Bathroom renovations in Botanic Ridge
Botanic Ridge and Settlers Run bathroom renovations. Freestanding baths, floor mounted mixers and large format tiling in the newest housing in postcode 3977.
Botanic Ridge is the newest suburb in the 3977 postcode and the one where the work is least often about repair. The suburb was created in 2009 out of land that had been part of Cranbourne South, after the urban growth boundary moved along Pearcedale Road and Browns Road.
Two large scale developments have filled it since: the Botanic Ridge estate and Settlers Run, which is built around the Settlers Run Golf and Country Club. The suburb is bounded by Ballarto Road and the Royal Botanic Gardens to the north, Craig Road to the east, Browns Road to the south and Pearcedale Road to the west, and it recorded a population of 6,739 at the 2021 census.
Two kinds of house, two kinds of job
| Stock | Age | What the bathroom needs |
|---|---|---|
| Estate housing in Botanic Ridge and Settlers Run | 2009 onwards, low density, larger floor plans | Specification upgrade rather than repair. Freestanding baths, floor mounted mixers, large format tiling |
| Older houses on larger lots carried over from the Cranbourne South era | Pre 2009, semi rural blocks | Full renovation of an ageing single bathroom, linings tested first |
Most enquiries here come from the first group. The houses are fifteen years old at most, the membranes are not at the end of their life, and the owner is changing the room because the original builder specification does not match the rest of the house. That makes Botanic Ridge the one part of the postcode where we are usually working to a design brief rather than to a defect.
What people specify here
Botanic Ridge and Settlers Run buyers sit in the premium band and the fitout list is consistent:
- A freestanding bath, which runs $1,600 to $5,300 supplied and installed.
- A floor mounted bath mixer, which has to be planned before anything else.
- Large format wall and floor tiles, often 600 by 1200 or larger.
- A walk in shower with a linear drain and no hob.
- A double vanity with a stone top, running from $500 to $3,700 depending on size and top.
A full renovation at that specification sits in the $36,750 to $57,750 band. Wall tiling runs $75 to $165 per m2 and floor tiling $90 to $190 per m2, and large format material is at the upper end of both because of the setting out and handling involved.
The two details that catch people out
A floor mounted mixer is the first. In a slab on ground house the water supply has to come up through the slab at an exact position, so the bath and the mixer are chosen and located before any wet trades start. Retrofitting it later means core drilling the slab, which is a different scope and a different price. We settle the bath model and the mixer position at the quote stage for this reason.
Large format tiling is the second. A 600 by 1200 tile shows any deviation in the substrate that a 300 by 600 tile would hide, so the walls have to be sheeted flat and the floor screeded true before tiling starts. On a hobless walk in shower the floor fall to a linear drain also has to be built into the screed, since a large tile cannot be twisted to follow a fall in two directions. That preparation is real work and it is priced as its own line rather than folded into the tiling rate.
The older lots
Some houses in Botanic Ridge predate the estates and came across from Cranbourne South on larger semi rural blocks. On those we test the wet area linings before quoting, because a house of that vintage can carry bonded sheeting that a 2012 build never will, and the removal has to be priced by the people licensed to do it rather than absorbed into a demolition rate.
Access and the skip
Access in Botanic Ridge is the easiest in the postcode. Blocks are large, driveways are long and wide, and a truck and a skip both fit on the property without needing anything from the council. The trade off on the larger golf course adjacent lots is the carry distance from the driveway to the bathroom, which adds labour to demolition and to getting a freestanding bath and large format tiles into the room without damage. We allow for a two person carry on those jobs rather than pricing them as a standard suburban block.
Compliance
A premium bathroom is well over every threshold that matters, so the contract, the deposit limit and the warranty cover that applies to a job of this value are all in play from the first invoice. Those figures are set out on what the law requires, and the full scope of a premium strip out is on bathroom renovations.
Send the plans, the bath and mixer selections and any tile samples you have settled on through the quote form.