The two-metre line
If you want to know why a 2003 bathroom looks like a 2003 bathroom, look at the wall about two metres up.
Tiling to that height and painting above it was standard project-home practice. It saved tiles and labour on thousands of houses. It is also the most visually obvious thing in the room, it creates a junction that marks and eventually peels, and no amount of new tapware distracts from it.
Tiling full height is the single highest-impact tiling decision available in a Hills renovation. It costs more in tiles and labour, it removes a permanent maintenance item, and it is the change people most often say made the room feel new rather than refreshed.
Set-out is the job
Tile choice gets the attention; set-out does the work. Before anything is fixed, the tiler decides where full tiles land and where cuts fall.
Done well, cuts disappear into corners and behind the door, the niche is framed by full tiles, and the vanity wall reads symmetrically. Done badly, there is a 20mm strip beside the doorway that will annoy you for fifteen years.
Ask where the cuts are going before work starts. A competent tiler already knows, and in a rectangular project-home bathroom the answer should be straightforward.
Falls, and the hobless shower
Most Hills renovations replace a framed corner shower and its moulded base with a fixed panel and a floor tiled continuously into the shower.
That removes the base — which means the fall now has to be created in the screed and tile rather than moulded into a tray. It is entirely standard work and it is where a good tiler earns the money.
The test is simple and you can do it yourself before final payment: tip a bucket of water across the floor and watch. If it all reaches the waste, the fall is right. If a puddle sits and stays, it is not. Ponding is the most common finished-work complaint in a bathroom and far easier to correct before the job closes than after.
Niches
A tiled niche replaces the corner caddy and costs nothing in floor area. Two things decide whether it looks deliberate.
Position — between studs, at a usable height, centred within the tile set-out rather than wherever the framing allowed. Planned at rough-in, weeks before tiling.
Waterproofing — it is a hole in a wet wall, so the membrane detail matters more than the tiling. Formed, waterproofed and drained so water cannot sit in the base.
Choosing tile
Slip resistance on the floor, especially with a hobless shower where the wet area is larger. Rated tiles exist for this.
Format against room size. Larger suits larger spans. In a compact Hills ensuite a medium format often sits better than a very large one.
Finish. Matt and textured hide water marks and are more forgiving underfoot. Polished looks sharper and shows everything.
Grout, and living with it
Grout is the maintenance surface. Cement-based is standard and will stain over time in a shower; epoxy resists it, costs more and is harder to work with.
Sealing reduces absorption in grout and porous stone. It does not make anything waterproof, it is not a substitute for the membrane, and it wears — a sealed floor is a maintenance item rather than a permanent state.
Squeegee the shower walls, ventilate properly, expect to re-seal at intervals.
Ordering
Lead times on some ranges run to weeks. Running short mid-job risks a dye-lot mismatch. Order with sensible overage and confirm availability before the strip-out — this matters more when you are tiling full height, because the quantity is higher than a quote based on the old two-metre line.
Floor tile through to the hallway
A detail worth deciding early, because it affects the order the trades work in.
Running the same floor tile from the bathroom out into the hallway, or at least to a clean threshold, removes the strip of trim that project builders use to bridge two different floor finishes. It reads as deliberate rather than as two rooms bolted together.
The complication is height. A bathroom floor is built up for falls, so the finished level is usually slightly higher than the adjoining floor. Getting a flush or near-flush junction takes planning at the screed stage rather than a trim at the end.
If the hallway is carpet or timber it may not be worth it. If it is already tile, and particularly if you are replacing that tile anyway, it is one of those small decisions that makes a renovated room look like it belongs in the house.
Where it sits
After waterproofing and cure, before fit-off. The longest single trade stage of a full renovation.
Call 02 5944 1412 or send the details through.
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Questions people ask before they commit
Why does the tile line date a bathroom?
Because it was a cost decision, and it reads as one. Tiling to about two metres with painted plasterboard above was standard project-home practice through the 1990s and 2000s. The break is visually obvious, and the paint at the junction marks and peels over time. Tiling full height removes both problems permanently.
What is a tile set-out?
The plan for where full tiles land and where cuts fall, decided before anything is fixed. A good set-out centres the work on what people look at — the niche, the vanity wall, the shower — so cuts end up in corners. A bad one leaves a sliver beside the door that you notice every day.
How much fall does a hobless shower need?
Enough that water reaches the waste without ponding, to the gradients set out in the standards. The practical test after the job is a bucket of water on the floor: if it all drains, it is right. If it sits anywhere, it should be corrected before the account is settled.
Are large-format tiles a good idea?
Usually. Fewer grout lines read as calmer and there is less to maintain. The limit is set-out in small rooms, where a large format can leave awkward perimeter cuts. Ask the tiler where the cuts will land at quoting stage.
Cement grout or epoxy?
Cement grout is standard, cost-effective and porous enough to stain over time in a shower. Epoxy resists staining far better, costs more and is harder to work with, so it is more often specified on shower floors than across a whole room. Mid-tone colours age best either way.