Bathroom vanity replacement cost Melbourne: a breakdown
Quick answer: A bathroom vanity replacement costs between $800 and $4,500 in Australia, and most people spend around $2,200. A like-for-like swap reusing the existing plumbing sits at the bottom of that range. The number only moves sharply for one of two reasons: the new unit needs the plumbing moved, or the wall behind the old one turns out to be wet.
What a bathroom vanity replacement costs
This is one of the few renovation numbers that is genuinely predictable, as long as nothing is hiding behind the old unit. Three tiers cover almost every job.
| Tier | Range | What that covers |
|---|---|---|
| Budget, like for like | $800 to $2,000 | A PVC or melamine vanity in the same spot, same size, reusing the existing plumbing. No tiling touched, no wall moved. |
| Mid-range, most common | $1,500 to $2,500 | Timber or engineered stone top, better cabinetry and tapware, minor plumbing adjustment. Published guides put the typical spend near $2,200. |
| Premium or custom | $3,500 to $5,000+ | Stone benchtop, custom or wall-hung cabinetry, relocated plumbing, sometimes new tiling to suit a different footprint. |
Those are market ranges from published Australian cost guides, cross-checked across several independent 2026 sources. They are not a gutted. quote. We do not price a job we have not seen.
What sits inside the price
The vanity itself is often less than half the total. The rest is labour and making good, and it is the part quotes tend to leave vague.
| Line item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Removing and disposing of the old vanity | $150 to $500 |
| Plumbing disconnection and reconnection | $200 to $600 |
| Licensed plumber, hourly | $80 to $150 |
| Wall patching and painting afterwards | $200 to $500 |
| Rubbish removal and disposal fees | $50 to $150 |
| Water damage repair, if it is there | $500 to $2,000 |
Note the last row. It is the only line on that list that is not a decision you get to make.
What you find when the old vanity comes off
Nearly every cost guide on this job is written by somebody who sells vanities. So they are good on the price of the unit and quiet on the part that actually decides your budget, which is the condition of the wall behind the one you are removing.
A vanity sits against a wall in the wettest room in the house for fifteen or twenty years. Four things turn up regularly.
Failed silicone and a wet wall
The join between the old top and the wall is the first thing to go. Water tracks behind the vanity for years without showing on the outside. Pull the unit off and the plasterboard behind it is soft, dark, or already crumbling.
Waterproofing that stops too low
In older bathrooms the membrane sometimes stops at the old vanity height, or was never carried up the wall at all. A new vanity with a different profile can sit outside the waterproofed zone entirely, which is a problem you cannot silicone over.
Tiling that does not continue
Plenty of bathrooms were tiled around the vanity rather than behind it. Remove a 900mm unit and replace it with a 750mm one and you have exposed bare wall or a patch of missing tile with no matching stock available.
Plumbing in the wrong place
Wall-hung units need the waste and water at a specific height. A floor-standing vanity hides everything behind a kickboard, so the existing pipework is often nowhere near where a wall-hung unit needs it. That is a plumber and a wall opened up, not a swap.
None of it is visible while the old vanity is still on the wall. Which is why the useful question to ask a quote for this job is not what the vanity costs. It is what happens to the price if the wall behind it is wet.
When a vanity swap is telling you the bathroom needs doing
There is a fork in this job and it is worth naming, because the two branches are two very different amounts of money.
Branch one: the wall is sound, the waterproofing is intact, the new unit covers the old footprint. That is a vanity replacement and it costs what the table above says. Do it and move on.
Branch two: the wall is wet, the membrane has failed, and the vanity is the third thing in the room that needs attention. At that point the vanity is a symptom rather than the job. Patching around failed waterproofing buys you a few years and you pay for the room twice.
A full bathroom renovation with gutted. runs $18,000 to $40,000 as a written fixed price. That is a big step up from $2,200 and we are not going to pretend otherwise. But if the membrane has gone, the choice is not between $2,200 and $18,000. It is between doing the room once and doing it twice. Our bathroom renovation cost breakdown sets out where that money actually goes, and the budget bathroom guide covers how to keep it at the lower end.
Wall-hung or freestanding, and why it changes the plumbing
Wall-hung vanities look lighter and make a small bathroom feel bigger, which is why they get specified constantly in apartments and worker's cottages where floor space is tight.
The catch is underneath. A floor-standing unit hides the waste and the water behind a kickboard, so the pipework can be roughly wherever it ended up. A wall-hung unit exposes everything below it and needs the waste and water at set heights, plus fixing into something that will carry the load.
Switching from one to the other usually means opening the wall, moving the rough-in and patching the tiling. That is the difference between the bottom tier and the top tier of the table above, and it is a plumbing decision dressed up as a styling one. If the bathroom is small enough that this matters, our small bathroom ideas covers what else earns its space in there.
DIY or a licensed plumber
Fitting the cabinet is carpentry. Connecting it is not. Plumbing work on the water supply or the waste has to be done by a licensed plumber in Victoria, and that licence is checkable on the public register rather than taken on trust.
The genuine DIY saving on this job is a few hundred dollars. The genuine DIY risk is a slow leak behind a new vanity that nobody notices for two years, which lands you back at the wet-wall branch with a bigger number than you started with. Cost guides put water damage repair at $500 to $2,000 when it is caught, and considerably more when it is not.
The investment property version of this job
Sinta A. in Southbank came to us with an investment property and a hard requirement: the number could not move, because the whole point was to get it tenanted without eating the return. We gave a figure in writing and held it through completion, and the finish was good enough to attract tenants straight away. Worth saying because a vanity is very often the first thing an investor looks at in a tired bathroom, and the question underneath it is always the same one. Not what does it cost, but will the number I am told be the number I pay.
A tidy site is not a bonus on a bathroom job
Worth saying plainly because it applies to this job more than almost any other. When the vanity is out, the household is usually down to one bathroom, or none. People are still living in the house, brushing their teeth at the kitchen sink, working around it.
Leaving a site messy overnight in that situation is not untidiness, it is a week of someone's life made worse for no reason. Dust sheeted, tools away, floor swept, every day. That is baseline respect for somebody's home, not a service upgrade, and a trade who treats it as optional on a one-day vanity swap will treat it as optional on a three-week bathroom.
Worth knowing
If you want a like-for-like vanity swap and the wall behind it is sound, you do not need a builder for this. You need a good licensed plumber and half a day. Calling in a renovation company for a $1,500 job means paying for project management you are not using. We will say that on the phone rather than send someone out to quote it.
Call us when the wall behind it is wet, when the vanity is one of several things the room needs, or when moving the plumbing has turned a swap into a small renovation. That is the point where having every trade under one crew starts being worth something.
Common questions
How much does it cost to replace a bathroom vanity?
Published Australian cost guides put a full vanity replacement between $800 and $4,500, with most homeowners spending around $2,200. A like-for-like swap using existing plumbing sits at the bottom of that. A stone-top or wall-hung unit with relocated plumbing sits at the top.
What is included in the cost of replacing a vanity?
The unit itself, removal and disposal of the old one, plumbing disconnection and reconnection, and making good the wall and floor afterwards. Removal runs roughly $150 to $500, plumbing reconnection $200 to $600, and wall patching and painting $200 to $500 on top of the vanity price.
Do I need a licensed plumber to install a bathroom vanity?
For anything involving the water supply or the waste, yes. Plumbing work in Victoria has to be done by a licensed plumber, and the licence is checkable on the public register. You can fit a vanity cabinet yourself, but connecting it is regulated work for good reason.
What do you find when you take an old vanity off the wall?
Most commonly a wet or soft wall behind the old silicone join, waterproofing that stops too low, or tiling that was never carried behind the unit. None of that is visible until the vanity is off, which is why a fixed price for a vanity swap should say what happens if the wall behind it is wet.
Is a wall-hung vanity more expensive to install?
Usually yes, not because of the unit but because of the plumbing. Wall-hung units need the waste and water at set heights and need fixing into something structural. If the existing pipework was set up for a floor-standing unit, the wall has to be opened to move it.
Can I replace a vanity without retiling the bathroom?
Often, provided the new unit covers at least the same footprint as the old one. Go smaller or change from floor-standing to wall-hung and you can expose untiled wall or floor. Matching tile on an older bathroom is usually impossible, so the size of the new unit matters more than people expect.
When is replacing the vanity not worth it on its own?
When the wall behind it is wet, the waterproofing has failed, or the vanity is the third thing in the room that needs doing. At that point the vanity is a symptom. A full bathroom renovation with gutted. runs $18,000 to $40,000 as a written fixed price, and doing it once costs less than doing it in pieces.
How long does a vanity replacement take?
A straight like-for-like swap is usually a day, sometimes half of it. Add relocated plumbing, wall repair or tiling and it becomes two or three days with a plumber booked for part of it. If the wall behind is wet, the honest answer is that the job has changed and needs re-quoting before it goes further.
If the vanity turns out to be the start of a bigger job, see the bathroom renovation cost breakdown and ensuite renovation costs. Before signing anything, read what should be in a renovation quote. See finished work on our work page. Plumbers' licences are checkable through the Building and Plumbing Commission, and general contract guidance is on Consumer Affairs Victoria.