Bathroom tiling in Albury

Bathroom tiling in Albury covers the floor, the walls and the shower, and in most jobs the waterproofing under them as well. A standard bathroom tiled floor to ceiling usually takes several days once the old tiles are off, because the membrane has to cure before any tile goes down. Albury Tilers passes your enquiry to an independent local tiler, who inspects, quotes and carries out the job under their own licence.

Why do people retile a bathroom?

Most enquiries start with one of these signs:

• Tiles that sound hollow when tapped, or that have lifted near the shower hob.
• Grout that keeps cracking or going black in the same corner, even after cleaning.
• Swollen skirting, flaking paint or a damp smell on the other side of the shower wall.
• Water marks on the ceiling under an upstairs ensuite.
• A dated or worn room in a house being sold or let. Census figures put 33.8 percent of occupied dwellings in the Albury council area as rented (ABS 2021 QuickStats), so landlords between tenants are a steady part of the work.

Hollow tiles and damp walls usually point to the waterproofing, not the tiles. Fresh grout or a new top layer of tiles will not fix a failed membrane underneath.

Options compared

Approach	Suits	Main limit
Regrout and reseal only	Sound tiles, no leaks, tired grout lines	Does nothing for a membrane that has already failed
Tile over existing tiles	Sound, flat tiles in a dry area such as a powder room	Raises floor height, hides problems, many tilers refuse it in a shower
Floor only, walls kept	Cracked floor tiles, walls in good order	Matching the old wall tiles is often impossible
Strip to the substrate and start again	Leaks, drummy tiles, a full renovation	Highest cost and the longest time without a usable bathroom

If water has escaped the shower, the honest answer is usually the last option for at least the shower area. Our shower and wet area waterproofing guide explains why.

What will a provider check before quoting?

• The substrate. Fibre cement sheet, plasterboard rated for wet areas, a concrete slab or a timber floor each need different preparation.
• Falls to the waste. Water on a shower floor must run to the drain. If the old floor holds puddles, the screed may need to be rebuilt.
• Old wall sheeting. Wet areas in older homes sometimes used asbestos cement sheet. NSW guidance allows a homeowner or tradesperson to remove less than 10 square metres of non-friable asbestos with precautions, and says that amount equals the wall sheeting of one small bathroom. More than that, or any friable material, needs a licensed removalist (asbestos.nsw.gov.au). A careful provider will ask for a test before cutting anything that might contain it.
• Plumbing set-out. Moving a waste, a shower rose or a vanity is licensed plumbing work and has to be booked with a plumber before the tiler starts.
• Your tile choice. Large format tiles need a flatter substrate and more time to lay than a standard 300 by 600 tile, which changes the quote.

How the job runs, step by step

1. Strip the old tiles, adhesive and any damaged sheeting, then remove the waste.
2. Repair or replace the substrate and set the floor falls.
3. Plumber rough-in if anything is moving.
4. Apply bond breakers, then the waterproofing membrane at the thickness the product specifies, and let it cure.
5. Lay the floor tiles from the waste outwards, then the walls, keeping grout lines straight around niches and windows.
6. Grout, fit movement joints with flexible sealant at the changes of plane, and clean down.
7. Plumber fit-off and a final check with you.

The order of steps three and four matters. A plumber drilling through a finished membrane leaves a hole nobody can see once the tiles are on.

What does bathroom tiling cost?

A national cost guide puts full bathroom tiling, floor and walls, at $1,500 to $4,500 for labour only. Supplied and laid, a standard bathroom comes in at $2,800 to $7,500, and that range excludes waterproofing, which the same guide prices at $35 to $80 per sqm. Taking up the old tiles adds $20 to $55 per sqm. These figures are from What’s The Damage, last verified October 2026 and are national, not Albury specific. Our Albury tiling cost guide explains what pushes a job to the top or bottom of each range.

Which rules apply in NSW?

• A contractor licence is needed for wall and floor tiling worth more than 5,000 dollars in labour and materials, including GST. That NSW licence class covers waterproofing wet areas to get them ready for tiling (NSW Government, wall and floor tiling work).
• Above 5,000 dollars the provider must give you a written contract, and above 20,000 dollars they need Home Building Compensation cover before taking a deposit.
• The Home Building Act 1989 gives statutory warranties, and NSW lists waterproofing among the examples of a major defect, which carries a 6 year warranty period (Building Commission NSW).
• The NCC sets the wet area requirements for houses. Membranes in bathrooms are installed to AS 3740, and the tiles over them to AS 3958, which deals with ceramic and stone tile installation.

What a careful provider will not do

• Tile over a shower floor that already leaks.
• Lay tiles on a membrane that has not finished curing because the client wants the room back sooner.
• Cut into old sheeting before anyone knows what it is made of.
• Move plumbing themselves without a plumbing licence.
• Start a job over the licence threshold without a written contract.

The local angle

Albury has hot summers and cold winters, and a bathroom built on a timber floor moves a little through the seasons. That movement is why flexible joints at corners and where the floor meets the wall matter here. If the bathroom is in a newer Thurgoona home and is leaking within a few years of handover, read our Thurgoona page before paying anyone to strip it, because the original builder may still be responsible.

What to do next

Measure the floor and the wall heights, take photos of any damage and note the age of the house. Then send your bathroom tiling enquiry with your suburb, and an independent provider can tell you whether it needs a regrout, a new floor or a full strip and reseal. For splashbacks and laundry walls on the same visit, see kitchen splashbacks and wall tiling.

Send a job enquiry