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Halloran & SonsPlumbing & Gas
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Whole home · Brighton

Stack replacement and bathroom, 1930s flat

A single-flat bathroom renovation that turned into a shared stack replacement — coordinated with the owners corporation rather than around it.

Property

1930s Art Deco apartment block

Duration

Four weeks, including a two-week wait for owners corporation approval

Value band

$18–24k for the bathroom; stack works billed to the owners corporation

Occupied

Client stayed — one bathroom building, so timing was arranged around the neighbours

The brief

“I just wanted to renovate my bathroom. The building manager warned me the pipes were original, and I did not want to tile over a problem.”
Before
Photo to commissionOriginal 1930s bathroom with period tiling; detail of the rusted cast iron branch.
During
Photo to commissionWall open showing old cast iron alongside the new stack section.
After
Photo to commissionFinished bathroom sympathetic to the Deco building — subway tile, brass tapware.

What we found

Every renovation has surprises. Publishing ours is the point — this is what a variation actually looks like, and how it got handled.

  • The original cast iron stack serving four flats had rusted through at two of the branch connections. Renovating over it would have meant opening the new bathroom again within a few years.
  • The stack was common property, so the repair was the owners corporation's responsibility, not the client's. We prepared the report and camera footage for the committee.
  • Access to the stack was through the client's flat only, so the two jobs had to be sequenced together to avoid opening the wall twice.

Scope of works

  • CCTV inspection and condition report for the owners corporation
  • Replacement of the cast iron stack section and branch connections
  • Full bathroom strip-out and rough-in
  • Waterproofing coordination in a strata building
  • Fit-off and making good

Trades coordinated

  • Waterproofer
  • Tiler
  • Plasterer

Products specified

  • Caroma
  • Methven
“They could have tiled straight over it and taken my money. Instead they told me it was common property, wrote the report for the committee, and saved me paying for something that was not mine to pay for.”
Owner, Brighton

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