Bathroom Renovations Across Wollongong and the Illawarra

Good bathrooms for Illawarra houses

Wollongong isn't one kind of house, so it isn't one kind of bathroom.

Up the coast in Corrimal, Woonona, Bulli and Thirroul, there are timber and fibro cottages that go back to the mining days, many of them extended bit by bit over the decades. Around Figtree, Unanderra and Dapto, streets of brick veneer went up through the seventies and eighties. Near the beach and in the city there are walk-up units and apartment buildings, and up around the university there are houses that have had a new lot of student tenants every year for a long time.

Each of those comes with its own bathroom problems. The trick is knowing which ones you're dealing with before anyone starts pulling tiles off the wall.

What we usually find

In cottages and fibro homes: timber floors on piers, a bathroom added on the back, fibro linings that need an asbestos test, old galvanised pipes, and floor timbers that have soaked up leaks for years.

In seventies and eighties brick veneer: a moulded shower base that's cracked or lost its seal, a framed pivot door, a laminate vanity swelling at the base, feature tiles that were fashionable once, and an ensuite about the size of a wardrobe.

In units: strata rules, a concrete slab you can't move the plumbing through, neighbours underneath, and often a bathroom with no window.

In rentals: heavy use, the cheapest fittings someone could find, and landlords who need the room turned around between tenancies.

The climate plays a part

The Illawarra sits between the ocean and a big green wall of escarpment. That's great for views and hard on bathrooms.

Escarpment humidity. Houses at the foot of the escarpment get mist, heavy rain and long shadows in the afternoon. Bathrooms stay damp and grow mould on the ceiling. A fan ducted outside, on a run-on timer, fixes more of this than any spray from the supermarket.

Salt air on the coast. Closer to the beach, cheap chrome pits and fan grilles rust. Better tapware and stainless hardware last longer.

Damp subfloors. Sloping blocks and heavy rain can keep the ground under a timber house wet, which is bad news for the joists under an old shower.

What gets done

• Full bathroom renovations — back to the frame and rebuilt properly
• Ensuites — mostly brick-veneer ensuites that need more room and a better shower
• Small bathrooms — cottages and units where space is tight
• Accessible bathrooms — step-free showers, grab-rail blocking, non-slip floors
• Laundries — sorted out on their own or alongside the bathroom
• Waterproofing and tiling — the stages that decide whether it lasts
• Rental bathrooms — tough fit-outs for landlords and student houses

Fix it once

A lot of the bathrooms that get renovated around here have already been "done" once, with new tiles glued over old tiles and a fresh bead of silicone around a shower that was leaking underneath. It looks fine for a couple of years.

Doing it properly means taking it back far enough to see what's really there: the floor, the frame, the pipes. Then building it with a membrane, proper falls to the waste, a fan that vents outside and fittings that will still work in fifteen years.

It costs more than a cosmetic job. It also means you won't be doing it again in five years.

Approvals, simply

Most bathroom renovations inside the existing room of a house are exempt development in NSW, as long as the house isn't a heritage item and nothing structural is changing. Wollongong City Council has heritage items and some areas near the escarpment are mapped as bushfire-prone, so it's worth checking if you're changing a window or an outside wall. Units need owners corporation approval where the waterproofing is being replaced.

Where we work

Wollongong, Figtree, Corrimal, Thirroul, Dapto and Unanderra, plus Keiraville, Gwynneville, Woonona, Bulli, Austinmer, Towradgi, Horsley, Kanahooka and Berkeley.

Who does the work

Renovation work is carried out in partnership with Coastal Renovation Group, a licensed NSW builder. Licence and insurance details are provided on request. Ask for them, then look the licence up on the public register. It takes a minute.

This website isn't a builder and doesn't hold a licence itself. It's also brand new, so there are no reviews here and we haven't made any up.

Have a look at the 2026 prices if you want numbers first. When you're ready, call 02 4214 4073 or send the bathroom details through.