Bathroom Renovations in Bundanoon

A village with a lot of weekenders

Bundanoon is a small village on the edge of Morton National Park, with a large share of older cottages, many owned by people who live elsewhere during the week or rent the house out as holiday accommodation.

That shapes what the renovation needs to be — and how it needs to be run.

Renovating from a distance

A lot of our Bundanoon enquiries come from Sydney. The owner visits on weekends and wants the bathroom done without taking weeks off work.

That works well if it is set up properly:

1. Measure on a weekend when you are up anyway.
2. Selections made remotely, from samples, specifications and photographs of the actual products.
3. Materials confirmed on site before the start date, so the job never stalls waiting for an order.
4. Key access arranged and a single point of contact for the job.
5. Photographs at each stage — strip-out, frame and floor inspection, rough-in, waterproofing, tiling and fit-off.
6. Handover on a weekend visit.

The stage photographs matter. They are the record of what is behind the tiles, including the waterproofing, and they are worth keeping with the house records.

Old cottages

Many Bundanoon cottages share the traits of older Highlands houses: suspended timber floors, bathrooms added or rebuilt in the mid-twentieth century, little or no functional waterproofing, and linings that may contain asbestos if they date from before about 1990.

A cottage that has been used occasionally can also hide problems for a long time. A slow leak in a house that sits empty for five days a week does its damage quietly. We check the subfloor where there is access and price repairs openly.

Designing for holiday rentals

If the house is let, the bathroom has a different job. Guests are harder on rooms than owners, and cleaners need to turn the room around quickly.

• Walk-in shower, no tray, and a single fixed glass panel — fewer places for grime.
• Wall-hung vanity and toilet so the floor mops through.
• Darker grout and a textured, slip-resistant floor tile.
• Robust mid-range tapware that is easy to service and source.
• Plenty of hooks and a heated towel rail.
• Underfloor heating — in a Highlands winter, guests notice and mention it.

Water and services

Properties within the village are generally on town services, but on the fringes some are on tank water with a pressure pump, and some on on-site sewage systems.

On tank water, tapware and shower heads are selected for the actual pressure — a large rain shower on a small pump is a disappointment. On a septic system, renovating an existing bathroom is straightforward, but adding a new bathroom can change the system's loading and may need council to look at it.

Cold, and frost

Bundanoon sits at a similar elevation to Bowral and gets similar winters. For houses left empty in winter, lagging water pipes on external walls and in the subfloor is inexpensive protection against a frozen pipe.

What it costs

A main bathroom in a Bundanoon cottage typically runs $28,000–$42,000, allowing for trade travel and likely subfloor or framing repairs. A smaller bathroom in a holiday cottage often sits around $22,000–$32,000. See the 2026 cost bands.

Nearby

We also work in Moss Vale, Bowral, Burradoo and Mittagong, plus Exeter, Wingello and Penrose.

Call 02 4210 5289 or send the room details through.