Laundry renovation in Adelaide: ideas, costs and the plumbing that matters

A laundry renovation usually costs less than a bathroom or kitchen. The hipages range published by Canstar puts most Australian laundries at $5,000 to $25,000. Where yours lands depends mostly on cabinetry and benchtops, whether the washing machine, tub and drainage stay put, and how much tiling the room needs. Most of our laundry renovations take around 1 to 2 weeks on site.

The laundry is often the last room anyone renovates and one of the most used. Below are the ideas we see working in Adelaide homes, the cost drivers, and the plumbing and water-resistance rules that apply to laundries in South Australia.

Laundry renovation ideas that work

Swap the freestanding tub for a sink in the bench

An undermount or inset sink in a continuous benchtop gives you a long run of folding space and is far easier to wipe down than a tub and cabinet. A tall gooseneck mixer makes filling buckets easy.

Put the machines under the bench

Front loaders side by side under the benchtop turn the whole top into usable space. If floor space is tight, a stacked washer and dryer frees up width for cupboards instead.

Full-height storage

A tall cupboard for the vacuum, mop, ironing board and cleaning products clears the clutter that usually lives on the floor or the bench.

Somewhere to hang and dry

A hanging rail above the bench or a pull-out drying rack saves a trip outside on wet days. Good ventilation matters if you'll dry clothes indoors.

Finishes that take a beating

Stone or compact laminate benchtops, a tiled splashback and hard-wearing floor tiles stand up to water, detergent and the odd dropped bottle.

Small and European laundries

In units, townhouses and many older Adelaide homes, the laundry is a cupboard in a hallway or a corner of the kitchen. Good design matters most here. A few things that help:

• Measure the machines first, including the door swing and the depth of the hoses and taps behind them.
• Stacking the dryer on the washer frees width for a narrow cupboard or a small sink.
• Bi-fold or sliding doors hide the laundry completely when it's not in use.
• Shallow wall cabinets above the machines hold detergent without crowding the space.

The plumbing behind a laundry

The part of a laundry renovation you won't see afterwards is the part that causes problems if it's rushed:

• Washing machine taps and waste. They need to sit where the machine can connect without kinked hoses, with a properly trapped waste.
• The sink or tub waste has to reach the existing drain with enough fall. Moving the laundry to a different wall or room means new water supply and drainage, and on a slab that usually means cutting the concrete.
• Hot water. If your hot water service is in or next to the laundry, replacing or moving it is plumbing work that needs a compliance certificate (and gas work too if it's a gas unit).
• Floor waste and water resistance. See the rules below.

Your plumber must give you an electronic certificate of compliance (eCoC) within 7 days for plumbing work such as pipework from the mains or sewer, sanitary plumbing and drainage, or installing or replacing a water heater (SA.GOV.AU). Because we're licensed plumbers (Licence No. 284188), the laundry plumbing is done by our own team.

Waterproofing and floor-waste rules for laundries in SA

The National Construction Code treats a laundry as a wet area. Under the NCC 2022 Housing Provisions, which remain South Australia's building code until 30 April 2027 (PlanSA):

• The laundry floor must be water resistant, and so must the wall and floor junctions (10.2.5).
• Walls next to a tub or sink within 75 mm of the wall must be water resistant to at least 150 mm above it.
• South Australia's version of the code also requires the wall area from the floor to at least 75 mm above and 75 mm either side of the washing machine taps to be water resistant (10.2.1).
• SA's own clause on floor wastes requires the floor of a wet area containing a fixture to be graded to a floor waste, unless every fixture has built-in overflow protection or a permanent trapped connection to the drains (10.2.33).

We check how these apply to your laundry when we quote, because they affect the floor, the tiling and the drainage.

What does a laundry renovation cost?

The published range is wide: most laundries cost $5,000 to $25,000 to renovate, according to hipages figures reported by Canstar (archived copy). That's a third-party range, not our price. The main cost drivers are:

• Cabinetry: made-to-measure joinery costs more than flat-pack, but fits awkward spaces properly.
• Benchtop material: laminate, compact laminate or stone.
• Moving plumbing: keeping the machine, tub and waste in place is the biggest saving.
• Tiling: a splashback only, or full walls and floor.
• Electrical: extra power points for a dryer, lighting and an exhaust fan.
• Asbestos: SafeWork SA lists the laundry among the common places asbestos is found in homes built or renovated before 1990 (SafeWork SA). Get suspect sheeting tested before demolition.

If the bathroom needs work too, doing both together can save on trades and time because we're already on site. Our bathroom renovation cost guide covers that side.

See our laundry renovations in Adelaide, or browse renovations near you in Prospect, Norwood and Craigmore.