A bathroom that suits the climate it lives in
Most enquiries along this line start the same way. The room is original or close to it, the house is lovely but old, and every winter the same thing happens: the mirror streams, the window sill stays wet, something black appears in the ceiling corner, and the floor is too cold to stand on before the heater has been running.
None of that is a cleaning problem. It is a building problem, and it is the part of a mountains bathroom that a renovation either fixes properly or locks in for another twenty years.
So we think about a bathroom in two layers.
The layer you stop seeing on day one. Framing repairs, floor stiffening, falls to the waste, the waterproofing membrane, an exhaust fan ducted right outside, insulation above the ceiling, and heat in the floor or on the wall. In a cold climate this layer is the whole job.
The layer you look at every day. Tiles, tapware, the vanity, the screen, the mirror, the lighting. This is where a budget can move a long way without shortening the life of the room.
Spend the budget in that order and the room works. Reverse it and you get a handsome bathroom that sweats.
What we renovate
- Full bathroom renovations in weatherboard, fibro and brick homes
- Ensuites, including the added-on ones squeezed behind a bedroom wall
- Small bathrooms in cottages, cabins and sleep-out additions
- Accessible bathrooms for people planning to stay put as they age
- Laundries that cope with wet boots and clothes that will not dry outside
- Waterproofing and tiling certified and done to the standard
- Rental bathrooms for landlords and holiday lets on a tight turnaround
The housing, town by town
The mountains are not one market. The line runs from about sixty metres above sea level at Lapstone to over a thousand at Mount Victoria, and the houses change the whole way up.
Lower mountains. Glenbrook, Lapstone, Blaxland, Warrimoo and Valley Heights carry a lot of post-war and 1960s to 1980s brick and brick-veneer housing on slabs or low subfloors, mixed with newer infill. Winters are mild by mountains standards but still colder than the plain below.
Mid mountains. Springwood, Faulconbridge, Winmalee and Yellow Rock have the broadest spread: Federation and inter-war cottages near the older village centres, fibro and weatherboard from the fifties and sixties, and large bush blocks with homes built from the seventies on.
Upper mountains. Hazelbrook, Lawson, Wentworth Falls, Leura, Katoomba, Medlow Bath and Blackheath hold the oldest and the coldest stock. Guesthouse-era homes, Federation cottages with pressed metal ceilings and timber trim, and bathrooms that were plumbed into a sleep-out or a back verandah decades after the house was built.
A 1915 cottage in Katoomba and a 1978 brick home in Blaxland are two completely different renovations, and pretending otherwise is how a quote goes wrong.
The things that actually matter up here
Condensation and mould. The single most common complaint. A properly sized exhaust fan ducted outside, not into the roof space, plus insulation above the bathroom ceiling and a heat source in the room, changes a bathroom more than any tile ever will.
Cold floors. Underfloor heating in a bathroom is a small mat over a small area, and in a mountains home it is one of the most appreciated things in the house. It also helps the floor dry between showers, which keeps grout and silicone healthier.
Old framing and old floors. Timber floors over a subfloor are common here. They give real flexibility for moving plumbing, but they have to be checked for movement, rot and borer, and stiffened under the tiled area before a membrane goes anywhere near them.
Asbestos. Homes built or renovated before 1990 can contain asbestos in wet-area wall sheeting, eaves, old vinyl and the adhesives under it. Bathrooms in those homes are tested before demolition, and any removal goes to a licensed asbestos removalist.
Access. Narrow driveways, steep bush blocks, long carries from the street and a highway that funnels every delivery through the same few turnoffs. Access is worked out at the measure, not discovered on the first morning.
Bushfire-prone land. Plenty of blocks here are mapped as bush fire prone. Internal bathroom work is not usually affected, but if a renovation replaces an external window or door, construction requirements can apply. Check the property's status with Blue Mountains City Council before anything is ordered.
Council, approvals and strata
Most internal bathroom renovations that keep the room where it is are exempt development and do not need approval from Blue Mountains City Council. Structural changes, additions and anything that alters the outside of the house are a different conversation, and some properties carry heritage or environmental constraints. Townhouses and villas in a strata scheme need owners corporation approval for wet-area work.
Materials we will not use
Engineered stone has been banned in Australia since 1 July 2024, so it is not offered here in any form. Porcelain, natural stone, solid timber and quality laminate all make good bathroom benchtops, and we will walk you through which suits your room.
Deposits and who does the work
In NSW the deposit on residential building work is capped at 10 per cent of the contract price. Above the statutory threshold, home building compensation cover must be in place before a deposit is requested. Anyone asking for more than that should not get your job.
Renovation work arranged through this site is carried out in partnership with Coastal Renovation Group, a licensed NSW builder. Licence and insurance details are provided on request, and you are welcome to check them on the NSW Fair Trading register before you sign anything.
This is a new website. There are no reviews, star ratings or project counts on it, because we have none to show yet and we are not going to invent them.
Where we work
Springwood, Katoomba, Leura, Blaxland, Glenbrook and Winmalee, plus Faulconbridge, Hazelbrook, Woodford, Lawson, Bullaburra, Wentworth Falls, Medlow Bath, Blackheath, Mount Victoria, Warrimoo, Valley Heights, Lapstone, Mount Riverview and Yellow Rock.
Start with what it costs or how a renovation runs. Call 02 4705 3295 or send the room details through.
