The secret to a successful bathroom renovation is to carefully plan out what needs to be done, what you can do, what you can afford and where you need to bring in qualified tradespeople. It is also important to consider what works require council consent to ensure that your bathroom is fully compliant.

Bathroom Assessment Questions

This list of questions is designed to help you in establishing what you need to do to your bathroom to increase your property value:

• Does your bathroom feel cramped when you walk in?
• How is the lighting? Is it bright enough? Does your lighting cast shadows? Do you have to continually turn your head to see what you’re doing in the bathroom mirror?
• Do your existing bathroom fixtures still look good or are they old and tired looking?
• Do you like your existing colour scheme? How does it make you feel? Is there an accent colour in your bathroom?
• Do you enjoy spending time relaxing in your tub or shower or do you want to get out of the bathroom as soon as possible?
• Is there a feature point that people are drawn to when they come in? Or are people left looking at the toilet.
• What condition is the shower cubicle, glass, curtain, tiles, fixtures and accessories?
• Is your bathtub surface chipped, black with dirt or the early 90’s mustard yellow colour?
• Is your toilet looking like it has been better days, or is modern and elegant looking?
• Does your flooring give a clean and modern feel? Or does it look cheap, dated and worn?

How to Renovate a Bathroom: Planning

After you have completed your assessment of what is wrong with your bathroom, or what needs to be improved, you can begin on planning how you are going to fix these issues. These issues that you identified in your assessment become the foundation for your planning.

From your assessment list, organise that into a priority list of what must be done and what can you get away with. This is to help you with your budgeting.

How to Renovate a Bathroom: Budgeting

Now you have indentified your priority list you can establish your budget. You are going to need some knowledge here for what you can ‘get away with’ and what you cannot, as this will greatly affect your budget.

For example, can you get away with just resurfacing your bath instead of replacing it? Can you get away with replacing the cupboard doors, or maybe even just painting them? Is the glass shower door salvageable or does it need to be replaced? Where should you spend money on quality and where should you use second hand or budget goods? The list goes on. You need to know where you can cut costs, without cutting corners or losing value. This is very important when it comes to resale value.

When you are renovating to sell your home, try to keep the originals and rejuvenate them and try not to move plumbing around. This will save you a lot on your budget. Obviously when the benefits outweigh the costs then do what you need to do.

Where applicable for tradespeople get 3 quotes to benchmark against them. The site builderscrack is a fantastic resource for sourcing tradespeople. They basically need to tender for the jobs and you can see feedback and reviews from previous customers.

Once you have a complete list of the various costs involved in bathroom renovation with the different options available, you can put together a realistic budget. The general rule of thumb is to add 10% contingency to your costs.

How to Renovate a Bathroom: Executing Your Plan

By now you should have a workable plan, ensure that you communicate with your tradespeople around what order you should be completing the works in. They will be able to advise you on this, this is important to avoid costly mistakes.

You should be starting from the ground up, so if you are going to be tiling your floor, that’s where you need to begin.

If your getting your home ready for sale and would like specialist advice on where to spend money, and just as importantly where not to, you might like to take advantage of one of my free property presentation plans. You can call me on 021 85 84 83 to arrange a time or discuss in more detail or book online here.