Knocking down wall between toilet and bathroom

Hi all,

I recently purchased an apartment as my first PPOR. Unfortunately, I did so before discovering property chat else I would have considered finding a house further out, but that's a different story.

I'm planning to renovate the apartment both for my enjoyment while I live there as well as potentially profit when I rent it out in a few years or if I sell it.

The part I could do with some advice on is regarding my plan to knock down the wall between the seperate toilet and bathroom and renovate them. See below for (1) the floor plan, (3) current bathroom, and (2, 4, 5) three photos of neighbours with the same floor plan/layout who have done this.

imgur.com

The property has yet to settle, so I guess the first steps in my mind are to 1) get quotes for the work 2) work out what the difference between apartments that have/haven't done this are 3) confirm with owners corp.

Any insights on experiences of doing this, anything I'm not considering, or where I could do further research would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

As other apartments have already done this there should have been a clause added to the bylaws to allow for minor/major renovations, as such it could be as simple as lodging a request with the body corporate for the committee to approve.
You will have to have the specifics of what you want to do detailed in such an application.

 

Thanks Stoffo.

Yes when I initially reviewed the contract and strata report I did see a by-law regarding renovations was already in place, and yes as you've said it just requires lodging a detailed request with the owners corp.

 

The biggest issue/concern for the body corporate will be "waterproofing", so make sure you state that a waterproofing certificate will be provided by a suitable qualified and insured contractor should any existing waterproofing be required to be disturbed or modified.

 

I'm right now doing something similar.

I've got a house, but it was build before most of us were even little swimmers, meaning the bathroom is only bathroom. No toilet, and small, and in the middle of the house - so no windows.
An internal toilet was added at some point to the house, but it's on the other side of house.

Image — Postimages

I'm knew I had to do something about it, if I want to make bring it to the 21 century, so I knocked down the wall between the bathroom and laundry allowing me to create a much bigger modern room.
Bath02 — Postimages
Bath03 — Postimages

In my case, I could move the laundry somewhere else, but I guess you'll need to find a place to use the same room for laundry as well.

I strongly recommend, if you can, use software like SweetHouse3D (http://www.sweethome3d.com/) a free Open Source design program to allow you plan the room before you do anything.

Bare in mind, proper build of bathroom, with normal builder, will cost about $25K.

 

Thanks, I hope so. I didn't say it in so many words but I definitely was looking for someone to say "this isn't stupid" hahah.

 

Will keep it in mind. Thanks.

Oh interesting. Thanks for sharing.