8 min read · · AHO Renovations
The short answer
- The finished photograph is a poor guide to price. Two identical-looking rooms can differ substantially depending on whether the layout moved, what condition the services are in, and what is behind the walls.
- The single biggest swing on a bathroom or kitchen is whether fixtures stay where they are. Moving drainage is structural work in a slab and joinery work in a timber floor, and it changes the trade sequence.
- Older Brisbane homes carry more unknowns — ageing wiring and drainage, failed waterproofing, and materials that need assessment before they are disturbed. Investigation before pricing is what converts those unknowns into a number.
- When two quotes are far apart, the difference is usually in what has been excluded, not in the builder's margin. Compare inclusions, provisional sums and exclusions line by line before you compare totals.
- We do not publish price ranges, because a range wide enough to be honest is too wide to be useful. What we can do is tell you which of these factors apply to your house, and then price it.
Two bathrooms, same suburb, same size, both finished to a standard you would be pleased with. One cost noticeably more than the other. Nothing in the photographs explains why.
This is the most common source of confusion we encounter, and it is worth understanding properly, because it is also what makes online price guides close to worthless. The cost of a renovation is set mostly by things you cannot see in the finished room.
What actually moves the number
Whether anything moves
The single largest swing on a bathroom or kitchen is whether the fixtures stay where they are.
Keeping the toilet, shower and basin in place is a strip-out and rebuild. Moving them is a drainage job, and drainage is unforgiving. In a house on a slab, relocating a waste can mean cutting and reinstating concrete. Over a timber subfloor it means new falls set out within the existing joists, which is a design problem before it is a plumbing one. Either way it adds trades, adds sequence and adds the risk of finding something.
Relocating fixtures is also regulated work — it is notifiable plumbing work in Queensland, carried out by a licensed plumber and registered with the QBCC. That is not a cost driver in itself, but it is a reason the work cannot be done informally.
Often the new layout is worth it. Plenty of rooms only work once the shower moves. The point is that the decision should be made deliberately and priced honestly, not discovered later.
What the house is hiding
A renovation is the moment a house tells you the truth about itself. The recurring items:
- Waterproofing in an existing wet area that was never done properly, or has failed
- Drainage that is at the end of its life, or was never sized for what is connected to it
- Wiring that no longer complies, in a house where the switchboard tells the story
- Timber damage — termite or water — in a subfloor or wall frame
- Materials that need assessment before they are disturbed, which on any house built before 1990 in Queensland includes asbestos
Two identical rooms in two different houses can be several trades apart because of what is behind them. This is why we spend time looking at the parts of a house nobody wants to talk about before we put a number on anything.
Whether the structure changes
Removing a wall changes the job category. You now need an engineer's design and a building certifier's approval, plus a beam, plus making good the ceiling and floor where the wall used to be. It is entirely achievable — it is often the change that makes a house work — but it has a cost and a lead time that a like-for-like renovation does not.
Our guide to council approval for Brisbane renovations covers what that process involves.
Getting materials in and rubbish out
Access barely rates a mention in most cost guides and it shows up in every real price. A ground-floor room with a driveway beside it is a different job from an upstairs bathroom in a high-set house with no side access, where every sheet, every tile and every skip load is carried by hand. Same room, different labour.
The finish level, which is the part you control
The spread within any one selection category is enormous — tapware, tiles, benchtops, joinery hardware. This is the one lever that is entirely yours, and the good news is that it is also the easiest to steer, because the decisions are visible and reversible right up until they are ordered.
The mistake we see is spending the range unevenly: premium tapware in a room whose layout was never resolved. The layout is permanent. The tap is not.
How long the job runs, and whether you are living in it
A longer program costs more to run — supervision, site protection, more trades in and out. Staging the work around an occupied house is slower than having the run of it, sometimes significantly. Neither approach is wrong. They are different projects with different prices, and you should be told the difference before you choose.
How much of the scope is genuinely known
The most under-appreciated driver. A quote produced from a walk-through, with allowances standing in for anything unknown, will be lower than a quote produced after someone has been under the house and into the roof space. It is also less likely to be what you eventually pay.
How to compare two quotes that are far apart
When the numbers differ by a lot, the difference is almost never margin. It is scope. Work through it in this order:
- List the inclusions side by side. Waterproofing, tiling extent, painting, electrical, demolition and disposal, the making good afterwards. One of these is usually missing from the cheaper quote.
- Find the exclusions. They are often the more informative half of the document.
- Count the provisional sums. An allowance is a placeholder, not a price. Many large allowances mean the job has not really been priced yet.
- Check the fixture and fitting allowances. A generic "tapware allowance" can mean two very different showrooms.
- Look for the program. A quote with no timeline usually has no plan behind it.
- Read the variation process. In Queensland, a variation has to be given to you in writing before the work starts, stating the price change. If the paperwork is silent on that, expect it to be handled badly.
Only after all of that does comparing the totals mean anything. There is more on what to check before signing in our guide to choosing a renovation builder in Brisbane.
Why there is no price list on this website
We are asked for one regularly, and we have thought about it seriously.
The problem is that a range honest enough to cover the cases above — same footprint or moved, slab or timber, sound services or replaced, easy access or none — is so wide that it tells you nothing. A narrow range would be more satisfying to read and would be, in a meaningful number of cases, wrong. Being wrong about a number that someone is planning their year around is not a harmless marketing decision.
So instead: tell us what you are planning, we will look at the space, and you will get a written proposal covering the scope, the inclusions and an indicative program. If the budget and the scope do not line up, we will say so at that point, which is the only point where saying so is still useful.
Common questions
- How much does a bathroom renovation cost in Brisbane?
- Nobody can answer that from a description, and any figure quoted without seeing the room is a marketing number rather than a price. Two bathrooms of identical size can differ substantially depending on whether the layout changes, the state of the drainage and subfloor, and the fixtures chosen. What we can tell you is which of those factors apply to your room, after we have looked at it — and then give you a written proposal you can actually rely on.
- Why is one quote so much cheaper than the others?
- In our experience it is rarely because one builder is more efficient. Usually the cheaper quote has a smaller scope — fewer inclusions, more provisional sums, or work that has simply been left out and will return later as a variation. Put the quotes side by side and compare what each one covers before you compare the totals. If the cheap one is genuinely doing the same work, ask what they have seen that the others have not.
- What is a provisional sum, and should I worry about one?
- A provisional sum is an allowance for work that could not be priced precisely when the contract was written — typically because it depends on something nobody can see yet. They are legitimate and sometimes unavoidable. The thing to watch is how many there are and how big they are, because a quote heavily built on allowances is a quote that has not been fully investigated, and the final number will not resemble the one you signed.
- Does moving a toilet or shower really cost that much?
- It is usually the single largest swing in a bathroom price. Relocating a fixture means relocating drainage, and that is a different job depending on the house. In a slab it can mean cutting and reinstating concrete. Over a timber subfloor it means new falls and pipework within the joists. Either way it adds trades, adds sequence and adds risk. Sometimes it is worth every dollar because the room only works with the new layout. It should be a decision you make knowingly, not one you discover on an invoice.
- Can you work to a fixed budget?
- Yes, provided the budget and the scope are compatible — and if they are not, we would rather tell you at the start than halfway through. Where there is room to move, we will show you where the money makes the most difference and what can reasonably be staged for later.
Sources
Checked 11 August 2026. Rules change — if you are relying on any of this, follow the link and confirm it still reads the same way.
The work itself
- Bathrooms
Complete bathroom renovations where thoughtful layouts, tactile materials and refined detailing come together — considered as one cohesive space rather than a set of fittings.
- Renovations & Extensions
Whole-home renovations and extensions planned and delivered as one cohesive project — structural changes, added living space, services and finishes coordinated so the home works as a whole.
Keep reading
- How to Choose a Renovation Builder in Brisbane
The checks that matter before you sign — licence, contract level, deposit limits, cooling-off rights, warranty insurance and how variations are supposed to work in Queensland.
- Renovating a Queenslander or Character Home in Brisbane
What Brisbane's character rules actually restrict, what they leave alone, and what a pre-war house tends to hide behind its walls — written for owners planning a serious renovation.