Bathroom renovation - advice, ideas, suggestions please!!

[Mikandloz]

We are getting quotes to renovate the bathroom and laundry in our PPOR, a 1960s 3-bedroom house in the suburbs of Sydney.

We are likely to sell in 3-5 yrs so doing something to hopefully increase overall value. The bathrooms are in a pretty poor state at the moment so need to be done.

I have attached our current and proposed plans and keen to get thoughts, ideas, suggestions on these.

The current configuration is a bathroom with shower, bath, vanity and a laundry with a toilet in a small room off it (no hand basin in the room with the toilet).

We are proposing to turn the bathroom into an ensuite and adding a toilet and removing the bath. Then turn the laundry into a bathroom with toilet, vanity, bath with shower over bath, and laundry set in a cupboard in the bathroom.

Any thoughts on this?

We are on a budget and mindful of the risk of over capitalising, so our other two options are just adding a hand basin in the current toilet and leaving as is, or doing that plus putting the shower over the bath in the existing bathroom and adding a second toilet.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Jane - Hotspace]

Hi Mikandloz,

The re-design looks great! Really like your ideas. However, just wondering what your budget is. I'd think from looking at your drawings that you'll be up for about $16k-$19k of demo/rebuild etc. This would be paying professionals to do all the work for you. If you can DIY some of the work of course the cost will come down somewhat.

The other thing to look at is what is your house currently worth? And then what is it likely to be worth with the new ensuite and upgraded main bathroom?

If it's more than $16k-$19k more, then you're in the safe zone. However, you're not really going to make any money from the project immediately (if that is your aim) unless significantly more.

If the numbers don't stack up, maybe you'll be better to compromise and reno what you have. I.e. change door in ensuite and add toilet but reno bath and shower/vanity/walls/floor etc in the layout it currently is. Then in the existing laundry, remove the external door, open up the wall to the toilet and add a shower over bath somewhere. I have not put a lot of thought into the perfect layout but a compromise may be good enough. Note: a shower over bath may or may not be the right thing for a property but here is a nice one, one of my clients did a few years ago ...

Hope that helps.

 

[nhg]

To build the bathroom Jane proposes, which would definitely add value, from a quick look, I would charge around $18k + GST for both. Jane's estimate is quite accurate.

To cut costs, you could do a lot of the demo work yourself and have the skip bins take it all away, creating a clean canvas to work from (makes it much cheaper).

Another way is to pick the items you want and have them brought on site. I generally get trade discounts on items, but doing a combination of the two saves time and thus money, especially with me having to pay a guy to bring them to site.

Do you really need a bathtub? The one in Jane's picture looks great, however is it really a neccessity? I don't know many, if any people who use them. And a long double shower looks grand.

I do like the design. I know most people are turned off by old bathrooms, most buyers lack a good imagination.

 

[Mikandloz]

Thanks for your responses - both very helpful!

We were aiming to stay under $20k all up. The issue it seems is asbestos removal - being 1960-era property we're told up up $3-4k just to remove tiles/walls with asbestos. I think this prohibits is from doing too much of the removal ourselves?

Regarding needing a bath ... No we don't but from local agents we've spoken with its a deal breaker for many families around here, and our future target buyers will be family orientated - probably couples with a toddler or baby. So concerned that by not having a tub we'd limit ourselves later on.

Thanks again! Any other comments also very welcome

 

[nhg]

We were aiming to stay under $20k all up. The issue it seems is asbestos removal - being 1960-era property we're told up up $3-4k just to remove tiles/walls with asbestos. I think this prohibits is from doing too much of the removal ourselves?

I think that price range is still possible. I feel tradies charge a lot for asbestos removal just because they can, it is just a matter of wearing the right safety gear and disposal. Sydney? I can give you a quotation if you'd like.

 

[Mikandloz]

Thanks - would be great to get a quote - we're in Turramurra if that's ok - I'll give you a call on Monday.

 

[gooram]

We've just finished a bathroom reno, so here are some tips for keeping down the cost.

- Look on gumtree: we bought brand new porcelain tiles from gumtree at a steal
- Look for discontinued lines: we found good quality italian porcelain tiles at 80% off.
- There's nothing wrong with floor stock: 50% discount on bath and toilet off the showroom floor
- Showroom rejects: we found an entire set of bathroom fittings (towel rails, toilet roll holders etc) for $50 after a showroom refurb (tradelink)
- Demolition: mixed results here, only a few hundred dollars to save, and once you factor in hiring your own skip and tools, it wasn't viable for us.
- avoid additional electrical work, i.e. retain existing light fitting(s)
- custom cabinetry with standard laminate finishes can still look good! i.e. avoid the textured and high gloss laminates.