Armrock Constructions

Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

Renovation Design

The Design Advantage of a Built-In Shower

One of the design challenges in a bathroom renovation situation is tackling the design challenge of making elements of different shapes and sizes (shower, toilet, vanity, etc) look like they are a family. Accomplished well, a bathroom achieves an integrated look and feel – the ultimate goal of a bathroom renovator! Of all the elements, showers can be one of the more challenging to make ‘at home’ in a bathroom because of the oppositional nature of their tall, vertical structure to other low-set elements in the room.

One sure-fire way our team achieves a connection between showers and bathrooms, that have used with success on a number of our Gold Coast renovations, is to build the shower into the room.

Managing Your Bathroom Renovation Budget

Any bathroom renovation is a careful balance between style and budget. Finding the right balance is the key to a successful renovation. Accordingly, a built-in shower may not be for everyone – it’s going to cost more than a prefabricated shower. But it will solve the design challenge of integrating your shower into your bathroom design, along with a number of other advantages explained below.

Types of Built-In Showers

Building a shower into the bathroom can be done to different degrees and effects.

A shower might be completely screenless (a ‘wet’ shower) in a bathroom designed to accommodate it. Alternatively, it may be built into a partial or complete recess, in the shape and size you need to achieve your ideal bathroom.

From these distinctions follow a wide range of possibilities in style and function, since all aspects of built-in showers can be fully customised to suit the needs of your bathroom.

From the design point of view, the advantage of a built-in approach is that the shower is integrated into the room, rather than added in as a separate element and made to fit as best as possible.

Alternatives to Built-In Showers

The alternative option to a built-in shower is a prefabricated shower. They are purchased as a ready-to-go unit from a plumbing provider and installed by our team. We can help guide you to the right type of choice to suit your project, and then install them in our project. You can achieve a great result with a prefabricated shower. However, a built-in shower has the capability to take your bathroom to the next level.

Built-In Advantages

The principal advantage of a built-in shower is integration. Because the shower is being built as part of the room, choices about the shower can reflect and inform choices in the rest of the room, and vice-versa.

For example:

  • The tiling in your built-in shower can create a relationship with the rest of the room.
  • A built-in shower can also include a tiled niche for storage of items such as shampoo and soap.
  • Built-in showers can use shapes to compliment the flow of the room. They don’t have to be square (a common prefabricated shower shape).

Built-In Showers with Armrock Constructions

In addition to helping your shower to integrate with your bathroom, there are other advantages to having a built-in shower. It can be designed for an optimal fit in dimension, functionality, shape and style. A quality built-in shower will enhance the resale value of your home and enjoyment of the bathroom for many years to come.

Reconfiguring Your Bathroom

Undertaking a bathroom renovation, you have the ability to completely reimagine how things are going to work. As a starting point, most people evaluate the potential of their new bathroom based on the previous bathroom configuration. While it may be more economical to retain the previous bathroom arrangement, relocating them can open up a range of new possibilities which will create a more ideal room. On this page, we look at some of the important considerations behind reconfiguring your bathroom in a renovation.

The Cost of Reconfiguration

A sensible bathroom renovation is always grounded in a budget, and it should be pointed out early in the piece that moving items such as showers, baths and vanities to different locations in your bathroom will most likely increase the cost of your renovation. This is mainly due to the fact that plumbing and electricity may need to be changed to accommodate the new arrangement. The extent of any reconfiguration will depend on both the extent of your existing infrastructure and the ambition of your upgrade. Just ask our team – we’re here to help and can answer any questions you may have on this topic.

Reinventing the Wheel: Avoid

In older homes, it can be astonishing to see some of the decisions made around critical rooms such as bathrooms and kitchens. Choices and combinations may seem nonsensical when viewed through a modern lens.

On other occasions, and with additional analysis, you may note that your designing predecessors have deftly resolved a multitude of challenges with a solution that won’t be beaten no matter how hard you try. If someone has put the energy into solving the layout once, it’s worthwhile to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their solution before you completely ditch it. It could be the case that a subtle shift is all that you need to turn the old layout into the perfect layout – or perhaps the layout is already as good as it gets. Don’t reinvent the wheel when you’re renovating your bathroom!

Prioritisation

In the quest for the perfect bathroom layout, it is useful to consider the priorities that really matter in any bathroom. In other words, before you decide to move the shower, make sure you can open the shower door in the new location.

Before you start shifting things around, think about:

Privacy

It’s your bathroom and privacy is always the highest priority. Ensuring you can comfortably use your shower and toilet without your neighbours accidentally ‘catching a glimpse’ should always be pretty high on your list of decisions.

Access

Make sure you can access everything in your dream bathroom layout. Opening drawers, opening the shower door, opening and closing the main door.. all of these are imperative in a good design, and all of them need some consideration. Anything that moves – make sure you will be able to operate it easily and without creating a cramped situation.

Logical Placement

Putting everything where it looks great may not make for an optimal configuration. What would you prefer, a great-looking bathroom that is less easy to use, or an easy to use bathroom that looks great? Anyway, give some thought to the practical usage of the room, and especially how it will work if your partner or child decides that they simply have to brush their teeth or shave at the same time as when you’re using the bathroom. Make sure everything is placed to logically accommodate these common scenarios!

Gold Coast Bathroom Design

If you’d really like to know how to make the most of your bathroom on your budget, please contact our team for a free measure and quote. We would be glad to share our years of experience and capability of our integrated bathroom renovation team with you to make your old bathroom into a fantastic new space.

Shower Heads

A shower is an inclusion in practically every bathroom renovation, and the choice of shower head is a great opportunity to not only make your new bathroom look great, but also be practically useful for the way you and your family use the shower. On this page, we look at important considerations and choices to make regarding your shower head in a bathroom renovation situation.

Water Usage

Embarking on a bathroom reno, it’s a great idea to familiarise yourself with the WELS system and water-saving in your product choices. You can read more about this system here. Making water-saving choices in the acquisition of your bathroom fixtures and fittings is a great way to design a bathroom you can feel great about. If you’re in any doubt as to how to proceed, just talk to our friendly team – we’re here to help.

A Confident Stylistic Approach

Savvy bathroom renovators will have done their research and have a clear design objective in mind for their new bathroom. Bathrooms are not ‘one-size fits all’. Their appeal is very subjective, and if you’re going to the trouble to renovate your bathroom, a priority should always be your own personal satisfaction with the end result!

One great way to achieve a harmonious style in your bathroom is to synchronise the style of your highlight accessories. Shower heads are a great example. Being an irregular shape, they tend to stand out – but by extending their style to door-handles, tapware, mirror trims, towel-rails and other bathroom features, you can create a united approach. This allows you to approach your stylistic choices confidently by asking the question, “What colour are my trims?” and allowing your shower head to fall into that basket with the rest of them.

Finding Your Shower Head

The only downfall of designing your dream bathroom from browsing the internet is the possible difficulty of locating fixtures and fittings in the precise style you’re looking for. In this regard, it can be helpful to have a little bit of flexibility in exactly what you’re going for, as local choices may not perfectly align with the Swiss Retro look you saw on Pinterest. When it comes time to shop for your fixtures and fittings, talk to our team. We can help you connect with local suppliers and fulfil your requirements to achieve your dream bathroom.

Successful Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

Bathroom renovations can be complex – numerous careful decisions and actions are required, in the right order, to build a bridge between your vision, your structure, your budget and your new bathroom. We’re here to help you make it a success. Get your bathroom renovation started today with the team from Armrock Constructions and make yours a success too.

Shower Shapes and Sizes

Shower Shapes & Sizes
Shower Shapes & Sizes

Typically, a shower is an odd-shaped feature in the range of elements that make up a bathroom. Unlike the other low-set, horizontal features, a shower is tall and vertical. Integrating the shower so it feels nicely in the room can be a challenge. One way overcoming this challenge is by using showers of different shapes and sizes. This is the topic we explore here today.

A Most Important Choice

The most important choice at the beginning relates to your budget, and how you intend to approach your shower: will you opt for a prefabricated or a custom-built shower? This decision will greatly affect the shapes and sizes available to you. A brief word on each follows:

Prefabricated Showers

Prefabricated showers are purchased ready-to-use. We install them as they come. Prefabricated showers are manufactured in standard shapes and sizes, so their options are somewhat limited in this regard. Prefabricated showers are a less expensive option.

Custom Showers

Custom showers are designed and built by our team. Their shape and size is only limited by the bathroom itself. Stylistically, custom showers are much easier to integrate into a room, since they are part of the room. Custom-built showers may cost more, but have the potential to really take your bathroom to the next level.

The Room Shape Factor

Different shaped rooms create different kinds of challenges for accommodating a shower into the design. In small bathrooms (like an ensuite), a shower tucks perfectly into the room. No wider and not much lower than the ceiling, it’s easy to make a shower feel right at home.

However, in larger guest and main bathrooms, it can be harder to make sense of a shower when it’s the only vertical addition in a room of otherwise low-set elements. In contrast to the the toilet, the vanity & the bath, which are all waist-high or lower, the shower can tend to stand out if no diligence to this problem is given.

The Role of Shower Screens

Regardless of the type of shower you opt for, one way to help fit the shower into the room is to minimise its presence. This can be accomplished by the type of shower screen used. A shower screen is comprised of screens, frames, and hinges. All of these components can accentuate or diminish the visual presence of your shower inside the bathroom.

By minimising the presence of your shower with a lower-profile shower-screen, the shape becomes easier to incorporate into the room. Generally, less expensive shower solutions also tend to have a stronger visual presence. With a custom option, we can help you create whatever type of effect you would like.

Shower Floor Concepts

The whole point of having a bathroom renovation is to refresh the old bathroom with a new, invigorated style. In the design phase, it’s important not to be limited by preconceptions about what a shower should be. The traditional concept of a shower as a square-based, vertical enclosure is only one way of approaching a shower.

A custom shower floor can be a square, rectangle, circle, or a multifaceted shape. A key advantage of custom showers is the capability to build the shower with sympathy to the room. Using shapes that reflect, or complement the overall shape of the room helps the shower to find a home in the space. For example, in a long rectangular bathroom, a longer, rectangular shower-floor will have an integration advantage over a square-shaped floor.

One of the great aspects of our service lies in problem-solving. If you’re worried about getting a good result from you choice of shower, just ask our team. We provide a free consultation, and we’d be glad to help you find a solution that is just right for your perfect bathroom.

Successful Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

Bathroom renovations can be complex – numerous careful decisions and actions are required, in the right order, to build a bridge between your vision, your structure, your budget and your new bathroom. We’re here to help you make it a success. Get your bathroom renovation started today with the team from Armrock Constructions and make yours a success too.

Timber Laminates

Turquoise & Blonde Custom Timber Laminate Vanity
Turquoise Blonde Custom Timber Laminate Vanity

Timber laminates are a popular material to use in modern bathroom vanity construction & bench tops. In this article with the Gold Coast’s Armrock Constructions, we review timber laminates – what they are, how we use them, and how they compare. If you’re looking for a bathroom renovation on the Gold Coast, please don’t hesitate to contact our team for a free consultation & quote.

What is Lamination?

Lamination is the process of manufacturing materials in layers. [Learn more here] The purpose of the lamination process is to specifically create materials that are suitable for their application. There are a range of ways to create laminates. Regardless of the process, the end-product will be a composite, manufactured product.

The Advantages of Lamination

The advantages of using a laminated product stem from the fact that they are manufactured, as opposed to being sourced (e.g. materials like wood or stone). With a manufactured process, the attributes of materials can be designed, tested, and reliably reproduced. Important characteristics such as strength and longevity can be created so the product can be sold with the knowledge it will be up to task.

The lamination process is generally a more cost-effective way to produce a material than sourcing a natural material.

From the bathroom-renovation point of view, the best advantage of using laminated materials is the wide range of styles that become accessible. A laminated approach can be used to achieve virtually any look you can imagine.

What is a Timber Laminate?

A timber laminate is a product made through the process of lamination to look like timber. This means that the product is made up of internal layers and finished with an exterior that resembles a certain type of timber. How good do they look? All of the photos on this page are from Armrock Constructions’ Gold Coast bathroom renovations, and feature timber laminated bathroom vanities. Timber laminates create a compelling look suitable for any modern bathroom.

Custom Timber Laminate Vanity
Custom Timber Laminate Vanity

In bathroom renovations, timber laminates are primarily found in vanity construction. Their strength & integrity is aligned with this requirement, and their look can be tailored to suit any bathroom design goal. Timber laminates can be used for external or internal aspects of the vanity, but are most renowned for their design role in the vanity benchtop. Here, their design is most visually accessible, creating an impacting (or not) addition to the bathroom aesthetic.

Double Mounted Basin Benchtop
Double Mounted Basin Benchtop

Advantages of Timber Laminates?

There are four major advantages of timber laminates which make them increasingly popular for bathroom renovations: Cost, Accessibility, Ease of Use, and Excellence.

Marble Tile Timber Laminate Vanity
Marble Tile Timber Laminate Vanity

Cost

Timber laminates are generally less expensive than raw materials. Bathroom renovations can be expensive, so ensuring the budget is on track means assessing options on a quality / cost basis suitable for your project. Because timber laminates look just like the real thing, they are a great way to achieve the result you’re going for without breaking your budget.

Accessibility

If you wish to recreate a particular bathroom design, you may find it challenging or impossible to locate the materials necessary for the task – for example, achieving a look consistent with materials from another country is challenging and expensive. Timber laminates create accessibility by giving you access to a library of timber styles so you can easily align your renovation with exactly the right type of timber look to suit your design.

Mounted Circular Basin Timber Laminate Vanity
Mounted Circular Basin Timber Laminate Vanity

Ease of Use

Laminates are easy to work with and help to make the renovation process more efficient and cost-effective. Laminates can easily be made into different shapes and sizes, making them perfect for customisations such as vanity units and bench tops.

Timber-Look Laminate Double Basin Benchtop
Timber Laminate Double Basin Benchtop

Excellence

The best thing about laminates is the way they have evolved. Laminates have been around for a long time, and they have come a long way. Whether you’re doing a budget renovation or a high-end renovation, laminates are an option to consider. The wide range of styles and excellent engineering available, in conjunction with their competitive price-point, make laminates an essential consideration in any bathroom renovation.

Old Style Bathroom Renovation Timber Laminate Benchtop
Old Style Bathroom Renovation Timber Laminate Benchtop

Laminate Products We Use

We have been achieving great results with Nikpol’s EGGER range on our recent bathroom renovation projects. [Learn more about these options on their website] For timber laminates, this range even includes timber grain textures, making for a complete timber experience and creating a natural, calming aesthetic for your bathroom renovation.

Important Material Requirements

In the process of selecting materials for your bathroom reno, it’s important to remember that vanities, bench tops and splash backs need to be durable and able to handle the water that will be coming their way. They also need to look great. Our laminate solutions meet all of these requirements.

Single Inset Basin Timber-Look Laminate
Single Inset Basin Timber Laminate

Timber Laminate Bathroom Vanities

Most of our Gold Coast bathroom renovation projects feature timber laminate bathroom vanities. Laminates may be used in part (e.g. a benchtop or splash back) or whole (to create the entire vanity unit):

Timber Laminate Vanity Tops

Timber Laminate Gold Coast Vanity
Timber Laminate Gold Coast Vanity

Timber Bathroom Vanities

Using an all-timber vanity is a luxurious addition that always has, and always will be, an option to consider. Timber is nourishing, calming and enchanting, and Armrock’s carpenters are experienced in bringing your concepts to life to become the cornerstone of your bathroom design.

In our Gold Coast renovations, we discuss options with our clients to communicate how your design objectives can be best met. Utilising the timber approach is a fantastic way to create affordable control, flexibly suiting the installation of the new vanity into an existing space.

Double Semi-Inset Basin Custom Vanity
Double Semi-Inset Basin Custom Vanity

Successful Gold Coast Bathroom Renovations

Bathroom renovations can be complex – numerous careful decisions and actions are required, in the right order, to build a bridge between your vision, your structure, your budget and your new bathroom. We’re here to help you make it a success. Get your bathroom renovation started today with the team from Armrock Constructions and make yours a success too.

Tiling in Your Renovation Project

Gold Coast Renovation Tiling
Gold Coast Renovation Tiling

Whether you’re undertaking a kitchen or bathroom makeover, tile selection is always one of the most important decisions you will need to make. Tiles impact the style, functionality and budget of your makeover project. Armrock Constructions specialises in bathroom renovations on the Gold Coast, and we are here with a wide range of options to assist you including tile selection, purchasing and installation. Read on to learn more about tiling in your renovation project, or book a free renovation appraisal and quote with our team today.

How Armrock Can Help

Armrock Constructions provides a total bathroom renovation service – our team includes all tradespeople necessary to complete a bathroom renovation. You can learn more about this on our services page. No bathroom renovation would be complete without tiling, and our team is here to ensure you are able to connect with the right tiles and skills needed for your project.

Tile Selection Process

When it’s time to select your tiles for your renovation, our team is here to help. Talk to us to get some expert input into your project – we can inform you on the advantages of different approaches, and guide you to our local tile distribution (Gold Coast) who will be able to help you organise the tiles you need for your project. It’s always best to look at tiles when they’re laid out (rather than looking at small samples) so you can get a proper appreciation for how they look when they’re occupying a larger space, such as a wall.

We can also advise you on tiling solutions that are popular and ones that have longevity. Some options are enticing but quickly tire. We can help you find the right tiles for your bathroom and also creating a specific style in combination with other features, such as fixtures and fittings, for a more complete and lasting style.

Tiled Inset Niche with LED Lights
Tiled Inset Niche with LED Lights

Budgeting For Tiles

Tiles come in a wide range of sizes, qualities, and prices. From the point of view of budgeting for your renovation, it’s important to carefully consider your choice with tiles and how this will impact your total renovation. The great thing about the wide range of choices in tiles is that you can adapt your tiling to suit your budget, as long as you are willing to compromise on stylistic aspects to some extent. We can help you connect with local providers who provide great prices for tiles – just ask our team for help with this.

Tiling in Your Project

Tiling is an important part of any renovation project, and involves a sequence of stages, all of which must be undertaken in order and some of which require a period of waiting before undertaking the next stage. Because Armrock Constructions organises the entire renovation project for you, we can optimise time consuming tasks such as tiling to fit in with other works as efficiently as possible.

Marble Tiles

Marble-look tiles are a popular Gold Coast renovation trend which create an amazingly opulent effect for any bathroom. Marble swirls bring old-world style into the modern bathroom, and our tilers can deploy this effect in a variety of different looks, with tiled niches and LED illumination to really set off the marble effect.

Tiling in Your Bathroom Renovation

Armrock Constructions specialises in bathroom renovations in the Gold Coast QLD and tiling is an important part of most of our projects. Apart from including tiling as part of our service, we work with our clients to help them come to terms with the implications of different choices in tiling, tile options, and strategies to maximise the impact of tiling in the renovation space.