How to Renovate a Bathroom Cheaply

We all want that dream bathroom we see in the pages of Home Beautiful or on our screens with The Block, but unfortunately, it comes at a cost. A high cost.

The cost of renovating a bathroom isn’t getting any cheaper. However, there are cost-saving measures that enable you to renovate your bathroom more cheaply.

At Ross’s Discount Home Centre, our slogan isn’t ‘every day’s a discount day’ for nothing. We’re all about cost savings, particularly regarding bathroom and kitchen renovations.

Today, we look closer at bathroom renovations and what cost measures you can put in place to renovate your bathroom cheaply.

Be selective with wall tiles

One of the biggest cost-saving measures to cut potentially thousands off your bathroom design is to limit your wall tiles. Not all walls have to be tiled, and the tiles don’t have to go to the ceiling. In fact, more often than not, they aren’t and don’t.

This is one of the best tips to achieve a bathroom renovation on the cheap. Be selective with your tiles and choose only to tile the necessary areas, which are usually the shower, behind the vanity, and behind the bath. All other walls can be painted plasterboard.

Choose JV Board over tiles

If you still want to give it a lux look for less, consider installing VJ Board to walls that have no contact with water. VJ groove boarding is one of the biggest trends right now, so it won’t look like you’re looking to cut costs; just trying to be trending.

You can also use PVC bathroom wall panels for wet areas like showers. Be sure to check out our great range before blowing your budget on tiles.

Choose Wall Tiles over Feature Wall Tiles

You can also forgo a feature wall tile in the bathroom. I’ve seen some tile suppliers charge over $100 per square metre for feature tiles. On a large wall, this will easily set you back a thousand dollars.

A cheaper alternative is to choose a large format wall tile such as our Matt White Wall Tile (Rectified) 30x60cm, which is currently on sale for a very low $15 per square meter. $15 versus $100 – you can see the savings.

Vir our range of white wall tiles.

Opt for a cheaper Feature Wall Tile

If you have your heart set on a feature tile, then shop around for a similar product at a cheaper price. I did this with my feature tile, and you know what? I don’t think my finished bathroom would look as good as it does now had I chosen the $101 feature subway tile over our Gloss White Wall Tile 10x30cm, which cost me just $30 per square meter. Sometimes, these things have a way of working themselves out!

There are literally thousands of subway tiles in various sizes, colours, and designs, so before you settle on the one you have your heart set on, shop around. Like me, you’re sure to find one just as nice at a fraction of the price.

Choose a Stock Vanity over a Custom Vanity

You only have to get a quote from a cabinet maker to realise that custom vanities, while they look amazing, can cost a small fortune. Even if you opt for a laminate finish, you are still looking at around $1000, without a top. Moreover, if you opt for solid timber, it can set you back as much as $4000!

One of the easiest ways to save a small fortune in your bathroom renovation is to forget about having custom everything and look for a stock standard bathroom vanity that meets your needs and budget.

You’ll be amazed to see how far vanities have come in recent years in terms of design. Some look no different from those that are custom-made! The only difference is that the wood grain or laminate may match other cabinetry in their home.

Ross’s Discount Home Center is well-known for its quality bathroom vanities, including wall-hung vanities, which are both stylish and affordable, incredibly so! They are the perfect choice for anyone looking to renovate a bathroom cheaply.

With vanities starting at a low $265, and exclusive waterproof vanities from $429, our vanities offer extraordinary value for money and will look just as good as any custom-made vanity! Personally, I went with the Michelle Vanity Unit, which is currently on sale for $499. Its bold black design encompasses the contemporary look I was looking for, and it costs half the price of having a custom vanity made.

Choose a Vanity Unit over a Vanity

Another way to save money on a bathroom renovation is to opt for a vanity unit over a vanity. You may be wondering what the difference is. A vanity is a base alone, which may or may not include a top. A vanity unit is a vanity with an integrated top and built-in sink.

By choosing a vanity unit over a vanity, you will avail yourself of additional cost savings from not having to buy a separate basin.

Install your own Shower Frame / Panel

One of the biggest rip-offs in professional bathroom services has to be a shower supply and installation, and this is coming from personal experience. I paid $1300 for stock standard shower panels, installed – an 80cm panel in my bathroom and an 80cm panel in my ensuite. I really could have done a better job myself, and I would have saved $700 in the process. We have 90cm shower panels at just $345 and a range of walk-in showers that let you choose the hardware.

If you’re looking to cut costs, this is one of the first places I would start. Opt for a simple shower panel if you have a suitable layout and install it yourself. All you need is some brackets and silicon, and the job can be done in under an hour.

Choose cheaper tapware options

Not often do I encourage people to buy cheap tapware, but cheap tapware doesn’t necessarily mean bad or low-grade tapware. In fact, there is plenty of quality tapware in our tapware bathroom range with high WELS ratings and low price tags. Granted, it may mean you miss out on buying the hottest in tapware trends, but you will have a great tap that offers fantastic value for money… and I’m sure it will still look great!

Choose a shower head over a shower set

Speaking of showers and bathroom tapware, there are also good savings to be had by choosing a simple shower head over a shower set. A shower set, whilst functional and grandiose, can set you back as much as $1000, if not more. A shower head, on the other hand, is a mere $100, plus $100 for a shower arm, saving you in excess of $800!

It’s small choices such as these that make all the difference between doing a bathroom renovation cheaply or extravagantly, and in this case, cheaply certainly doesn’t lower the quality or finish. Our shower heads are all high in quality and are backed by an impressive 5-year warranty.

Choose a standard toilet over a wall-hung toilet

Renovating a bathroom cheaply means you have to sacrifice some of the latest bathroom trends; a wall-hung toilet is one such trend you can do without.

Although wall-hung toilets look great and hide the cistern in the wall, they come at a price… a whopping price. Instead of paying around $400-$500 for a standard back-to-the-wall toilet, you can expect to pay more like $1000-$1200 for a wall-hung toilet. On top of that, you will have higher plumbing costs for the initial installation and future maintenance.

Any standard toilet, whether it be a back-to-the-wall, wall-faced, rimless, or a close-coupled toilet, will save you a good deal of money and help you renovate your bathroom cheaply. If you want something fancy with your toilet, consider a bidet toilet seat add-on. It will be money much better spent than a wall-hung toilet, that’s for sure!

Be a savvy shopper

It really does pay to shop around when it comes to buying anything for your bathroom. From tiles to fixtures, fittings, and accessories, you can save as much as 30% by taking the time to compare prices.

Moreover, as with the tile selection, you can choose cheaper options for fixtures and fittings that can offer further cost savings.

The best place to shop for bathroom renovation products in Perth is online. Let your fingers do the walking. Search online for bathroom products supplied, and you’re sure to see Ross’s Discount Home Centre popup in your search results. With the slogan ‘Every Day’s a Discount Day’, you can rest assured, our products are the most competitive prices in Perth.

Lay Your Own Tiles

Now, this isn’t for everyone, but if you are a little bit of a handyman and don’t mind giving things a go, then you can save as much as $5000 by tiling your own bathroom.

That’s about the going rate to tile a bathroom at the moment, which is a massive chunk of any bathroom renovation budget, big or small.

Tiling isn’t easy, and it does require some specialist equipment, which can be hired, but it’s a surefire way to renovate a bathroom cheaply. And, if you’re keen to try your hand at tiling, then you can read my blog post, ‘How To Install Bathroom Tiles‘ to get you started. In this article, I cover the entire bathroom tiling process from the waterproofing to screed, the setout to the laying of the tiles. It’s an easy-to-follow how-to-guide that should give you all the information you need to tile your own bathroom like a professional tiler.

Conclusion

Bathroom renovations don’t have to be expensive. Although the average bathroom in 2019 costs $1,000 and the average master bathroom costs $13000, there are many cost-saving measures to dramatically reduce your bathroom renovation budget – without sacrificing quality.

I have just renovated my own bathroom, so I can draw on my own experience to provide practical tips to reduce your bathroom renovation costs. Some tips I took advantage of included tiling only where necessary and choosing more affordable tiles than my desired – but very expensive – feature tiles. An alternative option would have been to use VJ board on other walls rather than tiles. I also went with vanities in our collection rather than having custom vanities made, and the vanity I chose was a unit with a built-in basin.

One thing I didn’t do but wished I had was to install my own shower panels – had I done so, I would have saved around $700! I also opted for a shower head over a shower set, which, might I say, works just as well and looks fantastic. I was smart and chose a standard back-to-the-wall toilet over a wall-hung toilet, and I recommend you do the same. Shop around for the best possible price for your items, and don’t be afraid to ask for a price match.

For the biggest savings of all, try your hand at tiling. Tiling your bathroom will literally save you thousands of dollars!

These tips helped me save a great deal of money on my bathroom renovations, but I couldn’t have achieved the savings had I not shopped for all my bathroom renovation products right here, at Ross’s Discount Home Centre. I purchased my tiles, grout, vanity unit, showerhead, shower arm, basin mixer, bath, toilet, and shower panel, all from Ross’s Discount Home Center, where I knew I was getting high quality at the lowest possible price.

Check out our bathroom range today to see the savings to avail.