Short answer
Check the licence first — kitchen & bathroom renovators need a licence for some work and not other work. Then check that the business is who it says it is: of the 2,371 Australian kitchen & bathroom renovators in this directory, only 17.4% publish an ABN you can confirm, and 5.7% list a phone number that contradicts the one on their own website.
Kitchen & Bathroom Renovators handle full kitchen and bathroom renovations, cabinetry, benchtops, waterproofing coordination and project management. This is what to check before you let one into your house, and what the evidence says about the category as a whole.
Kitchen & Bathroom Renovators are licensed for some work and not others
A renovation is several licensed trades under one roof. The renovator who runs it needs the building licence or registration their state requires above its threshold, and the plumbing, electrical, gas and waterproofing inside the job each need the licensed tradesperson that work always needs. Bathroom waterproofing is the critical one: it is certified work in most states, and a failed membrane is the most expensive renovation fault there is.
There is no national licence register in Australia — each state and territory runs its own. The regulator for your state is listed at the bottom of this guide, and checking a number takes about a minute.
What 2,371 Australian kitchen & bathroom renovators actually publish
We check every business in this directory the same way, and publish the result whether it flatters the trade or not. For kitchen & bathroom renovators:
| What we checked | Kitchen & Bathroom Renovators | All trades |
|---|---|---|
| Publish an ABN we could confirm | 17.4% | 21.2% |
| Listed phone matches their own website | 66% | 59.2% |
| Listed phone contradicts their own website | 5.7% | 7.7% |
| Website responded when we checked | 82% | 81% |
| Corroborated by two or more sources | 89.1% | 81.1% |
| Median number of Google reviews | 16 | 39 |
What goes wrong with kitchen & bathroom renovators
- Waterproofing done by whoever was on site rather than a licensed waterproofer, with no certificate
- Plumbing and electrical subcontracted to people you never see a licence for
- A deposit above the legal maximum for your state, before anything is ordered
What to ask before the work starts
- What is your builder licence or registration, and who does the waterproofing, plumbing and electrical?
- Will I receive the compliance certificates for the licensed work?
- What is the payment schedule, and what deposit are you allowed to ask for here?
A kitchen and bathroom renovator who answers all three of those without hesitating is telling you something useful. One who is vague about a licence number is telling you something too.
The median matters more than the average
The median kitchen and bathroom renovator in this directory has 16 Google reviews. That is the number to hold in your head when you see a perfect five-star rating: five stars from four reviews and 4.6 from three hundred are not comparable, and the second is almost always the safer hire.
It is also why the ranking here weights review volume more heavily than review score. A business cannot buy its position, and a handful of glowing reviews does not move it far.
Where the kitchen & bathroom renovators are
Melbourne (123), Sydney (108), Brisbane (72), Gold Coast (43), Perth (39), Dandenong (39). A shortlist for your own area is more useful than a national ranking — the best kitchen and bathroom renovator in the country is no help if they are four states away.
Where to check a licence, by state
There is no national register. Search the licence number with the regulator for the state where the work is happening.
- NSWNSW Fair Tradingbuilders, electricians, plumbers and specialist trades
- VICBuilding and Plumbing Commission, and Energy Safe Victoria for electricalbuilding practitioners and plumbers; electricians are Energy Safe Victoria
- QLDQueensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC)building and most trade contractor licences
- WABuilding and Energybuilders, electricians, plumbers and gas fitters
- SAConsumer and Business Servicesbuilding work contractors and supervisors
- TASConsumer, Building and Occupational Services (CBOS)building and occupational licences
- ACTAccess Canberraconstruction occupations licensing
- NTNT Government building practitioner registrationbuilding practitioners and electrical workers
Common questions
- Do kitchen & bathroom renovators need a licence in Australia?
- Sometimes. A renovation is several licensed trades under one roof. The renovator who runs it needs the building licence or registration their state requires above its threshold, and the plumbing, electrical, gas and waterproofing inside the job each need the licensed tradesperson that work always needs. Bathroom waterproofing is the critical one: it is certified work in most states, and a failed membrane is the most expensive renovation fault there is.
- How do I check a kitchen and bathroom renovator's licence?
- There is no national register. Each state and territory has its own regulator — NSW Fair Trading, the Building and Plumbing Commission and Energy Safe Victoria in Victoria, QBCC in Queensland, Building and Energy in WA, Consumer and Business Services in SA, CBOS in Tasmania, Access Canberra in the ACT, and the NT Government. Search the licence number the business gives you on the regulator for the state the work is happening in.
- What percentage of Australian kitchen & bathroom renovators have a verifiable ABN?
- 17.4% of the 2,371 kitchen & bathroom renovators in this directory publish an ABN we could confirm against the national register, against 21.2% across all trades.
- How many reviews should a kitchen and bathroom renovator have?
- The median kitchen and bathroom renovator here has 16. Treat a five-star rating from a handful of reviews with more caution than a slightly lower rating from hundreds.
Compare kitchen & bathroom renovators near you
2,371 kitchen & bathroom renovators, ranked on the evidence described above rather than on advertising.
Read next
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