Small bathrooms and powder rooms in Cranbourne
Small bathroom and powder room renovations in Cranbourne 3977, including the separate toilet layouts that came standard in township and 1990s houses.
A small bathroom costs less than a large one, though far less than most people assume. The two rooms this page covers are the compact 1.8 by 2.4 metre main bathroom and the 900 mm toilet cubicle that came as standard in almost everything built here before 2000.
The separate toilet, and what to do with it
Houses in central Cranbourne from the 1970s and 1980s, and the 1990s stock in Cranbourne West, nearly all have the same arrangement: a small main bathroom with a bath over shower, and a separate toilet in its own cubicle next door or off the laundry. That cubicle is usually around 900 mm wide with the pan hard against the back wall and no basin.
There are three ways owners go with it.
| Option | What it involves | Where it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Refresh it as a toilet | New pan, floor tiling, wall lining, light and fan | A house being prepared for sale or rent |
| Turn it into a powder room | Add a small basin, which means a new water line and a waste | A household with visitors and one bathroom |
| Remove the dividing wall | Fold the cubicle into the main bathroom for a longer vanity or a bigger shower | A household that only needs one toilet |
The third option is the one to think hardest about. Folding the cubicle in gives a much better main bathroom and takes away the second toilet, which matters in a four bedroom house. It also raises the question of whether that dividing wall is holding anything up, which changes the approvals as well as the framing. Settle it early using what the law requires.
Adding a basin to make it a powder room
This is the most requested small job here, and it is more involved than it looks. A basin needs a water supply, a waste connected to the sanitary drain, and enough clear space in front of the pan to still use the room. In a 900 mm wide cubicle a standard vanity will not fit, so the answer is normally a wall hung basin of 350 to 400 mm, or a corner unit, with a wall mounted mixer so nothing projects into the walkway.
Where the cubicle backs onto the laundry or the bathroom, the plumbing run is short and the cost is contained. Where it backs onto a bedroom or an external wall, the run gets longer and on a slab it may mean cutting the floor. That is the single biggest variable in the quote.
Compact main bathrooms
A township or central Cranbourne main bathroom is often 1.8 by 2.4 metres with a bath under the window and a shower over it. Five decisions decide whether the finished room feels usable.
- Bath or no bath. Removing the bath buys roughly 700 mm of length and allows a proper walk in shower. Keeping one bath somewhere in the house matters for resale and for small children, so if this is the only bath in the house, think it through before it goes.
- Door swing. An inward swinging door in a small room costs a metre of wall. A cavity slider costs more to install and gives the wall back.
- Vanity depth. Dropping from a 460 mm to a 400 mm deep vanity is barely noticeable in use and is very noticeable in the walkway.
- Tile size. Larger tiles mean fewer grout lines and a calmer looking room, and they need a flatter substrate, which is extra screeding.
- Shower screen type. A frameless panel with no bottom track keeps the sight line clear and is easier to keep clean than a framed sliding unit.
Wall hung fittings make a real difference in these rooms, because seeing the floor run under the vanity and the pan reads as more space. Wall hung means noggings and a concealed cistern inside the wall, decided before the sheeting goes on.
What goes wrong in small rooms
Falls to the waste. A small floor with a single central waste and a shower in one corner needs the screed set out properly or water sits against the wall. This is where a level entry shower in a small room goes wrong most often.
Cracking in the corners. Soil movement under the older half of the suburb works the frame back and forth with the seasons, and a small room shows the result first because every tile is close to a corner. Soft joints where the walls meet each other and where the wall meets the floor take that movement instead of the grout.
Old backing board. In a compact 1960s or 1970s bathroom the two places to test are the board behind the wall tiles and the vinyl stuck down over the floor. Both were routine in their day and both change the demolition method, so they get sampled before a price is written.
Ventilation. Small rooms with a bath over shower and a 1970s wall vent stay wet for hours. A ducted exhaust fan sized to the room, vented to outside air, prevents most of the mould complaints that follow a renovation.
What it costs
A separate toilet or powder room renovation usually lands at $6,000 to $14,000. Adding a basin where there has never been one pushes towards the upper end, and cutting a slab for a new waste can take it past the band.
A compact main bathroom done as a full strip out and rebuild usually lands at $10,500 to $21,000, which is the same band as the budget end of a full bathroom renovation. Floor tiling supplied and laid runs $90 to $190 per m2, so in a room of five or six square metres the tile choice moves the total less than people expect, and the layout decisions move it more.
Photograph the room, measure the two long walls, and send both with the build year through the quote form.