TLDR: most Australian laundry renovations land between $5,000 and $30,000. The number is decided almost entirely by one question: does anything have to move? Keep the sink, the machine and the floor waste where they are and you are at the bottom of that range. Move the plumbing and you are at the top, because moving plumbing is licensed work and it drags waterproofing, flooring and making good along with it.
The laundry is the room people renovate last and research least. It is also the one where the quotes come back furthest apart, because two jobs that look identical from the doorway can be very different jobs behind the wall.
Here is what a laundry renovation costs in 2026, where the money actually goes, and the handful of rules that decide whether your quote is the cheap version or the expensive one.
What a laundry renovation costs in Australia
The most commonly cited range is $5,000 to $25,000, which Canstar attributes to hipages and which excludes appliances. Three Birds Renovations puts the average at $5,000 to $30,000 and breaks it into three tiers:
- $5,000 to $10,000 for a cosmetic update: repainting, new shelving, replacing fixtures, with the layout left alone.
- $10,000 to $18,000 for a mid-range job: new appliances, custom cabinets, tiling and some plumbing work.
- $18,000 to $30,000 and up for high-end: quality materials, custom joinery, premium appliances and structural change.
Two numbers from the same source are worth holding on to. Labour typically takes 40 to 50% of the budget, and a 10 to 20% contingency is standard practice. In an older Brisbane home, treat the contingency as compulsory rather than optional.
Where the money goes
Home Beautiful’s under-$10k breakdown, built with builder Rachael Turner of Front Porch Properties and Kaboodle’s John Harrison in January 2025, is the most useful per-item pricing published in Australia:
- Cabinetry: $750 to $1,500 for typical flat pack. This is the biggest single visible line, and it is also the easiest lever. Replacing doors and keeping carcasses is cheaper again. Custom joinery moves this into the thousands.
- Benchtops and splashbacks: $50 to $800, depending on whether you are in laminate and timber or stone.
- Appliances: $500 to $1,500 per appliance.
- Sink sets and tapware: $100 to $600, with washing machine tapware from around $50.
- Ventilation: $50 to $800. Do not skip this one in a subtropical climate. A laundry that cannot dry itself out grows mould in the cabinetry you just paid for.
What that list leaves out is the part that decides your total: the trades. A laundry can pull in a plumber, electrician, waterproofer, tiler, cabinetmaker, plasterer and painter. Every one of them is a separate visit, and visits are what you are really buying.
The one thing that actually moves the price
Strip away the finishes and a laundry renovation is cheap or expensive for a single reason: whether the water stays where it is.
If the sink, the washing machine taps and the floor waste all stay in their current positions, the job is a fit-out. You are replacing cabinetry, a benchtop, a sink and some tapware, and reconnecting to pipework that has not moved. That is the $5,000 to $10,000 end.
The moment you move the sink to the other wall, swap a top-loader bay for a stacked front-loader and dryer, or shift the whole laundry into a different room, you are doing drainage work. New waste runs need fall. Fall needs floor depth. On a concrete slab that means cutting and re-coring the slab; on a timber floor it means working between joists you cannot simply cut through. Then the floor has to be made good, re-waterproofed where required, and re-finished.
The floor waste is the constraint nobody mentions. Its position was set when the house was built, and it dictates where the fall in your floor runs. Plenty of beautiful laundry designs die quietly at the point where someone works out what moving the floor waste would cost. Ask about it at the design stage, not after the cabinetry is ordered.
This is also why the “European laundry” conversion, tucking the machine into a cupboard or hallway recess, is rarely the budget option people expect. It is a new laundry in a room that was never plumbed: new hot and cold, a new waste run with fall, a power point, ventilation, and usually a door and some carpentry. The cabinetry is small. The services are not.
What you are legally required to waterproof
Almost everybody assumes a laundry gets the full bathroom treatment. In a house, that is not what the National Construction Code actually says, and the difference is worth money.
For a house, the NCC Housing Provisions state that for laundries, “the floor of the room must be water resistant” and “wall/floor junctions must be water resistant”, with a minimum 40mm horizontal leg where a flashing is used. Water resistant, not waterproof. The same part requires walls adjoining a laundry tub to be water resistant to at least 150mm above the vessel where it sits within 75mm of a wall, with waterproof junctions where the tub is fixed to the wall.
Where it changes is the floor waste. In apartments and units, the NCC’s wet area specification requires that laundries which must be provided with a floor waste have a waterproof floor, waterproof wall and floor junctions, and waterproof floor penetrations. That is the full membrane, and it costs accordingly.
Two practical consequences. If you are quoted for a full tanked membrane in a standalone house laundry with no required floor waste, ask what it is for, because it may be belt and braces rather than compliance. And if you are in a unit, or you are adding a floor waste, budget for the real thing rather than a waterproofer’s quick pass.
Which parts legally need a licensed trade in Queensland
This is the part of a laundry reno that is not a matter of preference.
The QBCC requires a licence for building work valued over $3,300, and for plumbing and drainage work “of any value”. There is no small-job exemption for pipework. The same page confirms a handyman may carry out work “as long as the value is no more than $3,300, isn’t electrical or plumbing work and doesn’t require an occupational licence”, and that electrical work sits with the Electrical Safety Office rather than the QBCC.
In plain terms: the cabinetry, the benchtop, the painting and the making good can sit under the handyman threshold if the job is small enough. The moment you touch a waste, a tap connection or a power point, it is licensed work regardless of how little it costs. Owner-builders have a separate threshold, with the QBCC setting it at work “valued at no more than $11,000” on your own property.
The threshold applies to the whole project, not to each invoice. Splitting a job across several bills to stay under $3,300 does not work and is not something a legitimate contractor will offer.
The cost trap in an older home
If your house went up before 1990, the laundry is one of the most likely rooms in it to contain asbestos.
The Queensland Government is explicit about where it was used: non-friable asbestos materials were “often used inside domestic houses for wall sheeting or ceiling sheet, particularly in ‘wet’ areas such as the kitchen, bathroom and laundry”, and asbestos can also be found bonded in plaster patching compounds, textured paint and vinyl floor tiles. Asbestos cement sheeting was common in building materials from the 1940s to the late 1980s.
Undisturbed and in good condition, it is not a risk. A laundry strip-out is the definition of disturbing it. This is why the contingency matters, and why “we will know once we open it up” is an honest answer rather than a hedge. Find out what is behind the sheeting before you commit to a fixed scope, not after the first sheet comes off.
How long it takes
A cosmetic refresh where nothing moves is usually a few days: strip out, cabinetry in, benchtop, tapware reconnected, paint.
A full renovation with new plumbing runs longer than the work itself suggests, because the trades have to queue. Demolition, then plumbing and electrical rough-in, then waterproofing (which needs curing time), then tiling, then cabinetry and benchtop, then fit-off, then paint. Each handover is a day you cannot compress. Two to three weeks is realistic, and a custom benchtop or joinery lead time can extend it well past that regardless of how fast the site moves.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a small laundry renovation cost?
A small laundry where the layout stays as it is generally sits at the bottom of the $5,000 to $10,000 cosmetic tier: new cabinetry, benchtop, sink and tapware, with paint and making good. Small does not automatically mean cheap, though. A tiny laundry where the sink moves to the opposite wall can cost more than a large one where nothing does.
Does a laundry need to be waterproofed?
In a house, the NCC Housing Provisions require the laundry floor and the wall and floor junctions to be water resistant rather than fully waterproof, with water resistant walls above a laundry tub. Where a floor waste is required, as is commonly the case in units and apartments, the floor, junctions and penetrations must be waterproof. The answer genuinely depends on your building and whether there is a floor waste.
Can I renovate my laundry myself?
You can do the parts that are not licensed work. In Queensland, plumbing and drainage require a licensed trade at any value, and electrical work is licensed separately, so connecting a sink, moving a waste or adding a power point is not DIY. Cabinetry, painting and making good are fair game, subject to the $3,300 threshold applying to the project as a whole.
What makes a laundry renovation expensive?
Moving the plumbing, in almost every case. Relocating the sink, the washing machine bay or the laundry itself means new waste runs, floor work, waterproofing and making good, and it pulls in more trades for more visits. Custom joinery and stone benchtops add cost, but they add it predictably. Plumbing is what blows a budget.
Is it worth renovating the laundry?
It is the cheapest wet area in the house to renovate and the one most likely to be dated, so it tends to punch above its weight for the money, particularly when it is done alongside a bathroom renovation and the trades are already on site. Doing both at once removes a whole round of call-outs.
Thinking about your laundry?
We renovate laundries across Brisbane, Logan and South East Queensland, and we do it with one team rather than a different trade turning up every second day. QBCC licensed, fully insured, with a fixed price agreed before we start. If the job is part of a bigger plan, we also handle bathroom, kitchen and whole-home renovations.
Get a free quote or call 0485 814 802.