Why This Matters to You
Most people booking a bathroom renovation think of the electrician as one visit. It's three, and the first one has to happen before the demolition crew arrives.
This was a full strip-out in Wynn Vale. New tiling, new bath, new shower, new vanity, and with it a new set of circuits into a room that was built for far less. Nothing about it was unusual, which is exactly why it's worth writing up: this is what the electrical side of a normal bathroom renovation actually looks like, in the order it happens.
Visit One: Before Anything Gets Knocked Down
The first job was to come in ahead of demolition and disconnect the existing fittings, then leave the room safe to be pulled apart.
This is the visit people forget to book, and it's the one that matters most. A bathroom that's about to be gutted still has live cables in the walls and ceiling feeding a light, a fan and whatever else was there. Somebody swinging a bar at a wall sheet has no way of knowing where those cables run. Disconnecting and isolating them properly first is a short visit that removes the risk entirely.
It also means the demolition crew can work without stopping, which is usually what the builder actually cares about. If you're project-managing the renovation yourself, put this visit in the calendar before the skip bin.
Visit Two: Cabling, With the Walls Open
Once the room was stripped back, everything went in at once while the framing was exposed. That's the only window where cabling is cheap, and it closes as soon as the plasterer starts.
This is also the point where every position gets locked in. Switch heights, the powerpoint location, where the downlight lands, where the fans go. Once tiles are on those decisions are permanent, so they get agreed on site with the walls open rather than assumed.
Two Fans, Not One
The room got a combined heat light, exhaust fan and light unit in the ceiling, which is the standard fitting for an Adelaide bathroom and does three jobs adequately. Then it got a second, dedicated exhaust fan directly above the shower.
That second fan is the detail worth stealing. A three-in-one unit sits in the middle of the ceiling because that's where the heat lamps need to be to warm someone standing on the mat. But the steam isn't in the middle of the room, it's in the shower, and by the time it has drifted across the ceiling to reach the fan it has already condensed on everything on the way.
Putting a dedicated extractor directly above the shower catches the moisture where it's produced. Mould in a bathroom is almost always a ventilation problem rather than a cleaning problem, and the cheapest time to solve it's while the ceiling is open. It costs a fan and a bit of ducting at rough-in. Retrofitting one afterwards costs a ceiling.
Both fans duct outside rather than into the roof space. Venting wet air into a roof cavity moves the problem somewhere nobody looks.
Switching Them Separately
The three-in-one unit and the room lighting are switched from a single plate, but each function has its own switch: light, fan, heat.
That sounds obvious and often isn't done. Where a three-in-one is wired to a single switch you can't run the fan on its own, which means every shower in summer also runs two 275-watt heat lamps. Separating them is a slightly larger switch plate and no extra work if it's decided at rough-in.
A downlight went in above the vanity, centred on the mirror. Vanity lighting is the one position in a bathroom worth being fussy about, because a light behind you throws your own shadow onto your face in the mirror. Centred and slightly forward is what makes the room usable for shaving and makeup, and it's a free decision if it's made before the ceiling is closed. There's more on fitting choice on our downlights and LED lighting page.
The Powerpoint Beside the Vanity
One new powerpoint went in next to the vanity. Older bathrooms frequently have none at all, and a modern one needs at least one for a shaver, a hair dryer or an electric toothbrush.
The wiring rules set zones around the bath, shower and basin, and socket outlets have to sit clear of them. In a small bathroom that rules out a surprising amount of wall, so the position is worked out on site with the vanity dimensions in hand, not guessed from a plan. It also has to miss the tile joins and the mirror, which is a conversation with the tiler rather than a calculation.
Visit Three: Fitting Off After the Tiler
The last visit came after tiling was finished, to install the fittings and terminate everything: the fans, the light, the switches, the powerpoint.
Splitting the work this way isn't padding, it's the only order that works. Fittings can't go on until the wall surface is final, and cables can't go in once it is. Three short visits spread across the renovation is normal and it should be in the programme from the start.
If You're Planning One
Three things are worth sorting before the job starts.
Book the electrician before the demolition, not after. It's the shortest visit of the three and the only one with a safety consequence if it's skipped.
Decide the fittings early. A heat light, a second exhaust, a heated towel rail or a backlit mirror each need a supply in a specific place. They're trivial at rough-in and expensive afterwards.
Check the switchboard while you're at it. Adding circuits to a bathroom is a sensible moment to look at whether the board can carry them and whether it has proper RCD protection. If yours has ceramic fuses or a single safety switch covering the whole house, our switchboard upgrades page is worth a read before you set the budget.
We're based in Wynn Vale and work right across the north-eastern suburbs. There's more about what we do locally on our Wynn Vale electrician page, and on renovation electrical generally.
