Bathroom Vanity Cost ACT - Complete Price Guide

What a Vanity Actually Costs in Canberra

Most people researching this cost look up one number and find a range so wide it tells them nothing, because the figure they are chasing is really three figures added together. The unit, the labour and the wall work behind it move independently, and a quote that looks cheap on one can be expensive on another.

Separating them is what makes the numbers usable. Once you can see the three parts, the spread between quotes stops being mysterious and becomes something you can interrogate. Ask for each of the three components to be shown separately.

The vanity unit itself is the part you control completely, since it is a retail purchase you make before any tradesperson is involved. A budget flat-pack unit with a laminate top starts around $250, a mid-range 900mm unit with a stone top sits between $700 and $1,500, and custom joinery built to fit an awkward space runs from $2,000 upward. That is the widest of the three ranges and the one most driven by taste rather than circumstance. A single blended figure hides which part you are buying.

The labour is the narrowest and most predictable component. A licensed plumber charges $250 to $500 to remove an old unit and fit a replacement in the same position, which is a few hours of work including disconnection, fitting, sealing and testing. Rates across Canberra sit fairly close together for this kind of job, so large differences between quotes rarely originate here. The unit is the part you control before anyone quotes. The wall work is the part you cannot see when you choose it. Flat-pack units need assembling and that is real labour.

The third component is the one that produces the surprises. Where the new unit needs the waste and water moved, the wall opened, a bracket fixed back to solid backing, or tiles patched afterwards, that work adds $600 to $1,500 and occasionally more. It is invisible when you are choosing a vanity and it is decided almost entirely by what is already behind your wall. Ask whether the plumber assembles or expects it ready. Soft-close hardware is the first thing to fail on a cheap unit.

Adding the three together gives a realistic total rather than a headline. A straightforward swap of a budget unit lands around $700 to $1,000 all in, a mid-range unit fitted in the same position sits between $1,200 and $2,000, and a wall-hung conversion with a good unit and tiling behind it reaches $2,500 to $4,000.

Those are the numbers worth budgeting against. Moisture-resistant carcass matters in a cold Canberra bathroom. Measure the existing unit before you shop. Depth is the dimension people forget.

Nothing on this page includes the cost of a wider bathroom renovation, which is a different project with different economics. Full scope sits at bathroom renovation. Check the door swing against the new unit. Draw the footprint on the floor if you are unsure.

What You Pay for the Unit Itself

Vanity pricing follows a fairly predictable ladder, and understanding where the steps fall helps you decide where extra money buys something real rather than something cosmetic. The jumps are not evenly spaced. A basin swap alone can cost close to a full vanity replacement. Callout minimums apply to small plumbing jobs. Bundling several tasks into one visit is the reliable saving.

Flat-pack units, including the Kaboodle range sold through Bunnings, start at $250 to $600 and arrive unassembled with a laminate benchtop and a drop-in ceramic basin. They suit rentals, secondary bathrooms and budgets where the money is better spent elsewhere, and a well-fitted cheap vanity in a dry, ventilated bathroom lasts longer than people expect. Ask what else is worth doing while the plumber is there. Isolation valves are cheap during an install and dear afterwards.

Mid-range assembled units at $700 to $1,500 are where most Canberra households land. That buys a moisture-resistant carcass, soft-close Blum or Hettich hardware, a stone or engineered stone top, and a better basin, and the difference in daily use between this tier and the one below it is easy to feel day to day.

Without them the whole house is shut off for a washer. Many older ACT bathrooms have none fitted. Ask whether the quote includes adding them. Brick veneer with stud walls suits a wall-hung conversion.

Premium units from $1,500 to $3,000 bring solid timber or higher grade board, better hardware again, undermount basin options and a wider choice of finishes. Beyond about $2,000 you are largely buying appearance and brand rather than longevity, which is worth knowing if durability is what you are actually after. Double brick means chasing into masonry. The era of the house is a fair first guide. Ask the plumber to look at the wall before quoting a conversion.

Custom joinery starts around $2,000 and climbs from there, and it earns its cost in exactly one situation, which is a space no standard unit fits. Older Canberra bathrooms with awkward widths, angled walls or a window in the wrong place are the common case, and a custom unit avoids the compromise of a smaller standard one. Joinery scope sits at cabinet making and joinery.

A wall-hung unit needs solid backing behind the plasterboard. Retrofitting that support is more work than building it in. Stone tops and full basins are heavier than they look.

Basins from Caroma, Clark and similar Australian brands bought separately run $100 to $600 depending on type, with drop-in ceramic at the lower end and above-counter stone or feature basins at the top. Tapware from Methven, Phoenix Tapware or Dorf adds $150 to $600 again, and both are frequently the last purchase and the one that blows a budget. The bracket is a line item worth seeing on the quote. Tiling behind the old unit is frequently exposed on removal.

Three Realistic Budgets and What Each One Buys

Rather than a single range, it is more useful to look at three complete budgets and see what each one actually delivers once every component is counted. These assume a standard Canberra bathroom and a straight replacement unless stated. Ratios hold steady across the tiers even as the totals change. Half the budget is the unit, a quarter the labour, a quarter everything else.

At $700 to $1,000 you are fitting a flat-pack unit with a laminate top and a drop-in ceramic basin, in the same position as the old one, with basic tapware. The plumber removes and disposes of the old vanity and seals the new one, and the result is entirely serviceable in a rental, a secondary bathroom or a house being prepared for sale. Nothing about it is luxurious and nothing about it needs to be. Knowing the split lets you move money between components deliberately. It also shows immediately when one quote has left something out.

At $1,200 to $2,000 the unit moves up to an assembled mid-range vanity with an engineered stone top, soft-close hardware and a better basin, and the tapware is a quality mixer rather than the cheapest option. This is where most owner-occupiers land, and it is the tier where the money buys something you notice every day rather than something you notice once. Keeping the footprint is worth more than any discount on the unit. A near-standard size costs disproportionately more than a standard one. Stock widths are cheap and custom widths are not. Measure before falling in love with a particular unit.

At $2,500 to $4,000 you are either fitting a premium unit in the same position or converting to wall-hung with a mid-range unit. The wall-hung route consumes most of the extra budget in plumbing and tiling rather than in the vanity itself, which is a trade-off worth understanding before committing, since the visible upgrade is smaller than the invoice suggests. Owner-supplied parts save the margin and change the warranty position. Confirm that before buying rather than after.

Above $4,000 you are into custom joinery, a full bathroom context or a unit chosen primarily on appearance. That spend is entirely legitimate, but it stops being a vanity replacement and starts being part of a renovation, with the sequencing and disruption that implies. Most plumbers warrant their own labour either way. Get the distinction written into the quote. Bundled tasks share a callout that is already paid for.

Whichever tier applies, the ratio holds reasonably steady. Roughly half the budget is the unit and its fittings, a quarter is plumbing labour, and a quarter is everything else including disposal, making good and any wall work. Kitchen equivalents sit at kitchen plumbing.

A list of four small jobs costs far less than four visits. Write the list before the plumber arrives. Ask what else is sensible while they are on site.

What the Plumber Charges

Plumbing labour on this job is the component you can most reliably compare between quotes, because the work itself barely varies. What changes is how much of it there is. Matching old tiles is rarely possible. A tiler is a second trade on a second day. Sequence the two so the plumber does not attend twice for nothing.

A like-for-like replacement is $250 to $500 and covers isolating the water, disconnecting and removing the old unit, positioning and fixing the new one, connecting the tap and waste, sealing at the wall and testing for leaks. Most plumbers treat this as a half day and price accordingly. Old galvanised pipework sometimes needs replacing once disturbed. Ask what happens if that is what turns up.

A basin only replacement where the vanity stays is cheaper at $200 to $400, though it carries a trap. The new basin has to match the existing cut-out and the existing tap hole configuration, and where it does not, the benchtop needs modifying or replacing and the saving disappears.

A fixed price with no contingency on an older bathroom is optimistic. Naming the era of the house helps the plumber price honestly. Order the unit before booking the plumber. Canberra delivery times run longer than the larger capitals.

Tapware supply and fit runs $150 to $450 depending on whether you or the plumber supplies the mixer and whether it is a standard benchtop installation or wall-mounted. Wall-mounted tapware is the dearer option because the water has to come up inside the wall. Check the unit for transit damage as soon as it lands. A chipped top found mid-install stops the job. Lead times stretch through the busier months here.

Adding isolation valves under the basin costs $120 to $250 and is worth doing on any older Canberra bathroom that lacks them, since without them the whole house is shut off to change a tap washer. Doing it during a vanity install is far cheaper than a dedicated visit later. A plumber free tomorrow in peak season is worth a second look. Booking ahead is more necessary in the ACT than in Sydney. Ask when they could realistically start. Apartment jobs need lift and parking arranged.

Callout minimums apply on small jobs, which means a basin swap alone may cost close to what a full vanity replacement costs. Bundling several small plumbing tasks into the one visit is the most reliable saving available. Tap work sits at leaking tap repairs. Working hours in unit blocks are often restricted.

The Cost Behind the Wall

This is the component that separates a $900 job from a $3,000 one, and it is decided by two things you cannot change, being what type of vanity you want and what your wall is made of. Anything touching the stack needs owners corporation consideration. Access affects what can be done in a single visit. Vanity pricing rewards attention at the point of purchase more than at the point of installation.

Moving from one floor-standing unit to another of similar size involves no wall work at all, because the connections stay at low level behind the kickboard. This is why a straight swap is so much cheaper and why it is worth considering even when a wall-hung unit is the preference.

The unit you choose sets most of what follows, including how much wall work is needed. Choosing the plumber first and the unit second is the order that avoids surprises. Very few households do it that way round.

Converting to wall-hung means relocating the waste and the water supply up inside the wall so nothing is visible beneath the unit. In a brick veneer home with a stud wall the cavity is accessible and this is $600 to $1,000, while in double brick the wall has to be chased and the figure climbs toward $1,500. A budget unit fitted well outlasts a premium unit fitted badly. Installation quality shows up in the silicone line and the bracket fixing. Neither is visible in a showroom and both determine the life of the unit. Ask the plumber what they would fit in their own bathroom.

Canberra's housing eras make this reasonably predictable. Belconnen, Tuggeranong, Weston Creek and most of the newer development are largely brick veneer with stud walls, while the inner north and inner south carry more double brick. The era of your house is a fair first estimate of which side of that range you sit on. Basin choice constrains the tapware and the tapware constrains the plumbing.

Structural support is a separate line that people miss entirely. A wall-hung vanity carrying a stone top and a full basin needs noggings or a proprietary bracket fixed back to the studs at $150 to $350, because plasterboard alone will not hold that weight over years of use, with product standards published through Standards Australia, and retrofitting it into a finished wall is more work than building it in. Those three decisions have to be made together rather than in sequence. A vessel basin needs a tall mixer and a basin with no tap hole needs wall-mounted tapware. Getting that wrong is the most common cause of a second visit.

Tiling behind and beside the old unit is the last item and frequently the forgotten one. Where the original tiling stopped at the old vanity line, a different sized unit exposes bare wall, and matching or replacing tiles adds $300 to $800 and usually a second trade on a separate day. Tiling sits at tiling services. Benchtop material decides which basin styles are available. Laminate suits drop-in basins and costs the least. Engineered stone allows undermount at a higher price.

How Long a Vanity Lasts and What Ends It

Replacement cost is only half the question, since a vanity that lasts fifteen years and one that lasts five have very different real costs regardless of what each one invoiced at. Knowing what actually kills a vanity helps you spend in the right place. Water reaching the carcass is what ends most vanities. A failed silicone line is the usual entry point.

Water reaching the carcass is the overwhelming cause of failure. It arrives from a failed silicone line at the wall, a slow leak at the trap, or water running down the front of a door and sitting at the base, and once particleboard absorbs it the swelling is permanent and progressive. Swollen particleboard cannot be recovered. Check the base inside the cabinet for softness. Hinges and runners are the second failure point.

That makes the seal and the carcass material the two decisions that determine lifespan, and neither is visible in a showroom. A moisture-resistant board with a properly sealed edge in a ventilated bathroom lasts a great deal longer than a premium-looking unit with an ordinary carcass in a cold, damp one.

Replacing them on an old unit rarely makes economic sense. Better hardware costs little more at purchase. It is the component that shows wear first. A sound carcass with dated doors is a refinishing candidate.

Hardware is the second failure point and the more visible one. Hinges and drawer runners on cheap units loosen, sag and eventually stop closing properly, and while they can be replaced, the labour to do so on an old unit often exceeds what the unit is worth. Price that against a new unit before committing. The gap is often smaller than people assume.

Benchtops rarely fail structurally but do date visibly. Laminate chips at the edges and around the basin cut-out, timber needs resealing periodically, and stone lasts effectively forever but pins you to whatever the fashion was when you bought it. New tapware and handles transform a dated but sound unit. A musty smell inside the cabinet means water has been sitting. Doors that no longer sit flush indicate movement in the carcass.

The practical conclusion is that a mid-range unit properly installed in a ventilated bathroom is usually better value than a premium unit installed carelessly in a damp one. Ventilation sits at bathroom heat lamp and fan installation. Both are signs the unit is past refinishing. Replacement is the honest answer at that point. A bathroom heading for renovation soon argues for waiting. Fitting now and removing in two years wastes the spend.

The Items That Quietly Add to a Quote

Several components show up on some quotes and not others, which is a common reason two figures for apparently identical work look different. Knowing the list lets you ask about each one directly. Timber needs sealing that survives daily water exposure. Storage is the function most often underestimated when comparing units.

Removal and disposal of the old unit is $80 to $200 and is awkward waste, since a vanity, a benchtop and a basin will not fit in a household bin. Some suppliers take the old unit when delivering the new one, which is worth asking about at the point of purchase. A single door with a fixed shelf holds far less than it appears to. Drawers cost more and hold considerably more in a usable way. In a small Canberra bathroom that matters more than the finish.

Making good the wall where the old unit sat is frequently excluded rather than included. Patching, sealing and painting is modest at $100 to $300, but if tiling is involved it becomes a separate trade, and a quote silent on this is a quote that will be revised. Height is adjustable on a wall-hung unit and fixed on a floor-standing one.

That is one of the genuine practical advantages of going wall-hung. Households with children or older occupants notice the difference. Standard height suits most adults and nobody at either extreme.

Old pipework discovered once the unit comes off is the genuine wildcard in older ACT housing. Original galvanised supply lines or a corroded trap may need replacing, which is $150 to $500 of unplanned work, and asking in advance whether that triggers a variation is better than discovering the answer mid-job. The three components of a quote move independently of each other. A cheap unit with expensive wall work costs more than the reverse.

Mirror cabinets and lit mirrors are often fitted during the same visit and quoted separately or not at all. A mirror cabinet is $150 to $500 supplied and around $100 to $200 to fit, while anything illuminated needs an electrician rather than a plumber.

Comparing only the headline figure misses which half is which. Itemised quotes are the only reliable way to see it. Older inner suburb bathrooms are the ones most likely to hold surprises.

Flat-pack assembly is a real labour item that people assume is included. Where a unit arrives unassembled and the plumber builds it on site, that is an hour or more of labour, and clarifying who assembles it avoids both an argument and a delay on the day. Newer brick veneer stock is the most predictable to work in. Apartments sit in between, with access as the main constraint. Knowing which category you are in sharpens the budget considerably. Ventilation and heating upgrades are cheapest done during the same visit.

Where the Savings Actually Are

There are three or four genuine ways to reduce what this job costs, and several apparent savings that cost more in the end. Knowing which is which is worth a few hundred dollars. Preparation a householder can do does reduce the bill. Clearing, protecting and unboxing all save chargeable time.

Keeping the same footprint is the single largest saving available. Choosing a replacement that matches the width and type of the existing unit avoids wall work, tiling and bracketing in one decision, and on a tight budget it is worth more than any discount on the unit itself. Assembling a flat-pack unit removes an hour or more. Build it in the room, since an assembled vanity may not fit through the door. Connection work is licensed and is not a grey area.

Buying the unit yourself rather than through the plumber usually saves the margin, and most plumbers are comfortable fitting owner-supplied units. The caveat is the warranty position on those parts, which is worth confirming before purchase rather than discovering afterwards. It is the part that causes water damage when done badly. Insurance and sale complications outweigh the labour saved. A licensed plumber also leaves you with recourse if something fails.

Bundling small plumbing tasks into the same visit is the second real saving, because the callout is already paid for. A leaking tap, a running toilet, a new shower rose and a pair of isolation valves all cost far less added to an existing booking than arranged separately. Ask whether a full renovation is on the horizon first. That single question sometimes cancels the job entirely.

Choosing a standard size rather than a near-standard one matters more than people expect. Units come in common widths, and a bathroom that takes a stock size is far cheaper to fit out than one needing custom joinery for the sake of a few centimetres. Ventilation does more for vanity life than the unit price does. A cold damp Canberra bathroom is hard on any carcass. An extraction fan is cheap against a premature replacement.

The false economies are equally clear. Buying the cheapest tapware to go with a good unit, skipping the isolation valves, or leaving the making good to sort out later all defer cost rather than removing it, and the deferred version is usually dearer. Consider doing both at the same visit. Ask for the three components to be itemised on the quote. A blended figure hides which half the money is in. Owner-supplied parts change the warranty position.

What Canberra Adds to the Equation

The ACT has some genuine local differences on this job, and they are worth factoring in rather than working from national averages. The bathroom is already out of use and the trade is already on site. Coordinating them saves a second disruption later. Ask what else is sensible to do while the wall is open.

Trade availability is tighter than in the larger capitals, and a smaller pool of licensed plumbers means lead times stretch, particularly through the busier months. Booking further ahead than you would in Sydney or Melbourne is sensible, and a plumber who can attend tomorrow in peak season is worth a second look. Keep the installation receipt and a photograph of the finished work. Both matter at sale and for any warranty claim. Neither takes more than a minute to organise.

Cold winters make bathroom ventilation a bigger factor here than in coastal cities. A vanity in a cold, poorly ventilated Canberra bathroom deals with condensation that a Brisbane bathroom never sees, which is a real argument for a moisture-resistant carcass rather than the cheapest particleboard option. Store them with the property records rather than in a drawer. Ask the supplier whether they deliver to the room or the kerb. Have the unit on site and unboxed before the plumber arrives. Inspect it for transit damage the day it lands.

The older government-built housing across the inner suburbs shares consistent construction, which works in your favour because a plumber who has worked on one bathroom of that era knows what to expect behind the wall of the next. Mentioning the suburb and approximate age of the house helps a quote a great deal. Keep the packaging until the install is signed off. Clear the vanity and the floor around it before the day.

Apartment and townhouse stock across Gungahlin, Molonglo and the town centres brings access constraints that houses do not have. Lift bookings, limited parking and restricted working hours all affect what a tradesperson can do in a visit, and anything touching the building's plumbing stack needs owners corporation consideration. A clear path from the front door saves time on site. Check the old unit will fit back out the way it came in. Some older bathrooms have doors narrower than the vanity.

Supply is the last factor, since Canberra has fewer bathroom showrooms than the larger markets and delivery of a specific unit can take longer. Ordering before booking the plumber, rather than the other way around, avoids the most common scheduling problem on this job. Confirm whether the benchtop arrives attached or separate. Some units ship flat and are assembled in the bathroom. That assembly time belongs in the labour estimate. Ask who is expected to do it.

What You Can Do Yourself and What You Cannot

There is a real boundary here between preparation a householder can reasonably handle and the connection work that is licensed, and understanding it lets you reduce the labour bill without creating a problem. Confirm who assembles a flat-pack unit. Isolation valves are cheap during the install. Ask what happens if the pipework is poor. Related fit-out sits at bathroom waterproofing.

Emptying the vanity, clearing the bathroom, removing the mirror if it is coming off and protecting the floor are all straightforward and save the plumber time on the day. So is having the new unit unboxed, inspected and sitting in the room ready to go.

Removal and disposal is the most commonly omitted line. Making good behind the old unit is frequently excluded. Tiling is a second trade on a second day.

Assembling a flat-pack unit beforehand is entirely reasonable if you are comfortable with it, and it removes an hour or more of chargeable time. Build it in the room it will live in, since a fully assembled vanity does not always fit through a bathroom door.

Canberra lead times run longer than the larger capitals. Apartment access needs arranging in advance. Check the door swing against the new unit depth. Measure the existing unit before shopping.

Removing the old unit is a grey area rather than a clear one. Disconnecting the water requires isolating the supply and dealing with what is in the lines, and where there are no isolation valves under the basin, that means shutting off the whole house. Many plumbers would rather do it themselves than arrive to a half-removed vanity and a leak. Standard widths cost far less than near-standard ones.

Connecting the water supply and the waste is licensed plumbing work and is not a grey area at all, with licensing administered through the ACT Government. It is the part that causes water damage when it goes wrong, and work done without a licensed plumber can create complications with insurance and at sale that dwarf the labour saved, and licensing can be checked through Access Canberra. Bundle small plumbing jobs into the same visit. A ventilated bathroom doubles the life of any vanity. Check the carcass base for softness before deciding.

Painting and patching after the fact is fine for a householder, though tiling is a trade for good reason and a badly tiled patch beside a new vanity is more noticeable than bare wall. Smaller jobs sit at handyman services. New tapware transforms a sound but dated unit. Ask whether a full renovation is planned first.

What to Look Out For

Ask whether the quote assumes a straight swap or allows for the plumbing to move, because that single question separates a $400 job from a $1,200 one. A plumber who has not asked what unit you are fitting has not priced your job, they have priced a generic one. Silicone at the wall junction is what keeps water out of the carcass. Ask whether sealing is part of the quoted work.

Get removal and disposal named explicitly rather than assumed. It is a small line but it is the most commonly omitted one, and discovering it on the day is irritating out of proportion to the amount involved. A neat silicone line indicates care taken elsewhere. It is also the first thing to fail when rushed. Check the floor is level before a floor-standing unit goes in.

Establish the position on making good behind the old unit, including whether tiling is needed and who arranges it. Where a tiler is required, that is a second trade, a second day and a second invoice. Older Canberra bathrooms frequently are not. Packing and scribing the kickboard is normal on an uneven floor. A unit sitting on a slope shows at the benchtop line. Photograph the wall once the old unit is off.

Confirm what happens if the pipework behind the wall is in poor condition, which is a live possibility in older Canberra housing. Knowing whether it triggers a variation, a stop or a renegotiation is far better settled in advance. It is the only time you will see what is behind it. That image is worth keeping with the property records.

Check who supplies what and what the warranty position is on owner-supplied parts, since most plumbers warrant their labour either way but not components they did not provide. That distinction is worth having in writing. Any future tradesperson will thank you for it. Ask how long the bathroom is out of use. Most swaps are done inside a day.

Be wary of a quote given over the phone without any photograph or site visit on anything beyond a straight swap. The cost sits behind the wall, and nobody can price what they have not looked at. Plumbing scope sits at plumbing services. A conversion with wall work runs to two. Plan around it if it is the only bathroom in the house. Water efficiency ratings apply to all tapware sold here, and consumer guarantees on the goods sit with the ACCC.

Replacing, Refinishing or Leaving It

Not every tired-looking vanity needs replacing, and working out which category yours falls into can save the entire cost of this job. There are three genuine options and they suit different situations. Vanity replacement is one of the few bathroom jobs where the homeowner controls most of the cost through a single purchase decision. Standard widths exist because most bathrooms were built around them.

Leaving it alone is right where the unit is structurally sound and only looks dated. A vanity with a solid carcass, working hardware and an intact benchtop can often be improved considerably by replacing the tapware and the handles, which is a fraction of the cost and an afternoon of work. Everything the plumber charges follows from what unit you chose and where it sits. The gap between a well-installed budget unit and a poorly installed premium one is larger than the gap between the units themselves. Worth raising at the first conversation.

Refinishing suits a unit where the carcass is sound but the doors have dated. Painting a vanity is achievable, and replacing just the doors and drawer fronts is sometimes possible on standard carcasses, though it is worth pricing against a new unit before committing since the gap can be smaller than expected. That makes the shopping trip more consequential than the quote. Installation quality is invisible at purchase and decisive afterwards.

Replacing is the right answer once water has reached the carcass, because swollen particleboard cannot be recovered and will keep deteriorating regardless of what is done to the surface. A soft or bulging base, a musty smell inside the cabinet or doors that no longer sit flush are the signs. Working the other way round, by getting a plumber to look before you buy, is the approach that avoids nearly every common problem. Ask to see a recent job rather than relying on a quote alone. Ask what the quote assumes there.

Replacing is also right when the layout no longer suits the household, which is a different reason with the same answer. A single basin serving four people, or a unit with no usable storage, is a functional problem that refinishing does not address. Canberra bathrooms in the older stock tend to be small, which narrows the field of units that fit properly. Most plumbers have photographs of work from the last month.

The one situation that argues for waiting is a bathroom heading for a full renovation within a couple of years, since fitting a new vanity now and removing it then wastes the whole spend. Wider scope sits at bathroom renovation plumbing. Measuring first narrows the options, which is helpful rather than limiting. A plumber who has seen the bathroom prices the job rather than a generic version of it. Get it confirmed before the unit is ordered.

Getting Quotes You Can Actually Compare

Three quotes on this job routinely arrive with three different scopes, which makes the cheapest one look attractive when it is simply covering less. A little structure in the enquiry fixes that. A higher rating reduces consumption without changing the look. The rating is printed on the packaging and the spec sheet.

Say what is there now and what you intend to fit, including the type of each. A 900mm floor-standing unit replacing another 900mm floor-standing unit is a different job to a wall-hung vanity replacing a pedestal basin, and those two sentences change the price by a thousand dollars. Ask what the mixer you are considering carries. Raise anything that looks wrong before the plumber leaves. Most issues are a five minute fix on the day.

Give both sets of dimensions, since width, depth and height all matter and depth is the one people forget. A deeper unit in a small Canberra bathroom can foul the door swing, which is discovered on installation day if nobody checked. Check the drawer alignment, the kickboard fit and the seal. A finished install should look right at every edge. Mirror cabinets are often fitted during the same visit. Ask whether that is quoted separately.

Send a photograph of the existing vanity and, if any is visible, the wall behind it. The plumber is trying to work out where the connections sit and what they will find, and an image answers that faster than any amount of description. Anything illuminated needs an electrician rather than a plumber. Coordinating both trades on one day saves a second visit.

Mention the age of the house and whether the bathroom has been renovated before, because those two facts tell an experienced plumber a great deal about the pipework and how much contingency a fixed price needs. Screens sit at shower screen installation and repairs. Toilet work sits at toilet repairs. Mould issues sit at bathroom mould removal and prevention.

Ask for the labour, the making good and the disposal as separate lines rather than one figure. That structure is what lets you compare three quotes properly, and it also lets you take one part out if the total comes in high. Broader work sits at bathroom renovation plumbing. A unit that fits the space beats a nicer unit that does not by a wide margin.