What sort of bathrooms are in Gerringong houses?

Three broad groups. Old weatherboard and fibro cottages from the dairy years, where the bathroom is often in a rear addition on a timber floor. Post-war and seventies homes on the flatter streets. And newer subdivision houses climbing the ridge, which are structurally sound but frequently have builder-grade fittings that have not coped with the salt air.

Is salt corrosion a problem this far up the hill?

Yes. Onshore wind carries salt well inland and uphill, and houses with a view of Werri Beach have a view because nothing is shielding them. Tapware finish, screen hardware and fan grilles are what suffer, and specifying better base metals and stainless fixings at selection time is the fix.

Can a bathroom be renovated in a Gerringong holiday house between bookings?

It is how most of them are done, usually in the quieter months between autumn and spring. Give us the first booking you will not move and the program gets written backwards from it with contingency built in.

Are there heritage restrictions in Gerringong?

Kiama Municipal Council maps heritage items and conservation areas across the council area, and Gerringong has older buildings among them. Internal bathroom work in a room that already exists is generally exempt development, but check the address before altering a window or an external wall.

Bathroom Renovations Gerringong

What Gerringong is built out of

Gerringong grew as a dairy town, and the older part of it still reads that way: weatherboard cottages, a few brick and rendered buildings on the main street, and houses set on generous blocks with a shed out the back. Around that, post-war and seventies homes filled the flatter streets, and since then subdivision has climbed the slopes with houses angled at the water.

For a bathroom, those three eras mean three different conversations.

In the old cottages, the bathroom is very often not original. It was added to the back of the house, or built into an enclosed verandah, on a timber floor over piers. Expect fibro linings, no membrane, galvanised pipe, and a floor that has been living underneath a leaking shower for a long time. These rooms need a full renovation to be right.

In post-war and seventies houses, it is a small room with a moulded shower base, a framed door and a laminate vanity. Usually on a slab, usually sound, usually cramped rather than damaged.

In newer subdivision houses, the bones are fine and the problem is specification. Builder-grade tapware, screen hardware and exhaust fans have a hard life in this air, and a lot of them look tired long before the house does.

The hill, the wind and the view

Gerringong's position is its best feature and its bathrooms' main difficulty.

Salt reaches further than people think. A house on the ridge is not sheltered; it is the first thing the wind meets. Airborne salt settles on hardware and stays there, and a bathroom adds heat and humidity on the inside of the same wall. Screen rollers seize, fan grilles rust, tapware goes blotchy, and the fixings behind a towel rail corrode before the rail does.

Rainfall is generous. The escarpment behind Foxground and the valley keeps this stretch of coast wet, and humid weeks slow the membrane cure. A program with no slack is a program that tempts somebody to tile early.

Aspect changes the room. A bathroom facing south or into the hill gets almost no winter sun. One facing the water gets light but also gets weather. Tile colour, glass and lighting should be chosen with that in mind rather than off a showroom sample under fluorescent light.

Slope, access and skips

The streets climbing away from the main road are steep, and a lot of houses sit below or above the road with steps to the door. That matters more than people expect:

Every bath, vanity and pallet of tile is carried, and every bag of rubble is carried back out
A skip may need to sit on a narrow street, which usually means a council permit
A cottage on piers with a low subfloor makes drainage work slower
Long carries are labour, and labour is the largest line in a renovation

None of it is a problem. It just needs to be in the quote instead of appearing as a surprise later.

Werri Beach and the holiday houses

A large share of housing close to Werri Beach spends part of the year as short-stay accommodation. That changes the brief in two ways: the fit-out has to survive intense, sandy, short-burst use and clean quickly on a changeover, and the program has to fit a booking calendar that does not negotiate.

The approach — fewer moving parts, harder surfaces, a fan that clears the room without anybody thinking about it, and a rinse point outside so sand stops at the door — is set out on the rental and holiday-let page and in the outdoor showers guide.

Retirees and the long view

Gerringong has a lot of people who intend to stay in the house they are in. The bathroom is nearly always what decides whether that is realistic, and the cheap time to deal with it is during a renovation you were going to do anyway: a level-entry shower, solid backing in the walls for rails and a seat, a slip-rated floor and lever tapware. That is a set of decisions, not a different bathroom. See accessible bathrooms.

Old cottages, specifically

If the house predates about 1990, testing comes first. Fibro was used through this district in bathroom and laundry walls, in ceilings and sometimes under vinyl. Sampling is inexpensive, the result changes the plan, and finding out at the measure rather than on the morning of the strip-out is worth a great deal. Positive results mean licensed removal and a clearance certificate before other trades return.

What it costs in Gerringong

An old cottage on a sloping block with fibro linings and floor repairs sits at the upper end of a tier; a straightforward refresh in a newer subdivision house sits at the lower end. The cost page sets out three broad guide tiers and the factors that move a job between them, and a free measure turns that into a written price for your room.

Nearby

We also work in Gerroa, Jamberoo, Kiama Downs, Minnamurra and Bombo, plus Werri Beach, Rose Valley and Foxground.

Renovation work is carried out in partnership with Coastal Renovation Group, a licensed NSW builder. Licence and insurance details are provided on request.

Call 02 4214 4021 or send the room details through.

Bathroom Renovations in Gerringong, Above Werri Beach