Your bathroom sees more daily use than almost any other room in the house, yet it’s often the last to be renovated. In Hawthorn, where so many homes date back to the Californian bungalow, Federation, and Edwardian eras, that delay usually means living with tired waterproofing, cramped layouts, and plumbing that was never designed for how families use bathrooms today. We carry out bathroom renovations Hawthorn homeowners can rely on, built around the specific problems these older properties tend to hide behind the tiles.
Jake, founder of JBK Homes, has spent 15 years renovating across Melbourne’s inner east. Hawthorn’s housing stock has taught him a few things you won’t find in a general renovation brief. Every quote starts with an honest look at your home, not a template.
Walk through a street in Hawthorn, and you’ll see the pattern repeat. Solid brick Californian bungalows sit beside Edwardian weatherboards, with the odd brick veneer infill from a later era squeezed in between. Most were built with materials and craftsmanship that have genuinely stood the test of time. But their original bathrooms, or the ones added during a 1980s or 1990s renovation, weren’t built to modern standards.
The most common issue Jake sees is a waterproofing membrane that’s simply past its working life. Older homes often have wet areas that were tiled directly over timber or fibre cement sheeting with little to no membrane underneath, which was standard practice decades ago but isn’t compliant now.
Add outdated copper or galvanised pipe runs that were never designed to feed a modern shower and vanity setup, and you start to see why so many Hawthorn bathroom renovations begin with removing far more than expected.
Ventilation is another recurring problem. Many original bathrooms in this area have a single small window and no mechanical exhaust, which was fine when baths were the norm and showers were quick. Family homes with daily showers need proper extraction to stop moisture building up in wall cavities, something that gets missed in a lot of quick cosmetic updates.
None of this is unique to any one street or house type. It’s simply what happens when a suburb’s housing predates modern building codes by 50 to 100 years, and it’s exactly the kind of detail that gets glossed over in a rushed quote.
Hawthorn falls within Boroondara Council’s planning scheme, and a large portion of the suburb is subject to a Heritage Overlay. This doesn’t automatically restrict what you can do inside your bathroom, and it’s a common misunderstanding worth clearing up early.
Heritage controls in Boroondara generally apply on a property-specific basis and are mostly concerned with what’s visible from the street, such as the roofline, facade materials, and front setbacks. Internal renovation work, including most bathroom upgrades, typically has more flexibility than external changes, though this depends entirely on your property’s individual heritage schedule.
Because these controls vary from one property to the next, Jake checks the specific requirements for your address before any design work starts rather than assuming a blanket exemption applies. It’s a five-minute check that avoids a costly surprise partway through your renovation.
A full renovation means stripping the room back to the studs and rebuilding it properly. In an older Hawthorn home, this is usually where the real improvement happens. It’s the only approach that properly addresses failing waterproofing, allows plumbing to be repositioned sensibly, and replaces a layout built around a bathtub with one suited to how a family actually gets ready each morning.
A lot of Hawthorn’s older homes were subdivided or extended at some point, which often left behind small, awkwardly placed ensuites and powder rooms. These smaller spaces need a different approach to a main bathroom, focused on making the most of a tight footprint without the room feeling like an afterthought.
Every wet area JBK Homes renovates is waterproofed to the AS 3740 standard, which sets out the minimum requirements for waterproofing in Australian residential wet areas. This covers everything from membrane application under tiles to upturns around shower bases and correct falls to the drain. It’s the difference between a bathroom that lasts 20 years and one that starts showing damp within five.
A period home brings limitations that a modern project home was never designed around. Lower ceiling heights, original window placements, and plumbing stacks that sit in fixed locations all shape what’s realistically possible in your bathroom. Rather than forcing a project home design into a period property, JBK Homes designs around what your home already gives you, so the finished bathroom looks like it belongs there.
Every job starts with Jake walking the space with you. In a Hawthorn property, this includes checking the age of the existing plumbing and wiring, looking at the condition of the subfloor if there’s one accessible, and noting anything that might affect scope before a single wall comes down.
Once the scope is clear, the design phase covers layout, fixtures, tiling, and finishes. For homes built before the 1990s, this is also when material choices around asbestos-containing products get discussed openly, since many pre-1990 Melbourne homes have some asbestos cement sheeting in older wet areas that needs to be identified and handled correctly during demolition.
Where a permit is required, whether that’s a building permit for structural work or council approval tied to the Heritage Overlay, JBK Homes manages the process and keeps you informed of timing rather than leaving you to chase paperwork.
The build itself runs with a consistent team on site, coordinated trades, and a clear finish date communicated to you in advance. At handover, Jake walks through the finished bathroom with you personally rather than sending someone else to sign off on his behalf.
Jake has been building and renovating in Melbourne’s inner east for 15 years, and a good share of that work has been bathrooms in exactly the kind of homes found throughout Hawthorn. That experience shows up in the questions asked before a quote is written, not just the finish of the tiling.
He keeps the team behind each renovation small and consistent, so the people who scope your job are the same ones building it on site. Trades are chosen for their familiarity with older homes specifically, since working around original plumbing and structural quirks takes a different skill set than a straightforward new-build bathroom.
Jake signs off on every renovation personally. If anything needs attention after handover, you can call directly rather than working through a support line.
Hawthorn sits about 6 kilometres east of Melbourne’s CBD, within the City of Boroondara, with a population of just over 22,000 residents. Postcode 3122 covers a mix of established family homes, period apartments, and pockets close to Swinburne University, which brings a steady rental and share-house population alongside long-term owner-occupiers.
Glenferrie Road is the suburb’s main shopping and cafe strip, running through the middle of Hawthorn and giving the area its village feel despite being so close to the city. It’s this mix- long-term family homes, renovated period properties, and a strong local community that shapes the kind of bathroom renovations.
Lets Get Started
If your bathroom is showing its age or simply isn’t working for how your family lives now, Jake is happy to walk through your home and talk through what’s realistic for your property. Get in touch with JBK Homes for a straightforward, obligation-free conversation about your Hawthorn bathroom renovation.
It depends on your specific property and what the renovation involves. Internal bathroom work generally has more flexibility than changes visible from the street, but Boroondara's heritage schedules apply property by property, so Jake checks your address against council planning documentation before confirming what's needed.
In most cases, a proper waterproofing upgrade means removing the existing tiles and lining down to the membrane level, since waterproofing has to be continuous and correctly sealed to meet AS 3740. Patching over old tiles doesn't fix the failed membrane underneath.
Older brick homes often have plumbing run through wall cavities or under floors in ways that weren't documented. Jake assesses existing pipe runs on site before finalising a layout, and where rerouting is needed, the team plans it around the home's structure rather than working against it.
Yes, with the right layout planning. Many older Hawthorn bathrooms were designed before built-in storage was standard, so custom joinery and smart fixture placement can free up space that a like-for-like renovation would waste. Where a window can't be added, mechanical ventilation and considered lighting design go a long way toward the same effect.
JBK Homes provides a workmanship warranty on all bathroom renovations, covering the build quality of the work carried out. Full details are outlined at the time of your quote so you know exactly what's covered before work begins.
