This site explains how a bathroom renovation actually works: what happens in what order, why waterproofing matters more than the tiles you can see, and the questions worth asking before you hire anyone. General information for Queensland home owners, written to help you make sense of the whole process.
A written, itemised quote makes it much harder for a scope to creep mid build. Ask what is included, what is excluded and how variations will be handled before any work starts.
In Queensland, building work above a set value needs a licensed contractor. You can check a licence number, its class and its status through the QBCC before you sign anything.
A standard family bathroom is usually out of action for a number of weeks once demolition starts. Waterproofing membranes need time to cure properly, and that wait should not be rushed.
Most bathroom projects fall into a few broad categories: full rebuilds of the wet area, tiling work, and the waterproofing that sits underneath both. Laundries and powder rooms follow a similar pattern. Here is what each part of the work generally means.
Strip out through to final silicone. New sheeting, plumbing rough in, vanity, shower, bath, tiling and painting. It helps to have one person coordinating the trades so nobody is waiting on someone else.
Membrane systems applied to showers, floors and wall junctions to meet the current standard, AS 3740. Ask for the waterproofing certificate once it is done, because it is worth having when you sell or insure the home.
Floor and wall tiling in porcelain, ceramic and natural stone, including mitred edges, niche detailing and grouting to suit the tile. The tiling is the finish, but it relies on the layers underneath.
Tub replacement, cabinetry, splashback tiling and floor waste work. Laundries in Queensland homes take a lot of moisture, so the same waterproofing thinking applies.
Compact guest toilets: suspended vanity, back to wall pan, feature tiling and a mirror cabinet. Smaller rooms, but the same order of trades applies.
The layout is usually set out before a single tile is cut: grout lines that line up through doorways, full tiles at the shower entry, and cuts placed where they are least noticeable.
Waterproofing is the part of a renovation that fails quietly, sometimes years later, often showing up as a soft patch in the hallway skirting. Tiling is the part guests actually notice. When two different companies handle those two stages, it can be harder to work out who is responsible if something goes wrong.
On most jobs a full bed adhesive is used with a levelling clip system on large format tiles, and tile trims are cut from the same batch so the colour matches across the room. If a tile has already been chosen, it is worth taking it to the site measure and setting out the layout in the room, on the floor, before anything is glued down.
Four stages, in this order, on almost every bathroom. Knowing the sequence makes it easier to follow what is happening and to spot when a step has been skipped.
Someone visits, checks the existing plumbing and floor levels, discusses your ideas, then puts together an itemised written quote. Ask how long the quote holds for.
Demolition, removal of the old waste, new sheeting and any plumbing or electrical rough in. Dust barriers usually go up on day one to keep the rest of the house usable.
Screed, membrane, flood test, then tiling. This is the slowest part and the part that should not be rushed, because it is the layer that has to last.
Shower screens, tapware, vanity, mirrors, silicone and a full clean, followed by a walk through and the paperwork, including the waterproofing certificate.
A bathroom that looks beautiful but was never sealed properly can quietly track water behind the tiles for years. The first sign is often a soft patch in the skirting of an adjoining room, or a musty smell that keeps coming back. By then the membrane and often the sheeting behind it need to come out.
This is why the waterproofing stage is worth understanding, even if you never touch it yourself. The membrane goes on before the tiles, it needs time to cure, and it should be flood tested before anyone starts laying tiles over the top. If a schedule is tightened to the point where those steps are skipped, that is a warning sign worth taking seriously.
"If the waterproofing is right, the rest of the bathroom can be as simple or as fancy as you like. Get it wrong and nothing else matters."
Straight answers to these will tell you a lot, before you commit to anything.
Usually not. The work area is sealed with plastic barriers so the rest of the house stays usable. The bathroom itself is normally out of action for a number of weeks, so most households arrange a temporary shower or use a second bathroom if there is one.
Many older Queensland bathrooms relied on a rendered floor and a bit of luck. Current standards call for a full membrane to the shower, floor and wall junctions. Skipping it can cause problems with insurance and will often come up in a building inspection when you sell.
Yes, and it helps to have them on site early. The tile size, edge type and slip rating for the floor all get checked, and any shortfall in the batch can be picked up before cutting starts. If a tile is not suitable for the floor, a good renovator will say so rather than lay it and hope.
It can, if something genuinely hidden turns up: rotten framing, a cracked waste pipe or asbestos sheeting. The right approach is to stop, photograph it and issue a written variation for approval before doing anything further. Verbal surprises are worth pushing back on.
You can look up a licence number, its class and its current status through the QBCC, the Queensland Building and Construction Commission. It is worth doing before you sign a contract, along with checking the licence class suits the value and type of work being quoted. For building codes and certification questions, a building certifier in South East Queensland is an example of the kind of business that handles that side of a project.
A contract setting out the scope, the inclusions and exclusions, the payment schedule and the variation process. Waterproofing details and the certificate requirement should be written in, not agreed verbally. Ask to see a sample contract if you want to read it before signing.
South East Queensland is hard on wet areas. High humidity, warm nights and older homes with timber subfloors mean water can find its way into places a colder climate never would. It is common to see a shower that was fine in a cooler city develop a soft corner in a Queenslander within a season.
That is why it pays to over specify the waterproofing rather than trim it. A flexible cementitious base coat with a reinforcing membrane through all internal corners and penetrations, left to cure properly rather than tiled the next morning because a schedule is tight, is the safer approach. If a job has to wait an extra day for a membrane to cure, that is normal and expected.
It is also why keeping waterproofing and tiling with the same contractor can make things simpler. Waterproofing and tiling work as one continuous system, and splitting them across two companies is where a lot of bathroom failures start. For a sense of how a bathroom renovation business in Brisbane presents its work, this example of a Brisbane bathroom renovation business is a useful reference, whichever company you end up considering.
A bathroom touches more trades than most rooms. These are examples of the kinds of businesses that do each part of the work, listed here so you know what to look for. No claims are made about any of them.
Sheeting and plastering usually happen before the membrane goes on. A Brisbane plastering business is an example of a business that does that kind of work, and getting the sheeting right makes the waterproofing stage much cleaner.
Not every leak means ripping out tiles. A Sydney business that regrouts and reseals leaking showers is an example of a service that can sometimes fix a shower without removing the tiles, though it depends on where the water is actually getting in.
Plumbing rough in happens early, and drainage problems can turn up at any point. A Sydney plumbing business, a plumbing business in the Hills District of Sydney, a blocked drain business in Sydney and the Sutherland Shire and a plumbing business in Wollongong are examples of the kinds of businesses that handle plumbing, leaks and drains.
Whoever applies the membrane should provide the certificate once the work is done and inspected. Ask about this before work starts, and keep the certificate with your home paperwork. It is one of the few documents from a renovation that can matter years later.
This site is general information only. It explains how bathroom renovations and waterproofing usually work in Queensland so you can ask better questions and read a quote with more confidence.