bathrooms

If you’re thinking of renovating a bathroom in Auckland, this comprehensive summary of what to do, how much to spend, and what pitfalls to watch out for is the best place to start. Bathroom renovations is always a good investment, regardless of your circumstances. If it’s for the house you live in, you will definitely enjoy the room more once you’ve renovated. Think about it, the bathroom is possibly the most used room in the house. You might spend more time in your living room, but usually you’re just watching TV or lounging around (not actually “using” features of the room). You might argue that the kitchen is used more, but for many of us, it’s used primarily just once a day, at dinner time (and often not by everyone in the household). A bathroom, on the other hand, is used several times a day – and by everyone in the household. If you’re thinking of selling your house, a bathroom renovation will almost always add value to a home. And if you’re a landlord, a newly renovated bathroom will help you attract a higher rent. A bathroom renovation almost always generates a return on investment. So what should you think about when renovating a bathroom? What sort of budget do you need? And what kind of mistakes can you avoid? The Regency Plumbing team in Auckland has completed hundreds of bathroom renovations over the past 20 years. We can help you make the most of your space (and budget), and avoid some common pitfalls you’ll want to watch out for when it comes to renovating your bathroom. One of our directors of Regency Plumbing is also a specialist project manager who is on hand to make sure your bathroom renovations goes well. Begin with the steps and suggestions below, and then get in touch to get your bathroom renovation started with the Regency Plumbing team experienced in Auckland bathroom renovations. What are the steps involved in a bathroom renovation? There are two key ingredients to making any project run smoothly, on time and to budget – you need a plan and you need expert help. Help from bathroom professionals who have done this before will be an invaluable investment in the process. The best way to plan bathroom renovations is to break it down into organised steps. We use the following proven stages: Step 1 – Get a professional bathroom renovation company involved early You might think that doing it yourself will save you money, but trust us…the investment in having an experienced, professional bathroom renovation team involved will actually save you money in the long run. We know the best way to organise your time and subcontractors. We can offer lower-than-retail prices on tapware, fixtures and other supplies. And we’ll help you avoid costly mistakes than might happen if you DIY it. Don’t worry, there will be a lot of ways for you to be involved and to enjoy some of the details. We’ll keep you updated every step of the way, and you’ll have input into all decisions. Our role is to guide you in the right direction so you have flexibility and choice, without the stress of managing the complexities that a bathroom renovation can provide. Step 2 – Take the time to do proper planning and budgeting  Our experienced team will make sure your bathroom renovation project begins with a thorough brief to make the job run seamlessly, to time and budget. We’ll talk to you about who uses the bathroom, what your lifestyle or household habits are that might affect the design or layout of your bathroom, and we’ll go through some detailed design ideas with you. Over the years we’ve worked on hundreds of bathrooms, so chances are there are details we can suggest that you may not have thought of. Our specialty is in making the most of a space, no matter how small it is – we place equal emphasis on practicality and aesthetics. Step 3 – Look at the different components or areas of your bathroom  While it may be one of the smaller rooms in a house, the bathroom is actually one of the more complex rooms – yes, even more complex than the kitchen. That’s because there is plumbing, water tightness, electricity, different types of heating and ventilation – all in one room. To make your bathroom renovation easier to get your head around, we divide it into different stages and areas to work on: Main bathroom fixtures – vanity/basin(s), toilet, shower, bath, bidet Secondary fixtures – tapware, mirrors, towel rails, cabinetry Flooring – tiles and other floor covering options Walls, ceiling, windows – tiles, plasterboard, paint, wallpaper, blinds Electrics – heated towel rails, underfloor heating, fans, heating, lighting, mirror demisters Plumbing – hot water heating, water pressure, drainage Your dedicated project manager will go through several options for each of these with you, making sure you’re happy with the look and the functionality of every detail. We’ll give you as many options as is practical to make sure your overall project adheres to your desired budget. Step 4 – Set a realistic budget Speaking of budget, we’ll help you figure this one out as well. We understand that not everyone knows what they want to spend when they start a bathroom renovation project. We’ll start with some ballpark estimates, depending on what you have in mind, and then work with you to refine your budget. After years of doing this, we can quite easily advise on where to bring costs down in one area to be able to splash out more in another, depending on what your priorities are. We’ll keep you informed along the way, so you know exactly how your project is tracking. We dislike surprises on a project as much as you do. So we make sure we’ve thought of everything that might affect the budget before we begin. Step 5 – Have an experienced bathroom renovation specialist manage the project Because there […]

Want to know what the most important part of a successful bathroom renovation project is? Good water pressure? A quiet flush? Heated floors? Fast demist mirrors? Yes, these are all important . But they’re not the most essential aspect. For that we need to back up a few steps. The thing that will make or break a great bathroom (and make or break the budget) is …. a great plan! So we’ve put together our top 10 things to consider before beginning a bathroom renovation. 1. What do you like or dislike about your existing bathroom? Chances are you’ve already given thought to this one. You’re possibly renovating your bathroom because you’ve been tolerating that 1970s décor for longer than you’d like. Or you’ve decided that it’s finally time to put in a larger shower for the teenagers. Perhaps it’s just the right time financially. Whatever the case, make sure you also make a list of things you do like about the current bathroom. Your list of likes and dislikes will make the forthcoming project a lot easier, and it will help any suppliers you turn to for help in sourcing materials. 2. Who will use the bathroom? In most houses, there are bathroom boundaries. Often the ensuite is off limits to anyone between the ages of 10 and 18. There may be a guest bathroom in the hall that doesn’t get a lot of use. Sometimes there is toddler territory – the room with a bath that is usually full of endless supplies of bath bubbles and floaty toys. Be clear about who is going to use the room, and what their needs are. 3. Is this mainly a “functional” bathroom or more of a “sanctuary” bathroom? Similar to the question about who will use the bathroom, it’s also important to consider what kind of room you want to create. Regardless of whether you have a small or large bathroom to renovate, it’s worthwhile thinking about what kind of space you want to end up with.  To give you an idea, a “functional” bathroom might be a smaller room with just the basics – toilet, basin, towel rail. A larger practical bathroom might also include a shower, bathtub and maybe a double basin. At the other end of the spectrum, we often create what we refer to as a “sanctuary” bathroom. This isn’t necessarily a very large room. And it’s always practical. But to give it that sanctuary feel we pay attention to features you might not consider for other bathrooms in the house – treats like a jacuzzi bath, a double shower, and other lighting and heating details that make the room extra special. 4. Do you have any must-haves or non-negotiables? At Regency Plumbing in Auckland we always ask our clients to think about the things on their “dream bathroom” list. Chances are you’re not going to renovate your bathroom again over the next few years, so you may as well do it right. If money were no object, what would you have in your bathroom? Let us know … often we can find ways to make it work within your budget.  5. Do you have time and expertise to manage the project yourself? You’ve probably heard us say it before … the bathroom really is the most important room in the house. And yet, for some reason, it’s often a room that homeowners try to renovate themselves. Because there are so many details involved in a bathroom renovation, regardless of the size of the room, we always recommend you use an experienced bathroom renovation company to manage the project for you. You’ll need to involve several tradespeople – an electrician, plumber, cabinet maker, tiler, painter, etc – so it really does make sense to have a professional coordinate it all for you. Think of it as the easiest way to get the project completed in the shortest timeframe possible with. 6. How old is the current bathroom and the house? When we renovate a bathroom, we need to consider either the age of the current fixtures and/or the age of the house. The reason for this is that, as mentioned above, a bathroom in Auckland almost always requires the services of a certified plumber and electrician. Their training and expertise can inform what is and isn’t possible with the existing wiring and plumbing – having an impact on your renovation budget. The Regency Plumbing team is able to repair or replace old pipes, address water pressure issues from old systems, and give you options for continuous hot water if that’s what you need. 7. How much do you want to spend to renovate bathroom? Usually the answer to this is, “as little as possible”. Often people begin researching a bathroom renovation project without knowing what a reasonable amount to spend is. In short, you can spend as little or as much as you want. Over the past 20 years we’ve worked on hundreds of bathrooms throughout Auckland and can recommend ways to be more economical with your budget without compromising on style. We have great relationships with suppliers as well, and can usually source bathroom fixtures, supplies and accessories for a better price than customer retail rates. 8. How many tradespeople might be needed for a bathroom renovation? A typical bathroom renovation involves at least a plumber and an electrician. On top of that, you’ll often need to bring in a tiler, painter or wallpaper professional, gib stopper, a cabinet maker or builder, and maybe a company that specialises in windows or skylights. There are a lot of people, so coordinating schedules and the flow of work is crucial (see number 9 below). 9. How important is it to hire a professional rather than DIY it? We always recommend using a professional bathroom renovation specialist like Regency Plumbing. We’ve seen too many DIY projects go awry, causing stress in the household and unnecessary delays. With all the details that need to be coordinated – and […]

A Step-by-Step Guide to the Bathroom Renovation Process from your Auckland Bathroom Renovation Specialists Renovating a bathroom can be the most rewarding home project you’ll ever take on. It’s the most important room in your house – it’s the room that everyone uses, even visitors to your home (you probably can’t say that about any other room). The Regency Plumbing team in Auckland has completed hundreds of bathroom renovations over the past 20 years. We can help you make the most of your space (and budget), and avoid some common pitfalls that DIYers tend to make. Step 1 – Call in help early Regardless of the size of the bathroom you’re renovating, there are so many details to consider in bathroom renovation process that it pays to get an experienced, professional bathroom renovator involved from the start. At Regency Plumbing we believe there are two clear benefits to having us involved early. First, because we’ve been around bathrooms for years, we can take the ideas you have and suggest options you may not even think of. We’re bathroom magicians when it comes to making the most of small spaces and finding ways to make elements function efficiently while also looking beautiful. Second, we’ll save you a ton of time researching layout and design ideas and sourcing products. From just one conversation we can usually put together a range of ideas and options for your new bathroom. Step 2 – Don’t rush the planning It’s sometimes so tempting to rush over the layout and planning phases and get right to the fun decorating part. We get it – choosing mirrors, tile colours and tapware is exciting. Heck, even looking at different toilet models gives us thrills. But before you do any of that, you need to take the time to thoroughly plan how you’ll use the space. We can hear you from here … What do you mean, how do we use our bathroom? We go to the toilet, flush, wash hands and go. There’s so much more to it than that. Will the bathroom be used for getting ready in the morning, or for evening baths? Will everyone in the household use it? How about visitors? Is there any natural sunlight into the room? What about window ventilation? Is underfloor heating high on your wish list? Why are you renovating and what is it that you currently love or hate about the room? Step 3 – Break it down into parts It’s easy to look at a bathroom and think – basin, toilet, shower, bath. How hard can it be? At Regency Plumbing, we encourage our clients to think of their bathrooms in a unique way. In order to make the most of your time and budget, we break it down into: Main bathroom fixtures – vanity/basin(s), toilet, shower, bath, bidet Secondary fixtures – tapware, mirrors, towel rails, cabinetry Flooring – tiles and other floor covering options Walls, ceiling, windows – tiles, plasterboard, paint, wallpaper, blinds Electrics – heated towel rails, underfloor heating, fans, heating, lighting, mirror demisters Plumbing – hot water heating, water pressure, drainage Thinking of your bathroom renovation in this way is helpful for a couple of reasons. It helps you collect ideas of what you like and don’t like in terms of décor style, colours, etc. If you’re someone who likes to keep magazine pictures or Pinterest photos, approaching each category separately will stop it from feeling so overwhelming (we warned you, there are a lot of details to consider in a bathroom). It will also help when it comes to establishing a budget. For each of these categories, there is room to give and take with regards to how much you spend on each element. And for some categories there is less flexibility around DIY work vs work that needs to be done by a licensed plumber. Step 4 – Setting a budget for bathroom renovation When we ask a client what their budget is for their bathroom renovation, nine times out of ten they’ll say they don’t have one. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the sky’s the limit. It usually means that they have no idea what a bathroom renovation in Auckland should cost. This is where we can help immensely. Without even pulling out a catalogue, we can give you reliable estimates of what percentage of the total renovation budget each of the six categories above might be. But a lot of this comes down to personal preference. We’ve had clients that are willing to save a bit of money on wall coverings in order to have the bathtub of their dreams. And we’ve had other clients who prefer a smaller shower in order to fit in a double basin. It starts with knowing what is on your wish list and what is a non-negotiable in your new bathroom. Step 5 – Get a professional to manage the project One of our goals at Regency Plumbing is to make a bathroom renovation project run as smoothly and as quickly as possible, while upholding our standards of excellence. We know you don’t want to live without a bathroom for any longer than necessary. And often we find that Auckland homeowners like to do more than one bathroom at a time in a renovation project – all the more reason to make sure the project is expertly managed. What this means is minimising the time you’re without a bath or shower, for example. Or making sure that when we need to tear out old cabinetry or turn the water off, we’re doing it at a time that is convenient for you. At Regency Plumbing, our expert renovation team members can plan all the details of your project timelines and budget, taking all the stress away from you. If there are any unexpected hurdles along the way, your renovation project manager will be on site to get things back on track quickly. As we’ve seen, there are a number of components and stages to […]

Bathroom Renovation Ideas How to make the most of a bathroom makeover in Auckland? So you’ve decided to take the plunge (pardon the pun) and renovate a bathroom. Where do you start? In some of our other blogs we’ve provided very detailed and practical guidance on how to manage a bathroom renovation in Auckland. In this article we’re turning to the inspiration files. How can you turn the smallest room in the house into one of your favourite areas of your home? At Regency Plumbing, when we work on a bathroom renovation in Auckland, we often start the ideas process by thinking of the project from a few different angles. First, we talk to you about the overall style that you like. We start broadly, and then narrow it down to the bathroom. How would you describe the style of the rest of your home? What are the first words that come to mind – modern, traditional, art deco, simplistic, colourful, busy, Tuscan, Spanish, retro, mid-century, etc? Is that a style that you want to carry on into the bathroom(s), or do you have plan to renovate other areas and move away fromthat design style? If you’re unsure of whether there is a definitive style to your home (which is completely fine), then start collecting photos of rooms that you like. Pictures of bathrooms that you like are fantastic, but even just images of various rooms in the style and colours that appeal to you is fine too. If you show us what your current favourite room in the house is, we can also work from there. Is it the colours you like, the layout, the use of natural sunlight, the style of furniture, etc? Often people get caught up in the details of the bathroom before deciding what overall look and feel they want to create. Our advice is always to not worry too much about the details of the fixtures just yet. That’s our area of expertise. You give us an idea of what style you like, and together we can work through the details. The next thing we talk to you about is the feeling of the room. It’s starting to sound a bit touchy, feely … isn’t it? But it’s important to love your newly renovated space. The bathroom is the one room in the house where functionality and aesthetics both take centre stage. When we’re working with a small room, we need to make the most of the layout, while also creating the ambiance to go with the space. If the bathroom you’re renovating is where you wind down with a bath in the evening, do you want it to feel calm and relaxing? Or are you leaning more towards a cool, refreshing, ocean vibe to help get you energised in the morning as you get ready? Do you need a playful and fun look that will help get the kids excited about bath time? Or are you interested in an art deco, boudoir feel for when you get ready for an evening out? Lastly, we start putting all the details together. Once we’ve got a good idea of how you use the room and what your style preferences are, we can start to have fun with the details of fixtures and furnishings. Often, this part of the bathroom renovation project begins with a focus on a particular aspect that the client has seen somewhere. Sometimes it begins with the initial reason for the renovation, such as the desire for a bigger shower, and or the need for an updated bath. Over the 20 years that we’ve been renovating bathrooms in Auckland, the most common focal points have been the shower, bath and vanity. So we often start there. Looking at a few different styles of showers is often a good place to start. The options are endless – enclosed, glass walled, open wet room style, double or single, rain head, etc. For many bathrooms, this is the feature that will be used quite a lot, so it’s important to get the style and size right. If you’re concerned about having to compromise on shower size because of the specs of the room, we encourage you to get in touch with us for help. We can usually get creative with the layout to make sure you have the biggest shower possible for your space and budget. If you’re renovating a main bathroom, then another key feature is the bathtub.  If you’re considering getting rid of a bathtub to create more space, If spaceallows, we’ll always do what we can to keep it in. Bathrooms are key in setting the value of a home, and a house with a bathtub is almost always more  attractive. Instead of removing a tub, we can look at switching to a different size, or changing from a stand-alone bathtub to a shower/tub combo. There are a lot of options to consider here as well, so again, we encourage you to get in touch with us to see what we can make work and to have a look at some of our recent project photos. When it comes to bathroom vanities We’ll find out whether a client wants a single or double, whether they want it enclosed in full cabinetry for storage, or more of a pedestal style, etc. This eventually leads to the fun of choosing tapware – black is still a popular choice for modern bathrooms, gold is still widely used to give a luxurious feel to the room, and brass can add a sense of classic style. People often don’t give much thought to the kind of toilet they want until we’ve had fun with the shower, bathtub and vanity selection. It’s rare to come across a client that builds their bathroom design around the toilet. However, it’s such an important part of the room. At Regency Plumbing we like to make shopping for the throne a fun part of the renovation project (if even there are […]