Bathroom renovations and what to expect
Bathroom renovations and what to expect
Bathroom renovations are probably one of the most disruptive renovations to you and your family. You lose water, your regular morning routine is thrown out the window and a whole bunch of trades keep showing up at your home throughout the day – often so early in the morning that you haven’t had time to have a coffee yet.
But don’t despair, there are ways to make the experience more bearable. We’ve shared the three most common questions we receive and what we tell all our clients.
1. Where do I do my business while my bathroom is being renovated?
If you have a home with multiple bathrooms – great! Ask us about staggering your bathroom renovation (if you’re renovating more than one) so that, for example, the whole family can use the ensuite while the main bathroom is being made over. Once the bathroom is done, you can all enjoy a brand new bathroom while the ensuite is being remodelled. Easy-peasy!
If you are a single bathroom home, things may not be so simple. Think about your needs and your options. We’re always happy to organise a mobile bathroom but this will incur an extra hire charge. Other options you may want to consider include asking nearby family members or your neighbours, or using public facilities near the beach, at your local pool or gym.
2. How long will my renovation take?
There is no straight forward answer to this other than it depends on your bathroom and what you are getting done. At the absolute minimum, you should expect at least three weeks. This is to allow for things such as waterproofing to dry, shower screens and/or mirrors to be measured and then made to size before installation, as well as stone benchtops to be templated before being cut to size and installed.
Other factors that would impact the length of your renovation is your choice of tile and how many square meters of tiles you are having installed. Some feature tiles are time consuming and labour intensive. And a full wall of tiles is obviously going to take longer to complete than half-tiled walls.
Have a chat to your builder when during the quoting stage to get an idea of the time frame.
3. Where are the workers? I thought they would be here every day.
There will be days during your renovation when it may seem like nothing is happening and you think your renovation has come to a stand-still but this is actually time that has been accounted for when the schedule was drawn up.
The very first hold-up is after the waterproofing has received its first coat. This needs time to dry before another coat can be applied. Again, the time for this depends on the size of your bathroom and how your shower is configured.
Then there’s time for the tiles, grout and silicon to dry and once all the fixtures are in, there will be a lag where the shower screen, mirrors and/or stone benchtops are being cut to measure.
We hope the above answers some of the concerns you may be having before you start a bathroom renovation. Of course, if you are engaging a different builder, you should check with them to see if the above applies to their schedules and procedures.
And remember, with renovations there are always many outside factors that can impact the schedule that are out of the builder’s control. Supply chain issues (e.g. global pandemic), delayed deliveries (due to car accidents, bushfires etc) and product defects are just some of things that can throw a curve-ball to your renovation. Please be patient, these things happen and we’ll do our best to keep your renovation on schedule or as close to it as possible.
Once you are sitting in your new tub with a glass of bubbles in your hand looking around your new bathroom, you won’t regret it!
For more information on how our bathroom renovation schedules run, click here.
For some bathroom trends inspiration, click here.
And if you would like to get in touch with us about an upcoming renovation, click here.
