The owner had held this Belmont property as a rental investment for a number of years. The plan had changed — they wanted to move in and make it their own home. The only problem was that the property was significantly dated: two rooms in particular, the bathroom and the laundry, were stuck firmly in a different era.
The bathroom was everything you’d expect from an older Perth investment property that had never been touched. Pink ornate wall tiles, terracotta mosaic floor tiles, a wall-hung pink basin, and a wet area that had no proper shower enclosure — just a drain in the floor and tiles that had seen better decades. The laundry was similarly tired: no real cabinetry, a top-loader in the corner, exposed pipes from the galvanised water lines, and a sense that the room had been used but never properly thought about.
The brief was clear: bring both rooms into 2026. The owner wanted a contemporary bathroom that felt properly considered, and a laundry that was clean, functional, and matched — so both rooms read as part of the same renovation rather than two separate decisions made at different times.
The most significant hidden issue in this Belmont property was the galvanised steel water supply lines. Galvanised pipes are common in Perth homes of this era — the steel bore corrodes and narrows over time, and when a licensed plumber connects new fixtures to an old galvanised line, the reduced water pressure becomes immediately apparent and the line is often not fit for purpose under current standards.
The difference in this project was that the galvanised pipes were identified at the in-home consultation — before the quote was issued. We look for the signs: the age of the property, the pressure at the existing taps, and any visible pipework in the laundry. In this case, all three pointed the same way. The replumbing scope was built into the fixed-scope quote from day one, covering both bathroom and laundry supply lines simultaneously — which made sense because both rooms were being renovated at the same time and the cost of a second plumbing mobilisation was avoided.
There were no other significant hidden surprises. No asbestos was found in the wall linings. The electrical installation was compliant. No lead paint was identified. This was a property that needed cosmetic renovation, not structural remediation — and the six-week timeline held without interruption.
The transformation in both rooms is significant — but what makes this project work is the consistency between them. The concrete-look grey porcelain runs through both the bathroom floor and the laundry floor. The chrome hardware is the same profile in both rooms. The white gloss cabinetry in the laundry is the same tone as the walls and ceiling in both spaces. The result is two rooms that feel like they belong to the same decision — not two separate renovations done at different times.
The bathroom, in particular, looks nothing like the room in the before photograph. The pink ornate tiles, the wall-hung basin, the archway alcove and the wet floor drain — all of it is gone. In its place: a walk-in shower with a frameless glass panel that reads as part of the room, large-format tile with no grout interruptions across the floor plane, and a floating vanity with a warm timber finish that softens the grey palette without fighting it.
For the owner, the outcome was exactly what they came for: a home worth moving into. The approximate value uplift on the Belmont property following the renovation was $100,000 — a strong return on a six-week project completed on schedule and within the agreed fixed-scope budget.
“The whole process was smooth from start to finish. We knew about the old pipes before work started — it was already in the quote — so there were no surprises when they were replaced. Both rooms came up exactly as we’d seen in the design. The bathroom looks like a completely different house.”
About Project | Details |
Suburb | Belmont, WA |
Project type | Bathroom + Laundry |
Home age & type | Investment property — pre-1985, double brick |
Design style | Contemporary |
Tile format | 600×1200mm porcelain (bathroom) · 600×600mm porcelain (laundry) |
Tapware finish | Chrome throughout |
On-site duration | 6 weeks |
Total timeline | 10 weeks including design and booking |
Project value | Available on request |
Asbestos managed | No — none identified |
Replumbing | Yes — galvanised steel supply lines replaced (both rooms) |
Delivered on schedule | Yes ✓ |
Compliance certs | Plumbing + Electrical |
