Whether it’s for the sanity of your family or to improve the resale value of your home, Australians love a good bathroom reno, but it doesn’t take much for renovation costs to get a bit out of hand. This has given rise to a worldwide budget renovating revolution that has taught us that bathroom renovations on a budget is about more than finding a bargain; it’s about careful planning and savvy prioritising.
In a recent survey, the Housing Industry Association revealed that the average cost of a bathroom installation was around $17,000. Open Agent released a report stating that a budget bathroom renovation could be anywhere between $5000 and $15,000, with luxury bathroom renovations costing upwards of $25,000.
Whatever the figures, for the average Australian, it’s a lot of money. Here are some tips to keep that bathroom budget down but still achieve great results!
- Leave the plumbing where it is
Hiring tradies can account for a large portion of the renovation costs, so minimising the need for them is a great step toward maintaining your budget. Keep your shower, bath, toilet, and sink where they are and get creative with how you use and dress up those spaces instead!
A great example of creative but practical use of space is the Frankengray House Bathroom, by CplusC. The opened-up shower space ticks so many boxes; freedom of movement in the shower, a sense of space in the bathroom, making bathtub access a useable space, and sharing floor drainage to save on additional plumbing.
- Be creative when refreshing your walls
Depending on how handy you are, tiling is generally going to require at least some assistance by tradies. Options for reducing those costs are:
- Only tile SOME of the wall space. Tiles don’t need to be floor to ceiling. They can be focussed primarily within the shower and as splashbacks around the bath and sink. The rest of the walls could be painted.
- Refresh the tiles with tile paint! Suitable for your wall tiles, tile paint is a great way to be budget conscious when renovating. You can even refresh your bathtub with this product!
- A lick of paint to the walls might be all it takes. Take a good look at your bathroom walls – could a well-chosen colour bring out the best of those old tiles? After all, retro can be cool!
- Freshen caulk and grout. A good clean and patching of grout and caulk can be all it takes to freshen up the look of the tiles and bathroom.
- Update fixtures
Fixtures, including lights, taps and rails, are great fun to choose and are a relatively inexpensive way to refresh the look of a bathroom. Find fixtures that draw inspiration from, but add to, the existing bathroom vibe. Good lighting and a large mirror can make even a small bathroom feel brighter and increase the sense of space.
- Be minimalist
You want your bathroom to feel bigger than it is and you want to maintain a low budget, so you need to ask yourself: what does this bathroom NEED?
- Does your family need a bath or will a bath improve the resale of your home? If you are putting one in purely for resale value, take the time to investigate whether your home is the type that attracts buyers who need bathtubs, such as families.
- Do you need two sinks or is that a luxury addition? How often will two people be in the bathroom at the same time?
- Is all that bench space there just to hold decorative items, or is there a purpose?
- Do you need a cupboard for those items or could you install some simple wall shelving?
- When it comes to dressing the room, less is more. Place a couple of items to bring colour and life to the bathroom, but don’t clutter.
- Be smart with your money
It’s ok to try and minimise the need for tradies, but don’t completely avoid tradies for the sake of a budget. You still want that bathroom to be standing in 6 months’ and even six years. If you can’t confidently (or legally) do a job yourself, hire a tradie.
Research your tradies well. Don’t just pick the cheapest guy, pick the guy with a great reputation. He may cost a little more, but you know he’ll get the job done right the first time. Shoddy workmanship only leads to having to pay someone to do it all over again.
Joe Rantino is the Owner of Gladesville Plumbing Services in Sydney, an experienced team of plumbers specialising in both corporate and residential plumbing.
