What Really Happens During a Bathroom Renovation? (A 30-Year Builder’s Honest Guide)

Doing up your bathroom can be stressful if you let it, but it can also be a bit of fun. Don’t take it too seriously! Even if you make a few bold design choices along the way, at the end of the project everything will be brand new, professionally finished, and looking amazing.

To take the guesswork out of the process, here is an honest, step-by-step rundown of how a renovation actually comes together, straight from the tools.

Phase 1: Demo Day & Clearing Out (Day 1)

Usually, all the big banging and crashing is wrapped up on day one. You’ll come home from work, see everything gutted, and say, “Oh wow, heaps of progress today!”

A couple of things set us apart during demo day:

• No Giant Skips on Your Lawn: We don’t leave massive nine-metre skip bins clogging up your driveway for weeks. We use an old trailer that gets a good thrashing to cart rubbish away. If there’s space out of the way, we park it there and fill it as we go; if not, we tow it away at the end of each big rubbish day.

• Apartment Expertise: In high-rise city apartments where parking is tight, we use mobile wheelie bins to keep communal hallways spotless and minimise mess.

• Dust Control: Demo creates dust, and there is no avoiding it. If we are renovating an ensuite, we always recommend throwing a sheet over your bed and dresser.

• Respecting Your Sacred Ground: Your home is sacred ground and we treat it that way. We clean up at the end of every single day.

• The Single-Toilet Guarantee: If you only have one toilet in the house, you will always have a working toilet connected when we leave each day. (The lemon tree in the garden can thank us later!)

Phase 2: In-Wall Plumbing & Electrical (Days 2 & 3)

Once the space is cleared, we get to work on the “bones” of the room.

• Day 2 (Plumbing): We run all the in-wall pipework. This is critical to get right because there’s zero forgiveness once waterproofing, tiling, and painting are done.

• Day 3 (Electrical): Wiring goes in for heat lamps, power points, extraction fans, and lighting.

It’s fair to say that over nearly 30 years in trade, we’ve made possibly every mistake there is to make. That wasn’t so great for us at the time, but it’s brilliant for you today: you get the full benefit of all our hard-learned lessons.

If something isn’t quite right, you’ll hear Dave’s favourite saying: “There is nothing that can’t be undone and redone.” It takes the stress right out of the room. You can have total confidence that if something needs adjusting, we’ll grunt, heave, and put it right until it’s perfect.

Phase 3: Insulation, Wall Linings & Plastering

Before we board up the walls, we check external insulation.

• Bonus Insulation: If an external wall is open, we put insulation in, even if it wasn’t originally in the quote. It takes under an hour, costs very little, and it’s simply the right thing to do for a warmer home.

• Lining & Floor Prep: We install the plasterboard and tile underlay. Laying tile underlay creates quite a bit of noise, so this is a great time to head out for a long lunch break or pop on some noise-cancelling headphones!

• Plastering & Painting: When we sand the plaster, a fine layer of dust settles, but once that’s complete, the dusty phase is officially over.

Phase 4: Waterproofing (Where We Over-Engineered on Purpose)

Waterproofing is the single most critical element of any bathroom build. Leaks are the devil. We are very glad we’re bathroom renovators and not health professionals: if something goes wrong in our job, we can just jump in and fix it!

• Custom Shower Bases: For tiled showers, we form the base early using Hebel blocks and a cement screed, giving it proper time to cure before waterproofing.

• 3 Coats, Not 2: The building spec calls for two coats of waterproofing in the shower area, but we always do three coats before performing a full flood and tank test.

• Our 30-Year Guarantee Story: In nearly 30 years of building, we’ve had to replace two tiled bathrooms. Both were well past their 10-year warranty periods, but we felt so strongly about doing right by the client that we pulled them out and redid them entirely at our own cost. We don’t mess around when it comes to standing behind our work.

Phase 5: Painting & Precision Tiling

Once waterproofing is signed off, it’s time for surfaces and finishes.

Why We Paint BEFORE Tiling

Most people are surprised to learn we paint before installing tiles or vinyl. A few years ago, our former team member Ash pointed out: “If you try to paint over silicone, it’s like oil and water.” Painting first allows the silicone to seal perfectly against clean tile edges. Our company culture is built around little golden rules like this, along with favourite phrases like “squirty bottle,” “rip snort and bust,” and “you silly maan!” (a tribute to our keen Scottish chippie, Alan, who passed away recently).

Meet Long, Our Tiling Specialist

Cosmetically, tiling is the most critical part of the job. Dave won’t touch the tiling himself; we leave that entirely to our specialist, Long. He is meticulous, humble, and quiet. Dave and Long always greet each other the same way:

“Hello boss!”

“Oh, hello boss! Very jo sun!” (Good morning in Cantonese, usually spoken well after midday!)

For tiled showers, we always recommend upgrading to epoxy grout. It costs a fraction extra, but gives you a bulletproof, stain-resistant barrier against leaks down the track.

Phase 6: The Magic Fit-Out

This is Dave’s absolute favourite stage. After the tiling and painting are wrapped up, we bring in the vanity, toilet, glass, bath, tapware, and mirrors.

This is where the magic happens and you get to see all your ideas come to life. Whether you’re building a high-end designer showroom or a practical, low-maintenance family bathroom, the transformation is always exciting. Everything is crisp, clean, brand new, and beautiful.

How Payments Work: The $0 Deposit Guarantee

We don’t believe in holding your money hostage before we’ve even picked up a hammer.

1. $0 Deposit: You pay nothing upfront to start the job.

2. Progress Payments: After our first full week of work, we send a progress invoice based on work completed and materials supplied. Week two is typically 30%, followed by 30% after week three.

3. The “Good Thrashing” Test: Once the work is done, we leave you alone to give the bathroom a “good thrashing”: use the shower, fill the tub, and test everything out.

4. Final Invoice: Only when you are 100% happy with the end result do we invoice you for the final 5% or 10%.

You have total control and confidence from start to finish. We build for your peace of mind.

Ready to Start Planning Your New Bathroom?

Have fun with your design! Don’t choose fixtures based on what you think a future buyer might like; pick what YOU love. You don’t get to do this kind of project often, so enjoy the process.

Call Dave today for a free, no-obligation in-home consultation – 0800 023 723. You’ll get expert advice, clever trade tricks that average builders miss, and a fixed plan to bring your vision to life.

Book a consult: https://5starbathrooms.co.nz/contact/