Shower Replacement Auckland

A new shower is mostly a water management job. Whether it stays dry underneath for the next twenty years comes down to the floor fall, the waste, the membrane and how the mixer is set into the wall. Those are decided before anything is tiled, and they are hard to fix afterwards.

Cheeky's Plumbers installs showers across Auckland, from a straight swap of an old acrylic unit to a new tiled wet floor shower in a bathroom that never had one. We plan the waste position, supply pipework and mixer with you, work alongside your waterproofer, tiler or builder, and tell you early whether the job needs building consent.

Pricing: quotes are free, and every job gets a fixed price before we start, so there are no surprises on the invoice.

Shower Replacement Jobs We Handle Across Auckland

• Shower installation
• New shower install
• Shower waterproofing
• Wet floor shower
• Level entry shower installation
• Replace shower with new unit

Tiled level-entry or a moulded unit?

Most new showers fall into two camps, and the choice changes the cost, timeline and paperwork.

A moulded acrylic or fibreglass unit comes with its own tray and walls. It is quick to fit, the fall is built into the tray, and it suits rentals and second bathrooms. A tiled shower, especially a level-entry or wet floor design with no step, looks better and suits anyone with limited mobility, but it relies on a site-applied membrane and a floor formed to fall to the waste. If your current shower only drips, leaks or runs cold, shower repairs may solve it without a new install.

• Acrylic or moulded unit: faster install, fewer trades, usually a like-for-like swap
• Tiled shower on a tray or with a hob: moderate build, membrane under the tiles
• Level-entry or wet floor shower: no step, floor graded to a floor waste or linear drain

Falls, membranes and the floor waste

For a shower with level access, BRANZ explains that E3/AS1 asks for a fall of at least 1:50 towards the floor waste, extending 1,500 mm from below the shower rose. An enclosed shower with upstands needs at least 1:60. Getting this wrong is the most common reason water ends up on the bathroom floor instead of down the drain.

Under the tiles, the waterproof membrane is what actually keeps water out of the framing. Acceptable Solution E3/AS2 cites the Waterproofing Membrane Association code of practice for internal wet-area membranes, and Level recommends flood testing the waterproofed floor before tiles go on. On timber or plywood floors the whole floor should be waterproofed, not just the shower area.

Membrane work is a specialist trade. The Government has announced work on a new licensed building practitioner class for internal waterproofing, but final details were not confirmed at the time of writing. We coordinate with qualified waterproofers and seal waste and mixer penetrations the way the membrane system requires.

How It Works

Does a new shower need building consent?

It depends on what is changing. MBIE guidance treats replacing or repositioning a shower within an existing bathroom in a house as exempt building work. Adding a shower where there was none increases the number of sanitary fixtures, and councils treat that as needing consent.

Tiled showers sit in a grey area. Auckland Council guidance says a tiled wet area shower needs consent because the membrane and carpentry are critical building work, while a 2024 MBIE determination found that installing a wet area membrane while replacing linings in an existing house can fall within the Schedule 1 exemption for linings. Lowering a concrete slab or altering floor framing for a level-entry shower moves you firmly back into consent territory.

The building owner is responsible for deciding whether work is exempt, so we talk it through before you commit. If consent is needed we supply the plumbing details, and it often makes sense to treat the job as part of wider bathroom renovation plumbing.

Choosing a mixer that suits your hot water

The mixer is set into the wall before tiling, so it has to be right first time. A mixer designed for mains pressure can perform badly on a low pressure header-tank system, and some rain heads need more flow than an older cylinder gives. We check your hot water and cold supply before recommending a valve.

Thermostatic mixers hold a set temperature when someone else turns on a tap, which is worth considering for children and older users. Hot water to a new shower should also be temperature-limited, usually through tempering valves at the cylinder, and we check yours is working while we are there. If pressure is the real problem, we can look at low water pressure across the house rather than just at the shower.

What affects the cost of a new shower

Every shower installation is quoted for free once we have seen the space, and the price is fixed before work starts. The main things that move the price are:

• Moulded unit swap versus a tiled or wet floor build
• Moving the waste, especially through a concrete slab
• Floor framing changes to create a level-entry fall
• Linear drains and concealed or thermostatic mixers
• Whether building consent and inspections are involved

Showers in Auckland homes

Villas and bungalows on piles usually give good access underneath, so moving a shower waste is often straightforward, though old timber floors may need new substrate before a membrane goes down. Slab homes, including many 1970s brick and tile houses and newer townhouses, make waste changes harder because the concrete may need cutting.

In 1990s monolithic-clad homes, a shower on an exterior wall deserves extra care at every penetration. Upstairs townhouse bathrooms often have little ceiling space below, so the waste route needs planning early. If an old shower has been leaking, we can arrange leak detection first so you are not tiling over damp framing.

Why Choose Cheeky's Plumbers for Shower Replacement

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Shower Replacement Across Auckland

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