Service area
Bathroom renovations in Mullumbimby
Bathroom renovations in Mullumbimby, six metres above sea level on a river that is still tidal where it passes the town. The 2022 floods settled an argument here: a bathroom either dries out and comes back, or it comes out in a skip.
(02) 9072 1997What we build
The bathrooms we build in Mullumbimby
The finishes here are the same ones we would use anywhere. What changes is the specification underneath them, and it is chosen once, at the start.
Full bathroom renovations
The whole room back to the frame. In a high set house this is also the only chance anyone gets to look at what is under the floor and fix it properly.
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Waterproofing
Done to AS 3740 and photographed at every stage, then flood tested. In this town those photos are worth having for more than just our warranty.
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Laundries, with a bathroom
The laundry is usually the lowest wet room in the house and the first one to take water. It is also the easiest room to build so that it recovers.
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Walk in showers and wet rooms
A level entry is usually straightforward in a house on stumps, because the height is already sitting there in the floor timbers rather than under a slab.
Read moreWhat is included
What a renovation actually covers
One builder does the whole job, so nobody is waiting on anybody and there is one person to ring. This is what you get, and it is priced the same way on your quote.
Strip out and make good
- Protection through the house and the room stripped to the frame
- Old fixtures, tile, mortar bed and lining removed and carted away
- The floor opened up and photographed before anything is quoted as final
- Any soft timber, rot or old failed patching replaced while it is open
- Walls blocked out for rails, niches, a vanity and a screen before lining
The wet area
- Plumbing and electrical roughed in by licensed trades, with certificates
- Falls set in the mortar bed and taken to the drain, not corrected in the tile
- Waterproofing to AS 3740, with a flexible strip at every corner that moves
- Every stage photographed under the tile and handed to you as a record
- A flood test on the finished waterproofing before a single tile goes down
Finishes and fit off
- Wall and floor tiling, with the layout drawn before the first sheet is cut
- Vanity, basin, toilet, bath and shower screen supplied or installed
- Taps, rails, shelves and mirror fitted and adjusted
- Silicone, grout, paint and trims finished and the room cleaned
- A walk through with you, and anything on the list fixed before we invoice
The cabinets matter more here than anywhere else we work. What the box behind the door is made of, and whether it hangs off the wall or sits on the floor, decides whether a wet room gets dried out or thrown out.
- The ground
- Six metres above sea level, on the flat
- The river
- Still tidal where it passes the town
- The houses
- Older timber, most of it raised off the ground
- After water
- What matters is whether the room can dry
The houses here
A town that has been wet before
Mullumbimby is a town of about three and a half thousand people sitting on the flat at the junction of the Brunswick River, five kilometres upstream of Brunswick Heads, with Mount Chincogan behind it and Burringbar Street running through the middle of it. The main street is heritage, deep verandahs over the footpath, and a good deal of the housing is the same vintage: timber, high set, up on stumps.
That raised floor is not decoration. It is the reason a lot of these houses are still here, and it is the single most useful thing about renovating a wet area in this town.
In 2022 the eastern Australia floods went through here. Nobody in Mullumbimby needs that explained to them, and nobody needs a builder being dramatic about it either. What it changed is what a good bathroom looks like: the same finishes, detailed so that water passing through is an event the room survives.
The question is not whether it can get wet. It is whether it can dry out afterwards and still be a bathroom.
What it changes
Building a bathroom that can dry out
None of what follows costs much more than the usual way of doing it. It is mostly a set of choices about which material goes where, made once, at the start, by someone who has thought about it.
- 01
Cabinets come off the floor
A wall hung vanity with a clear gap under it is the single highest value decision in a flood town. Water passes under rather than sitting inside a kickboard, the floor can be cleaned and dried properly, and the cabinet is not the thing that has to be thrown out.
- 02
What is inside the cabinet matters more than the door
Raw chipboard swells once and never goes back. Marine grade ply or a solid surface carcass costs more on the quote and is the difference between drying a vanity out and replacing it. Same door, same handle, completely different outcome.
- 03
The bottom of the wall is a serviceable part
Where a lining can be cut, dried behind and re patched without pulling a whole wall down, the room recovers in days rather than months. It is a small thing nobody notices until the day it matters, so it goes into the build rather than a conversation afterwards.
- 04
The raised floor is the advantage, so use it
A house on stumps has ventilation under it and room to work in, which means the subfloor can actually dry and services can be run without chasing anything. It also means the height for a level entry is usually already there in the floor timbers.
- 05
Power goes higher than the minimum
Points, the fan isolator and anything with a circuit board sit as high as the layout will sensibly allow. It costs nothing at rough in and it is not something you can change later without opening the wall again.
Getting it in and out
Flat streets, and a short trip
Access in Mullumbimby is easy. The streets are flat and wide, most houses have a driveway or a verge a skip bin can sit on, and the town is fifteen minutes from Byron. Water is what makes a job here different, not getting in and out.
The one thing worth checking early is underneath. A high set house has a subfloor worth getting into, and whether a plumber can actually work in it decides how much of the floor has to come up.
- Skip on the driveway or the verge, not stacked in the yard
- Subfloor access checked on the first visit, since it decides how much floor comes up
- Old stumps and bearers looked at while the floor is open, the only time anyone sees them
- Cabinets chosen before they are ordered, because the box behind the door is what matters
- Fifteen minutes from Byron, so a forgotten fitting is not a lost day
The raised floor, which is the advantage
A floor that can take water and lose it
Cabinets off the floor, on purpose
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Renovating in Mullumbimby
Tell us about the room and we will come and look at it. You get a fixed scope written down item by item, so you know what you are paying for before anything starts.
(02) 9072 1997