Ask five builders what a home renovation costs and you will get five ranges, all of them wide. That is not evasion. It is because “renovation” covers everything from new paint and floors through to taking a house back to its frame.
What we can do is show you where the money actually goes in a Far North Queensland home, which is a different question from what it costs in Brisbane, and where the surprises come from. Most renovation budgets in Cairns are not blown by the kitchen. They are blown by what was found once the walls came off.
The three scopes, and what each usually includes
Almost every enquiry we get falls into one of three brackets. Knowing which one you are in is the fastest way to get a realistic number.
Cosmetic refresh. Nothing structural moves. New paint, flooring, lighting, tapware, benchtops, sometimes a new kitchen or bathroom in the existing footprint. Plumbing and electrical stay roughly where they are. This is the most predictable of the three because there is the least to discover.
Partial renovation. Walls move. You might open a kitchen into a living area, reconfigure a bathroom, or replace a roof. Plumbing and electrical get relocated. This is where compliance upgrades start being triggered, and where budgets start to vary.
Full structural renovation. The house is stripped back substantially. Re-wiring, re-plumbing, new roof, layout changed throughout, sometimes an extension added. At the top of this bracket you are close to the cost of a new build, and the honest question becomes whether renovating is still the right call.
Roughly what you should expect to spend
We are not going to publish a single whole of home figure, because it would be wrong for most houses that read it. What we can give you is a real anchor and an honest sense of scale.
The anchor. Our published bathroom renovation pricing is real and current: a standard bathroom renovation in Cairns starts from around $24,500 to $32,500, a mid range modern bathroom runs $35,000 to $50,000, and a luxury bathroom sits between $50,000 and $70,000 or above.
Hold that next to what a whole home renovation actually contains. One bathroom. Often a second. A kitchen. Flooring, painting and lighting throughout. Frequently electrical and plumbing work behind the walls that nobody sees and everybody pays for. That is why the honest answer to “what does a home renovation cost in Cairns” is a range wide enough to be useless as a single number, and why the three scopes above matter more than any figure.
The general shape of it:
- A cosmetic refresh is mostly finishes and labour. It is the most predictable of the three because there is the least to discover once you start.
- A partial renovation adds trades, compliance and coordination. Once walls move and services relocate, the cost per square metre climbs sharply, and it climbs again on an older home.
- A full structural renovation is the one that surprises people. At the upper end it approaches the cost of building new, and a good builder will tell you when you have reached that point instead of taking the job.
The single biggest variable is not the finishes you choose. It is the condition of the house you start with, which is what the next section is about.
Get a figure for your own house. If a bathroom is part of the job, our bathroom renovation cost calculator will price that portion in a couple of minutes. It only covers bathrooms, so for the whole renovation we come and look at the house and give you a fixed price before any work begins.
The five things that move the price most in a Cairns home
This is the part national cost guides cannot write, because these are Far North Queensland problems.
1. Termites and timber damage. In this climate, older timber framed homes get inspected properly for the first time when someone opens a wall. Damaged bearers, joists or studs have to be replaced before anything else proceeds. It is not optional and it is rarely visible when you are getting quotes.
2. Asbestos in pre 1990 homes. Common in eaves, wet area sheeting, vinyl backing and fencing. Removal must be done by a licensed remover and disposed of properly. It is a defined cost once identified, but it is one people do not budget for.
3. Bringing wiring and plumbing up to current code. Once you start altering circuits or relocating fixtures, the work you touch has to comply with today standards, not the standards from when the house was built. In a house that has not been touched in thirty years, a modest reconfiguration can pull a much larger scope along behind it.
4. Cyclone tie-down and structural upgrades. This is the big one, and it is specific to us. Cairns sits in a cyclonic wind region, and construction detailing and tie-down requirements here are more stringent than in non cyclonic zones. Structural work, particularly a new roof or an extension, can trigger upgrades to the connections holding the house together. A southern renovation of the same scope simply does not carry this cost.
5. Access and site conditions. Sloped blocks, narrow side access, no room for a skip or a truck. If materials have to be carried in by hand and spoil carried out the same way, labour hours climb on every trade.
None of these are reasons not to renovate. They are reasons to have them investigated before you commit to a number, rather than discovering them in week three.
Renovating, extending, or starting again
Worth asking honestly before you spend anything.
Renovate when the structure is sound, the footprint works, and what you dislike is the finish and the layout within the existing walls.
Extend when the house is good but too small. An extension buys space without giving up the location, the mature garden and the established street. Our Boden Street project in Edge Hill is exactly this, a home extension and renovation on an existing Cairns home.
Rebuild when the structure has significant problems, the layout fundamentally does not work, and the renovation cost is approaching replacement cost. A good builder will tell you when you have crossed that line. It is a shorter conversation than an expensive mistake.
If you are weighing an extension, our home renovations and extensions service page sets out how we handle them.
What is usually not in the quote
Check every quote for these. Their absence is the most common reason a final invoice does not match the number you agreed to.
- Council and certification fees, and the building certifier fee
- Engineering where structural work is involved
- Temporary accommodation if the house is unliveable during the works
- Appliances, furniture and window furnishings, which are frequently excluded
- Landscaping and reinstatement of the areas trades worked through
- Asbestos removal, usually excluded until it is confirmed present
- Provisional sums, which are estimates, not fixed prices
That last one deserves attention. A quote can look competitive because several items in it are provisional sums rather than fixed amounts. It is not dishonest, but it does mean the total is an estimate.
How to compare two renovation quotes
If two quotes are far apart, the difference is almost never that one builder is greedy. It is that they have priced different scopes.
- Check the inclusions line by line, not the totals.
- Count the provisional sums in each. More provisional sums means less certainty.
- Ask whether it is fixed price or cost plus. Both are legitimate. They are not comparable.
- Check the QBCC licence on the QBCC register, and confirm the class covers the work. MYBUILD Group holds QBCC licence 15218608 and Master Builders licence 81378.
- Ask what happens if something is found. Every renovation of an older home has a chance of discovering something. What matters is whether the builder has told you how that gets priced and approved before it happens.
- Ask who is on site. How much is done by the builder own team and how much is subcontracted, and who manages the trades.
For more on this, our guide to the essential questions for a successful home renovation goes further, and the top mistakes to avoid when renovating an older home in Cairns covers what tends to go wrong.
What this looks like on a real Cairns home
Rather than describe a hypothetical, here are whole home projects we have completed locally:
- Alexandra Street, Clifton Beach, a full internal renovation
- Windarra Street, Woree, a full home renovation
- Boden Street, Edge Hill, a home extension and renovation
- Sydney Street
Each one started with the same conversation this article is trying to have with you: what is the actual scope, and what might we find.
Get a number for your own project
If your renovation includes a bathroom, our bathroom renovation cost calculator will give you a range for that part in a couple of minutes. It is a starting point for the conversation, not a quote, and it does not cover the rest of the house.
When you want a real figure, we provide fixed price quotes before work begins, so you know what you are committing to. Get in touch and we will come and look at the house.
MYBUILD Group is a QBCC licensed builder (15218608) and Master Builders member (81378), based in Cairns North and working across Cairns and Far North Queensland.
