What you actually get for $24,500, $39,500 and a bespoke quote

Our packages start at $24,500 for The Essential, $39,500 for The Signature, and The Bespoke is priced by quotation. All three are all-inclusive and end-to-end, covering design, materials, fixtures and the build, with a fixed scope. What separates them is the level of the joinery, the surfaces and the design service, rather than the standard of the work behind the wall. The waterproofing, the trades, the compliance certificates and the ten year structural warranty are the same whichever one you choose.

My name is Michael. I am a registered builder and a licensed plumber, and these are our own prices.

Our three published packages. Every package is a full strip-out and rebuild, and the last row is the point of the whole table.

The Essential, from $24,500

This is a complete renovation for a compact bathroom. The old room comes out, it is waterproofed again from scratch, and everything in it is new.

The package covers a full strip-out and rebuild, a curated fixture selection, a standard joinery vanity and a frameless shower screen. Classic tiling and quality fixtures do the work, and the selections are guided rather than open, which is what holds the price where it is.

What you give up at this level is the range of choice rather than the standard of the build. The joinery is a standard vanity instead of a custom one, and the surfaces come from a narrower set. It suits people renovating an investment property, people getting a house ready to sell, and anyone with a compact bathroom that needs to work properly rather than make a statement.

The Signature, from $39,500

This is our most requested package, and the step up is in the finishes rather than in the build.

It includes custom joinery, a stone benchtop, underfloor heating and premium tapware. Custom joinery means the vanity is made for your room rather than bought to fit it, which matters most in a bathroom with an awkward wall or a run that a stock unit cannot use. Statement stone surfaces sit alongside it.

Underfloor heating is worth calling out, because it is the one item on that list that cannot sensibly be added later. It goes in while the floor is open. Retrofitting it afterwards means lifting the floor you have just paid for, which is why it is included at this level rather than offered as an upgrade.

This one suits families doing the main bathroom, and people staying in the house for the next ten years who want the room to be finished properly rather than adequately.

The Bespoke, by quotation

This is for a fully custom outcome, and it is priced against the design rather than against a package.

It comes with an architectural design service, a curated material library, bespoke joinery and stonework, and a project director on site. The design service is the real difference. At the other two levels you are choosing from selections that have already been put together. Here the room is designed first and the materials are specified to it.

It suits main bathrooms and ensuites in houses people are not planning to leave, and people who know exactly what they want and have not found it in a package. It is also the right answer for a room that is genuinely difficult, such as an ensuite squeezed into a roof space or a bathroom where the only sensible layout means moving a wall.

Where the money goes inside a package

An all-inclusive price can look like a single number with no working behind it, so here is what sits inside one. Around 70 per cent of a bathroom is trades and time on site, and the rest is the parts you can point at. Tiling and fittings are usually the two largest lines, at roughly 20 per cent each. Plumbing is about 16 per cent, electrical about 9, demolition and rubbish removal about 8, and waterproofing about 5. The remainder covers plastering, carpentry, painting, compliance and the project management that keeps the trades in order.

That split holds whichever package you choose. What moves between them is where the fittings and joinery money goes, not the shape of the job underneath.

It also explains why the gap between our packages is not the gap you might expect from the finishes alone. Custom joinery, stone and underfloor heating are real costs, but so is the extra preparation that goes behind them. Stone needs a substrate that can carry it. Large format tiles need a flatter wall than small ones, so levelling and screeding go in first. None of that preparation is visible in the finished room, and all of it is in the price.

What does not change at any price

Some things are identical whichever package you choose, and they are the things that decide whether the bathroom lasts.

The waterproofing is identical. Same membrane, same standard, same curing time, built to AS 3740, and it is roughly 5 per cent of the job at every level. It is not somewhere we look for savings.

The trades are the same people. The majority of ours are employed by us rather than hired job by job, so the plumber on The Essential is the plumber on The Bespoke. Every job is project managed the same way, which means the trades arrive in the right order with the room ready for them.

The compliance is the same. That means a Compliance Certificate of Plumbing Work, a Certificate of Electrical Safety, waterproofing to AS 3740, and a building permit where the work needs one.

The warranty is the same. Every package is backed by our ten year structural warranty.

Rubbish removal is included at every level, and so is the plastering, the painting, the making good and the final clean. Every one of them runs three to four weeks.

The Essential is the same standard of bathroom with fewer decisions to make.

The four choices that move the number

If you are working out where you sit, four things drive the price, roughly in this order of impact.

The first is whether the room gets redesigned and the fixtures move. This is the biggest single lever in the whole job and it is almost entirely a plumbing cost. Moving a toilet on a concrete slab is $3,000 to $5,000 on its own, because the waste has to fall the right way and the slab has to be cut. Relocating every fixture can add $5,000 to $10,000. None of that money shows up in anything you can see, which is why it surprises people.

The second is how high and how large you tile. Going floor to ceiling instead of half height, and large format instead of standard, can move the tiling line by two or three thousand dollars. Melbourne tilers charge $65 to $120 per square metre for walls and $80 to $130 for floors, and the tiles themselves run from about $20 per square metre for a basic porcelain to $180 and beyond for stone or large format.

The third is the joinery. A standard vanity and a custom one hold the same towels, and they are the clearest difference between The Essential and The Signature. Custom joinery earns its money in a room with an awkward wall, a narrow run, or a length that a stock cabinet wastes. In a square room with a standard run, it buys you a finish rather than a function, and that is a fair thing to spend money on as long as you know which one you are buying.

The fourth is what you add while the walls are open. Underfloor heating at $1,200 to $2,500 for a six square metre bathroom, a heated towel rail at $400 to $800 wired in, better ventilation and a niche in the shower are all modest additions now and expensive ones later.

What is not in any of the numbers

Three things sit outside every quote we write, because nobody can see through a wall.

The first is asbestos, if the house went up before 1990. Testing is $200 to $500, and removal usually lands between $1,500 and $5,000. It is common through the older parts of the south-east.

The second is rot or water damage in the framing, which runs $1,000 to $3,000 to repair once we find it.

The third is old galvanised pipework that has reached the end of its life and should be replaced while the walls are open.

We put provisional figures against these where the age of the house makes them likely, and we show you the problem before we price the fix. Hold 10 to 15 per cent as a contingency and you will not have to make an expensive decision under pressure.

Working out where you sit

Three things will give you your answer.

The first is the size and state of the room. A compact bathroom that needs everything replaced is what The Essential was built for.

The second is the joinery and the surfaces. If you want a vanity made for your room and a stone benchtop, you are looking at The Signature, and underfloor heating comes with it.

The third is whether you want the room designed rather than selected. If you have been saving photographs for two years and none of the packages match them, that is The Bespoke.

One thing worth saying before you decide. The package that suits you is the one that matches the room and how long you intend to live with it, not the one at the top of what you can afford. A compact bathroom finished properly at The Essential will outlast a room that has been stretched to reach a higher package by cutting something behind the wall. We do not build that way, and neither should anybody quoting against us.

If you know roughly where you sit and you want a real number for your actual house, you can book a time with me here.

FAQ

How much does a bathroom renovation cost with Hilite? Our packages start from $24,500 for The Essential and from $39,500 for The Signature. The Bespoke is priced by quotation. All three are all-inclusive, covering design, materials, fixtures and the build.

What is the difference between The Essential and The Signature? The joinery and the surfaces. The Essential includes a standard joinery vanity and classic tiling. The Signature includes custom joinery, a stone benchtop, statement stone surfaces, premium tapware and underfloor heating.

Is The Essential any good at the price? Yes. It is a full strip-out and rebuild with everything new, the same trades, the same waterproofing and the same ten year structural warranty as any other job. What you give up is the range of choice, not the standard.

What makes a bathroom renovation more expensive? Moving the fixtures is the biggest lever and it is almost entirely a plumbing cost. Then tiling height and format, then the joinery, then what you add while the walls are open.

How much does it cost to move the toilet? $3,000 to $5,000 on a concrete slab, because the waste has to be re-run and the slab cut. Relocating every fixture can add $5,000 to $10,000 to the plumbing line.

Does a cheaper package mean cheaper waterproofing? Not with us. Waterproofing is about 5 per cent of the job and it is identical at every level, built to AS 3740. If another quote is cheaper and you cannot see why, this is the first place to check.

Is underfloor heating included? It is included in The Signature. It is $1,200 to $2,500 for a six square metre bathroom if you add it, and it only makes sense while the floor is open, because retrofitting it later means lifting the new floor.

Can I start cheaper and upgrade later? Some of it, yes. Fittings can be changed in a few years by one tradesman in an afternoon. Anything behind the wall cannot, so the layout, the underfloor heating and the ventilation have to be decided while the room is open.

Does the renovation take longer if I spend more? No. All of them run three to four weeks. What extends a job is a supply delay on a custom item or something unexpected behind the wall, not the size of the budget.

How much extra should I set aside? Hold 10 to 15 per cent as a contingency. Houses built before 1990 should sit at the top of that range, because asbestos and rot are more likely.

What is included at every price? A full strip-out and rebuild, rubbish removal, waterproofing to AS 3740, all plumbing and electrical compliance certificates, plastering, painting, making good, the final clean and our ten year structural warranty.