Most bathroom arguments in this part of Casey start before anyone picks up a tool. They start with a quote a page long, a scope that never mentioned asbestos, an allowance with no figure against it, and a handshake where the paperwork should be. Everything below can be checked in an afternoon, at no cost, before money changes hands. The statutory side of it sits on one page: registration thresholds, contracts, deposit limits and warranty are all on what the law requires.

Who are you actually contracting with?

A trading name printed across the top of a quote proves nothing about who stands behind the work. Line three things up and check they agree:

the entity name and ABN on the quote
the name and class on the public register of registered building practitioners
the account name on the bank details you are being asked to pay into

Where any of those three disagree, stop there and ask why. A quote in one name and an invoice in another is how homeowners end up with a contract nobody is obliged to honour. Which registration classes cover a bathroom, and the job value at which registration stops being optional, are set out on what the law requires.

The trades that will be on site

Trade	What to ask for
Plumber	The licence number, and written confirmation that the compliance certificate comes to you rather than just being lodged and forgotten
Electrician	The name of the contractor the electrical worker is engaged by, and that the safety certificate is handed over at completion
Waterproofer	Whether a dedicated waterproofer applies the membrane or the tiler does it in passing, which product is going on, and who signs for it
Tiler	Whether the same person lays the walls and the floor, and how large format tiles will be set out around the waste and the niche
Asbestos removalist	On a pre 1990 house, who takes the samples and who does the removal, and whether both are priced or excluded

A renovator who cannot tell you who applies the membrane, or who describes it as something the tiler handles on the way through, has told you where the job is going to fail.

What must the quote spell out?

A single total on one page cannot be compared with anything. Ask for the quote to state, in writing:

What is being stripped out, and who carts the rubbish away.
Whether asbestos sampling is included, and whether removal is priced or sitting outside the figure.
Whether a new screed and new falls are included, or the existing ones are being reused.
The waterproofing product, the standard it is applied to, and who issues the certificate.
The tile supply allowance per square metre, and what happens when you select above it.
Allowances for tapware, vanity, toilet suite and screen, or a plain statement that you supply them.
Whether any drainage relocation sits inside the price.
The count of power points and lights, the fan, the heating, and whether a new circuit is allowed for.
The exclusions, listed plainly rather than left to be discovered.
The rates that will apply to variations, item by item.

Any line called an allowance needs a number beside it. An allowance with no number is a gap that gets filled later at your expense. The measured rates those allowances are built from are on bathroom renovation cost in Cranbourne.

Staging the payments

Ask for payments to sit against stages you can walk in and look at, rather than against dates on a calendar. Rough in finished, membrane finished, tiling finished, balance at handover is a fair shape for a bathroom, and it leaves you something to withhold if a trade stops turning up. Nothing is paid ahead of the work it belongs to. How much can lawfully be asked for before the first day, and the price point where that limit changes, are on what the law requires.

What is worth asking on the site visit?

Which houses in this postcode have you worked in, and what did you find behind the linings
What do you assume about asbestos on a pre 1990 township house, and what allowance have you carried for it
How do you detail the internal corners and the junction where the wall meets the base
How long does the membrane sit before your tiler starts
Who supervises the site day to day, and how do I raise something that is going wrong
What happens if the frame behind the old shower turns out to be rotten
How many other jobs are running while mine is open

The third answer is the one to listen to hardest around here. Seasonal ground movement across the township and the older western estates splits anything rigid, so the right answer involves purpose made movement joints rather than another round of grout. Why the soil behaves that way is explained on signs your shower is leaking.

Testing the program they are quoting

Anyone promising a finished bathroom inside a week has either not costed the membrane cure or is planning to tile over it while it is still wet. Hold their program against the trade by trade sequence on how long a bathroom renovation takes and ask where each trade lands in their version of it. A renovator who can name the day the tiler starts and the day the screen is measured has run this job before.

What to collect at handover

Four documents: the plumbing compliance certificate, the electrical safety certificate, evidence the membrane was applied to the standard, and any asbestos clearance paperwork. There are statutory time limits on the first of those, and they are on what the law requires. File the set with the house records. A conveyancer will ask for them when you sell, and a renovator who has moved on will not answer the phone.

What are the warning signs?

Signal	Why it matters
A discount for paying cash with no paperwork	Without a contract there is no statutory protection to fall back on
Money wanted up front above the legal limit	The rules are being broken on the first day
No written contract on a job of this size	Compulsory above a value that most bathrooms pass easily
A quote with no exclusions listed	Anything unlisted becomes a variation later, at their price
Pressure to decide today	Removes the afternoon this checklist takes
Registration held in a different name to the quote	You would be contracting with an entity holding none
Waterproofing described as part of the tiling	The membrane is the part that fails expensively
No clear answer on who supervises	Nobody owns the mistakes while they are still cheap to fix

To get a written fixed price that answers all ten points in the quote section above, send the room size, the age of the house and your suburb through the quote form.

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How to check a bathroom renovator before you sign