedroom or hallway. |
| Small Bathroom Renovations | Compact bathrooms where the win is removing what was making the room feel smaller than it is. |
| Laundry Renovations | Laundries renovated on their own or alongside the bathroom, which is almost always the cheaper way to do both. |
| Waterproofing | The membrane stage — the part of the job you never see again, and the one that decides whether the room lasts. |
| Bathroom Tiling | Floor and wall tiling, falls to waste, niches and set-outs — the finish most people actually judge the room on. |
| Vanities & Cabinetry | Vanities, mirror cabinets and storage sized to the room rather than to whatever the showroom had in stock. |
Questions people ask before they commit
What is included in a full bathroom renovation?
Demolition and disposal, plumbing and electrical rough-in, any carpentry for new framing, screed and falls to the waste, waterproofing, wall and floor tiling, then fit-off of the vanity, toilet, shower, tapware, screen and accessories. A full renovation takes the room back to frame or slab. Anything less is a refit and should be priced as one.
How much does a full bathroom renovation cost in Bankstown?
A standard main bathroom of five to seven square metres taken back to frame runs about $22,000 to $34,000 as a 2026 planning guide. Keeping the existing layout holds you near the bottom of that; moving the toilet or shower pushes you toward the top or past it.
How long will the bathroom be out of use?
Three to four working weeks for a job that keeps its layout, four to five if a wall comes out. A meaningful chunk of that is waiting rather than working — the screed has to dry and the membrane has to cure before tiling can start.
What if you find asbestos?
Work stops in that area. It gets assessed, a separately licensed asbestos removalist prices and carries out the removal, and the renovation resumes once the area is cleared. Given how much of Canterbury-Bankstown was built with fibro between the 1950s and 1970s, this is a realistic possibility rather than an edge case on any pre-1990 bathroom.
Can I keep the existing layout to save money?
Usually, and it is the biggest single saving available. Leaving the toilet, shower and basin wastes where they are means connecting to existing pipework instead of building new falls. A good design can change how a room feels substantially without moving a waste.