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Hills Plumbing & Gas
Inland
Merrimac, Gold Coast QLD

Bathroom Renovations in Merrimac

Established residential housing on town water and sewer. Hills Plumbing & Gas covers Merrimac for bathroom renovations, fixed-price quoting, 24/7 emergency, workmanship guarantee in writing.

Call 0472 657 042Get a Merrimac quote

Bathroom Renovations in an inland suburb like Merrimac

Merrimac's housing mostly went up in the 80s and 90s, which puts thousands of original bathrooms right at the end of their working life at the same time. If your bathroom still has its first tiles, there is a fair chance it also has its first waterproofing, and 30 to 40 year old membranes fail quietly: a musty smell, a soft patch of skirting, drummy tiles near the shower. By the time you can see the damage, the reno has usually stopped being a choice. The upside is that a full renovation on a Merrimac home fixes all of it in one hit, membrane, pipework, layout, and resets the bathroom for the next 30 years.

Bathroom Renovations across Merrimac

Merrimac plumbers covering the residential streets between Nerang and Robina, including the canal estates along Bermuda Street and the older established homes near the Merrimac State School.

What we typically see in Merrimac specifically

Merrimac is a mix of 80s-2000s housing. Canal estates need bathroom renovation work and outdoor plumbing around pools and pontoons. Older streets often need hot water replacement and ageing copper pipework upgrades. Gas line maintenance is fairly common as many homes here have gas cooktops, hot water and BBQ points.

How the bathroom renovations job runs in Merrimac

An original-condition 80s or 90s bathroom gets renovated in stages, and stage one decides everything:

Strip-out and assessment. The old bathroom comes out and we inspect what it was hiding. On Merrimac homes this age the common finds are water damage in the floor and wall framing from a long-failed membrane, dated copper branch lines, and shower wastes that have been leaking into the slab edge for years. Anything found gets photographed, explained and priced before stage two starts. No mid-job surprises on the invoice.

Rough-in. New hot and cold pipework to the new layout, old copper branches replaced while access is free, and a pressure test on everything before the sheeting goes back up.

Waterproofing and tiling. The licensed waterproofer installs the new membrane, which for many of these bathrooms is effectively the first proper one, then tiling follows with us at set-out for mixer and waste positions.

Fit-off and handover. Fittings in, everything tested, and you receive the QBCC Form 4 plus the waterproofing certificate issued under AS 3740.

Allow three to five weeks end to end for a single bathroom, longer if rot repairs need a carpenter in the middle.

Why Merrimac homes call Hills Plumbing & Gas:

  • We renovate 80s and 90s Gold Coast bathrooms week in, week out, and know what the strip-out will show
  • QBCC licensed, insured and gas certified, handy in a suburb with this much mains gas
  • Fixed written pricing, with strip-out findings itemised before work continues
  • The after-hours number rings the plumber, not a message service
  • Written workmanship guarantee on the whole job

Pricing for bathroom renovations in Merrimac

Plumbing portion of the renovation: basic quoted on inspection below the mid-tier band, mid-tier $6,000 to $9,000, premium quoted on inspection above it. Most Merrimac full-gut renos land in the mid-tier bracket. Relocating the toilet or shifting the wet area, worth considering while everything is open anyway, adds $1,500 to $4,000 or more.

All-trades renovation totals: builder's basic $18,000 to $25,000, mid-tier $28,000 to $40,000, premium $45,000 to $70,000 or more, full luxury up to $120,000 or beyond. On an original 80s or 90s bathroom, plan on the $2,000 to $3,000 hidden-damage contingency being spent, not saved. Failed old membranes leave damage behind, and it is far cheaper to repair it while the room is stripped than to reopen a finished bathroom later.

Why Merrimac homes call Hills Plumbing & Gas

  • Gold Coast based, 13+ years experience on the tools, familiar with how Merrimac houses are usually plumbed
  • QBCC-licensed plumber and licensed gas fitter, fully covered, gas compliance certs issued for every gas job
  • Written fixed-price quote up front, what we say is what you pay
  • After-hours calls go to the on-call plumber, ETA quoted on the call itself
  • Written guarantee on the labour for every job we touch, signed and dated

Need bathroom renovations in Merrimac?

We will come out, see the job, and put a fixed price in writing.

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Common questions

Things Merrimac homeowners ask us about bathroom renovations

Do I need a waterproofing certificate for a bathroom renovation?Yes. Queensland requires a waterproofing compliance certificate for any new or replaced bathroom membrane, issued by the licensed waterproofer who applied it under AS 3740. Waterproofing is licensed work in Queensland, so an unlicensed membrane cannot be certified. In our experience, missing certificates surface most often at insurance claim and house sale time, so keep it with your renovation paperwork.Read more →What causes bathroom leaks after a renovation?Most bathroom leaks after a renovation come from failed or skipped waterproofing, a floor that does not fall to the waste, or poorly sealed penetrations. Other culprits are movement cracking at the wall-to-floor junction, a badly connected waste or trap, and membrane tiled over before it cured. Older coastal homes add corroded in-wall pipework. Get it diagnosed properly rather than re-siliconed and hoped over.Read more →What is the correct floor fall for a shower?Bathroom floors in Queensland are graded to a fall of 1:60 to 1:80 under AS 3500, roughly 12mm to 16mm of drop per metre. The shower area is set slightly steeper so water reaches the waste instead of pooling at the screen. On the Gold Coast, most of the pooling showers we attend were tiled before anyone checked the falls, and the fix is a re-screed, not more silicone.Read more →
FAQs

Bathroom Renovations in Merrimac, common questions

Do I need a waterproofing certificate for a bathroom renovation?+
Yes. Queensland requires the wet-area membrane to be installed by a licensed waterproofer to AS 3740, with a certificate issued for the work. For a Merrimac home where the original 80s or 90s membrane has already failed once, this certificate is the document that proves the problem is actually fixed, which your insurer will care about if there is ever a claim and a buyer's inspector will ask for if you sell. It is handed over with our QBCC Form 4.
What causes bathroom leaks after a renovation?+
If the renovation was done properly, very little. Leaks after a reno trace back to shortcuts: no membrane or a thin one, tiling before the membrane cured, a floor that holds water instead of falling to the waste, unsealed tap penetrations, or old copper branch lines left in the wall to shave the quote. That last one stings most in a suburb like Merrimac, where the surrounding pipework is 30 plus years old, replacing it during rough-in costs a fraction of chasing a leak through new tiles later. Everything we run gets pressure tested before the walls close.
What is the correct floor fall for a shower?+
About 1:60 to 1:80 falling to the waste, or 12mm to 16mm per metre, under AS 3500. Original 80s and 90s bathrooms were frequently screeded flatter than that, which is why so many older Merrimac showers pond against the screen. When we renovate, the screed is redone to proper fall and checked at set-out before the waterproofer starts, so the new floor drains the way the standard intended.

Other services we cover in Merrimac

All the plumbing and gas work on the Coast, one phone number.

New Build Plumbing in MerrimacFull new-home plumbing from slab to handover. Working with builders and owner-builders across the Gold Coast.More Emergency Plumbing in Merrimac24 hour response for burst pipes, leaks and major blockages.More Hot Water Systems in MerrimacRepair, replace and install. Gas, electric, heat pump and solar.More Gas Fitting in MerrimacLicensed gas installs, leak detection, cooktops and compliance.More
See our bathroom renovation plumber Gold Coast service

Need bathroom renovations in Merrimac?

Fixed-price quoting, 24/7 emergency, workmanship guarantee.

Call 0472 657 042Get a quote
Call 0472 657 042Get a Quote