Oh i love those retro bathrooms too...ours was a tribute to 80's wood panelling!

At a very rough guess Id have thought our main bathroom would have been 10 - 12K. We could have done it cheaper by not tiling round the bath (and used a splashback), and having a cheap brand shower and vanity.

Bathrooms I think are second only to kitchens in expense.

We also have a tiny 900w x 2500 ensuite (as small as you can get really) and it was

$250 vanity
$150 toilet
$949 shower
$100 extractor fan (council requirement)

Flooring for the ensuite was an offcut from teh main bathroom.

See our house has some wicked retro features - I am seriously in LOVE with our round window, and don't get me started on the virtues of the original shacklock oven, sent from heaaven to cook all things perfectly. But erhe is nothing interesting about our bathroom, it is nothing nice, they wouldn't have been good fittings when done the first time They have tiled the upstairs bathroom floor since it was built but the toilet cistern is on a lean....

Of course our last place we got most of it done on insurance after a burst pipe, so it was sad to leave that nicely done bathroom for another retro blah.

DH wants a wet floor type thing for the shower when we do our bathroom...yanno, the floor you have in the hosp bathrooms?

Why would you want to rip out a perfectly good bath tub with over shower for a wet floor?

I know, we've done some rooms but mainly fixed the outside first (paint, new windows...) Bathroom is the worst room in the house so it will be soooo nice to have it done.


Ours is from Kalessi bathroom wear, very similar though. We're getting aqualine but we'd had a few bathroom places say that if there's a problem behind the wall, tiles are a PITA to get in behind... as our house is nearly 60 we didn't want to risk it so will have a liner but tile around and up to it.

Have taken lots of pre-picks... can't say I'll miss the hole in the wooden floor that the slugs climb through!

He reckons it will be done in a couple of weeks but we'll see, we think there's lots of water damage behind one wall where the old shower leaked



What, you don't like the hospital look and mopping the floor 3 times a day?

You need to find a builder who will do a cashie in the weekend, and they usually bring their own plumber, and you just pay him cash as well

So....I post this in April and just finally getting quotes now he he!!!
So fingers crossed!! But hmm will get one of those showerdomes to put on top of shower.

Arrrgh $$$$$$

LOL just re-read my post - it took 10 weeks What was I thinking to believe 2 weeks!

Good luck - you going for a bathroom company or separates? (organise and manage tradies yourself?)

I've recently got quotes to get our leaky shower replaced. Turns out its much more a major than we'd first anticipated. It needs to have new waterproofing installed, and new tiles on the floor and also the first row up the wall.

I was initally shocked at our first quote of $7,5000 so got a second one. Well that was $14,000.

And the shower part is only about $1400.

We were told they could do a quick job, which would just be replace the shower, however, as we intend to me here for a while, thought we should do it properly with the waterproofing tc. Not sure about that now, when we found the price.

I did call another place, cos wanted 3 quotes, rah rah. But they won't call back, despite 3 phone calls, and their constant ads on the radio.

tusker do you have insurance? if it is leaking and you live in it you might get cover?? we renovated our bathroom almost a year ago now, planned to just put in a new loo and a new vanity, but as we pulled out the vanity saw the (80's POO-BROWN coloured) lino had a crack in it and the floorboards where pretty much weetbix phoned the insurance company, and it turns out one of the pipes was split in the wall and had wrecked the floor! paid $250 excess and the insurance covered a new shower, new floor, lovely new lino and all the labour/plumbing. we paid for the loo and vanity, paint (we got the resene anti-mould paint and havent had a spot of mould the entire year!) and new mirror,shelf, and extractor fan/heatlamp so it cost us all up about $2k when if it wernet for the blessing- in- disguise of the cruddy plumbing job done 25 years earlier and we had to pay without insurance it would have cost us at least 6k..and our bathroom is TINY- like smaller than most of my friends ensuites lol.

so worth a call- at worst they can say no!

my only advice- DO NOT under any circumastance, decide to demolish your bathroom when you are pregnant and 10 days away from your due date...having to drive to the public loos literally every half hour because of your tiny preggy bladder is NOT fun!

hahahaha DM, funny how often bathrooms are pulled to bits right on due date!

but yes I second the insurance. We had a burst pipe which needed the shower walls removed and some other bits and bobs done. While that was happening, they discovered a long term slow leak had done the weetbix bit here and there, and we had insurance cover the whole thing - we paid a wee bit more to have the odd thing upgraded rather than like for like replaced is all.

Totalluy worth getting it assessed, the worst they can say is no, which is no biggie when you are planning to do it yourselves anyway.

I think I know the company you mean, I found them really hopeless - took two weeks to get a rep to visit (one day she couldn't come as her company car broke down so she had to take a whole day off!!) and then they were really slow to quote - got the feeling they don't like the smaller jobs

We're almost finished!!! Only without a bathroom for 2 weeks, and most of the delay was us doing painting etc around DH's shifts and a toddler. It will be about $5.5k total, and that is completely gutting and regibbing, insulating walls etc. Very excited!!!

We completely stripped out our bathroom last month, walls, floors, new fittings, beautiful finish.

Cost 4.5k all up. In CHCH at the moment there are some great deals on bathroom fittings as people are importing them by the container load ready for rebuilds, so great timing for a tight budget. We LOVE it, so nice. the last bathroom must of been 15+ years old, cracked toilet, old shub, old vanity... eeeekkkkkk.

My DH, our builder friend, my uncle did the whole thing in 2 days, DH finished off stuff like gibbing and painting over the weeks.

AFTER photos ladies!!!!!!

When we do ours, I would like a freestanding bath I actually don't overly love lots of tiles so probably wont do that on walls which will be a lot cheaper. OUr bathroom is still in ok condition (esp if we just repaint it) so won't be done for many years to come.

We're in the process of doing our bathroom Tiler is coming this week, though we will still have a bit to do afterwards. We've removed the old bath/shower over bath and just putting in a double shower.

Will post some before & after when its finished.

After photos by the end of the week (or DH will be in serious doo-doo )

Hi just re-reading this thread. Well we have just about finished our new bathroom too (just got painter coming to do roof today). We have put in a new modern loo, a new vanity, striped the balls and relined with the fake white tile look and put up all new fixtures. Plus we put in a new roof. Final cost is looking like $6000.00 which is great.

I am so pleased to have a modern, clean looking bathroom.

The whole process has taken just over 2 weeks and we have been able to use the bathroom the whole time through out that.

if i could remember how to post photos on here i would show you before and after photos but sorry can't