Full Bathroom Renovations

A full bathroom renovation takes the room back to the timber framing and rebuilds it properly, from the waterproofing up. It is the right choice when the layout no longer works, when there is water damage you cannot see, or when a tired room needs to become the one you look forward to using. As a design-led service covering all of Auckland, we manage the whole job so you deal with one team, not six separate trades.

This page walks through exactly what a full renovation includes, the order the work happens in, what we handle for you, and a realistic cost guide so there are no surprises. If you would rather talk it through, you can Get a Free Quote and we will come and look at your space.

What a full bathroom renovation actually includes

A full renovation is a complete strip-out and rebuild, not a cosmetic refresh. Everything comes out, the room is reset to a sound, square, dry shell, and then it is built back to current standards. On a typical Auckland job that means:

• Removing all fixtures, the vanity, tiles, linings and often the old substrate back to the framing
• Repairing or replacing any rotten framing, and resheeting walls and floors in the correct materials
• Reworking the plumbing and electrical to suit the new layout, not the old one
• Full waterproofing of the wet areas to AS/NZS 3740 before a single tile goes on
• New tiling, cabinetry, fixtures, ventilation, lighting and the final fit-off

Because the room is open, a full renovation is also your one chance to fix the things hidden behind the lining: inadequate falls to the drain, missing wall bracing, an undersized extractor, or a shower that was never tanked properly in the first place. These are the most common faults we uncover, and they are far cheaper to solve now than after the tiles are back on.

When a full renovation beats a refresh

Not every bathroom needs the full treatment. A refresh, re-painting, a new vanity, re-grouting, can be the sensible call when the layout and waterproofing are sound and you simply want it to look fresher. A full renovation earns its cost when:

• The layout is wrong, the shower is cramped, the door clashes with the vanity, or you want to move a wall
• There are signs of water damage, soft flooring, swollen skirtings, musty smell, or staining on the ceiling below
• The waterproofing has failed, which it eventually does on older tiled showers with no membrane
• You are moving services, relocating the toilet, adding a second basin, or converting a bath to a walk-in shower
• You want a genuinely different room, not a tidied-up version of the one you have

If you are weighing it up, our bathroom design service helps you decide before you commit, and our Auckland cost guide sets expectations on budget.

The sequence: how a full renovation runs

Doing the work in the right order is what separates a bathroom that lasts twenty years from one that leaks in two. Every full renovation we run follows the same proven sequence:

1. Demolition & strip-out — fixtures, tiles and linings removed, waste carted away, framing exposed and inspected.
2. Plumbing & electrical rough-in — pipes, drains and wiring moved and set for the new layout by registered tradespeople, before anything is closed in.
3. Framing & substrate — repairs, bracing, and new fibre-cement or suitable sheet linings to give waterproofing a sound surface.
4. Waterproofing — the wet areas are tanked to AS/NZS 3740 and left to cure. This is the single most important stage and it is never rushed.
5. Tiling — floor and wall tiles laid with correct falls to the drain, then grouted and sealed.
6. Fit-off — vanity, toilet, shower, tapware, lighting, mirror and accessories installed, tested and cleaned.

Skipping or reordering these stages is behind most bathroom failures we are called in to fix. The membrane in particular has to go down after the substrate and before the tiles, with nothing penetrating it afterwards.

What we manage for you

The reason people choose a managed renovation over hiring trades themselves is simple: a bathroom involves a plumber, an electrician, a waterproofer, a tiler, a builder and a joiner, all of whom have to turn up in the right order. We coordinate every one of them so you do not have to. That includes:

• A single point of contact from first visit to final handover
• A fixed written quote before any work starts, so you know the number
• Scheduling the trades in sequence so the job keeps moving and you are not waiting on a no-show
• Arranging Auckland Council building consent and inspections where the work requires it
• Licensed and registered plumbers and electricians doing the regulated work, with the required paperwork
• A tidy, protected site, dust control, floor protection, and the room swept at the end of each day

We work to the NZ Building Code throughout, and back our work with a workmanship guarantee.

Do you need a building consent?

This is the question we are asked most, and the honest answer is: it depends on what you are doing. Many like-for-like bathroom renovations in Auckland can proceed without a consent, but consent is generally triggered when the work moves beyond simple replacement. As a rule of thumb, you are more likely to need Auckland Council consent when the job involves:

• Moving or adding plumbing fixtures to new positions, rather than replacing them where they sit
• Structural changes such as removing or altering a load-bearing wall
• New or altered drainage

Certain sanitary plumbing and drainage work can be carried out under the authority of the licensed tradesperson doing it, with a producer statement supporting the job. We assess this for every renovation at the quoting stage and tell you plainly whether a consent is needed, so nothing comes as a surprise later. Getting this right protects your home's compliance history and any future sale.

Timeline and cost guide

A full bathroom renovation typically takes around three to five weeks on site once demolition begins, depending on the size of the room, whether services are moving, consent requirements, and tile and fixture lead times. Waterproofing cure time and tile set times are fixed by the products, not the schedule, so a quality job cannot be compressed much below this.

As an Auckland 2026 guide, a standard full bathroom renovation generally falls between $20,000 and $35,000, depending on size, layout and fixtures. Relocating services, premium tiling, custom cabinetry or a larger room push toward the top of that range; a straightforward rebuild in the existing layout sits lower. Every quote we give is fixed and written, so the figure you agree to is the figure you pay. When you are ready, Get a Free Quote, or read more about Bathroom Renovation Auckland and how we work.

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