Unit & Apartment Bathroom Renovations

Renovating a bathroom in a unit is the same trade work inside a completely different set of rules. In a house the constraints are structural. In a unit they are structural, contractual and social all at once, and the ones that derail a job are almost never the building ones.

What you own and what you do not

The boundary between your lot and common property is the thing to establish first, and it is not always where people assume. In most schemes the pipework serving your bathroom is yours up to the point where it joins a shared stack, and the stack itself is common property. Slab, structural walls and often the waterproofing membrane sit on the common property side of the line too, which is precisely why the body corporate has an interest in how yours is done.

That boundary is defined by the plan and the scheme’s own by-laws rather than by a general rule, so it is worth reading before a scope is written. Getting it wrong in either direction is costly: work on common property without approval can be ordered undone, and paying to renovate something the body corporate was responsible for is money you will not get back.

The approval, and the timeline it adds

Most schemes require approval before a bathroom renovation starts, and most need it in writing with some detail attached: what is being done, who is doing it, evidence of insurance, the hours proposed, and how waste and access will be handled. Some want the waterproofing certificate lodged at completion.

The practical consequence is a lead time that has nothing to do with trade availability. A committee that meets monthly sets your start date, not your renovator. We would rather prepare that application properly at the quoting stage than have you find out in week one that the job cannot begin.

Working inside a building

The physical constraints in Cairns unit blocks are consistent enough to plan around. Access is usually through a shared corridor or a lift with protection requirements. Waste cannot be dropped in the building’s bins and needs its own removal. Water isolation frequently affects more than your lot, which means notice to neighbours and a narrow window to work in. Approved hours are shorter than a standard trade day, particularly in buildings with holiday letting.

Noise is the constraint people underestimate. Demolition in a concrete building carries a long way, and a jackhammer in a block full of short-stay guests is a problem for the manager whether or not it is within approved hours. Compressing the noisy phase into as few days as possible is worth planning for deliberately.

Older blocks along the beaches

A large share of the unit stock through Trinity Beach, Clifton Beach and Palm Cove was built in the eighties and nineties, and those bathrooms are now well past the point where their original waterproofing can be relied on. Because the units stack, a failed membrane does not stay in one lot. It appears as a stain on somebody’s ceiling below, and that turns a private renovation into a scheme-wide conversation very quickly.

If your building has had that conversation already, the committee is usually far more receptive to a proper renovation than to another patch.

Send the building name, your lot’s bathroom dimensions and any by-law documents through the form, or call 0468 047 067.