Wollongong & the Illawarra · Licensed & Insured
Fixed-price shower renovations for Wollongong’s older homes — done right, done on time, no surprises behind the walls.
Free, no-obligation quote — we reply same day.
If your shower’s seen better days — cracked grout, tiles that were probably “on trend” the same year the steelworks was still hiring, a showerhead that dribbles more than it sprays — you’re not the only one in the Gong dealing with it. At Bathroom Renovations Wollongong, this is genuinely all we do, and we give you one fixed price before a single tile comes off the wall.
Anyone who’s grown up around here knows the story — brick and fibro homes built through the ’50s to the ’90s, solid houses that have held up well except for the one room nobody future-proofed. We’ve lost count of the number of times we’ve pulled off 1970s tiles and found waterproofing membrane that gave up the ghost a decade ago, quietly leaking into the subfloor the whole time.
There’s also a coastal factor a lot of homeowners don’t think about until we point it out: salt air off the escarpment and the beach suburbs eats into cheap tapware and fittings faster than it would inland. If your place is in Fairy Meadow, Thirroul, Bulli or anywhere near the water, we’ll steer you toward finishes that actually hold up to it.
Every job includes council and compliance handling — waterproofing certificates, permits where required, and licensed plumbing and electrical work under our own roof. No subcontracted tiler who vanishes halfway through.
Here’s our straight answer, based on what we’re actually quoting and building across the Illawarra right now:
In our experience, a shower-only job (not the full bathroom) generally lands between $8,000 and $15,000, depending on how much tiling you’re doing and whether the screen is frameless. In older Wollongong homes, waterproofing almost always needs a full redo once we get in there.
We’ll be upfront with you — at $5,000 you’re looking at a cosmetic refresh: regrouting, resealing, new tapware, maybe a new screen. If the waterproofing’s failed, a proper compliant shower renovation starts closer to $8,000.
At around $10,000 you’re getting a solid like-for-like shower renovation — fresh waterproofing, mid-range tiles, a standard screen, updated fixtures — without moving any plumbing. For a lot of our Figtree and Corrimal clients, this is exactly the sweet spot.
Every second consultation, someone shows us a Pinterest board — which we love, it makes our job easier. Step-free, hob-less entries are the number one request we’re getting this year, along with large-format tiles that cut down on grout lines and warmer, textured neutrals replacing the stark white-and-grey look.
Large-format porcelain — think 600mm x 1200mm and up — is what we’re installing most. Clients like the clean look, but the real selling point is practical: fewer grout lines means less scrubbing and less mould in our humid summers.
Classic white subway and natural stone-look porcelain never go out of style, and pair with pretty much any tapware finish. Two tiles we steer clients away from: highly porous natural stone that isn’t properly sealed, and small mosaic tiles across a whole wall — lovely in photos, but a lot of grout to keep clean.
The thing we hear more than anything else: “I don’t want to spend $20-something-thousand and still end up with something that looks cheap.” Fair fear — we’ve walked into plenty of half-finished jobs from other outfits over the years.
Mismatched metal finishes, too many different tile types crammed into one small space, and bad lighting are what make a bathroom look tacky. Sticking to two or three finishes across the whole room does more for the final look than any single “feature” choice.
Outdated trends worth avoiding: busy patterned feature walls, dark grout laid against light tiles, and heavily veined statement stone crammed into a small shower recess. We’ll always have an honest chat about what actually suits your bathroom before you commit to anything you’ve seen online.
These are the three levers we pull first for anyone working to a tighter number:
One team, start to finish. We’ve heard too many stories from clients about a previous tiler who subcontracted everything and then disappeared — that’s not how we run a job.
Figtree, Keiraville, Fairy Meadow, Thirroul, Corrimal, Woonona, Bulli, Mount Ousley, Dapto, Port Kembla and Unanderra.
Most like-for-like shower renovations don’t need a development application, but the waterproofing does need to meet Australian Standards and be certified — we handle all of that as part of the job.
Typically 1–2 weeks from demolition to handover for a shower-only job. We’ll map out the day-by-day sequence with you before we start so there are no surprises.
For part of the job, yes. We’re upfront about the timeline from day one so you can plan around it — and if you’ve only got one bathroom in the house, we’ll talk through what that means for your household before we lock anything in.
Frameless uses minimal hardware for a seamless look and costs more; semi-frameless has a slim frame around the edges, looks nearly identical day-to-day, and is the better call if you’re watching the budget.
We coordinate all licensed trades ourselves — plumbing, electrical, waterproofing and tiling — under one roof, so you’ve got one point of contact for the whole job, not four different people to chase.
Get a free, fixed-price quote. Servicing all of Wollongong and the Illawarra.
Talk to the Bathroom Renovations Wollongong team today — free, no-obligation advice.
CALL (02) 4003 6408 NOW