Water damage repair cost: putting the house back

Drying is the first bill. The second is putting the house back: plasterboard, flooring, a bathroom or a kitchen that the water went through. That second bill can be much larger, and it is building work with its own rules. These are the published Australian prices this site could source for it.

Repair costs, by part of the house

Two gaps are deliberate. No ceiling repair price is given, because none could be read from its source. And no carpet price is given, because the hipages carpet laying page gives two different averages for the same thing; where a publisher disagrees with itself, this site publishes neither. The same rule is why hipages’ state-by-state hourly mould rates are not on the mould page.

Walls and ceilings

Wet plasterboard is either dried in place or cut out, and that decision is the drying company’s before it is the builder’s. Where it comes out, the replacement is priced by area: hipages, citing the ATO’s benchmark rates, gives $15 to $20 per square metre for plasterboard supply and install, and $25 to $250 or more for plaster repair, with a typical job around $70 per square metre. Where the ceiling or wall junction is replaced, cornice is priced by the metre: $4 to $16 per linear metre supplied and installed. Painting follows, and no interior painting price is published here, because none could be read from a source that states it.

The thing that moves this bill most is not the rate but the area. Plasterboard that is dried in place costs nothing to replace; plasterboard cut out to a line above the water mark is priced by the square metre of wall, plus cornice, plus paint. That is why the moisture readings from the drying matter to the rebuild: they are the evidence for how much has to come out, and a builder quoting without them has less to go on. Ceiling water damage covers when a ceiling can be dried and when it has to come down.

Floors

Timber that has cupped or swollen is either dried and sanded or replaced. hipages gives $50 to $75 per square metre to install solid timber, and the timber itself from $50 to $150 per square metre depending on grade. Timber veneer floating boards are $40 to $100 per square metre for the material, with installation on top. Where the existing timber can be dried and kept, sanding and finishing is $30 to $110 per square metre, depending on the finish, which is the difference between a repair and a replacement.

So the question to put to both the drying company and the flooring contractor is the same: can this floor be dried and sanded, or does it have to come up? The moisture readings are what answer it, and on a large floor the difference can run to thousands of dollars. Wet carpet covers carpet and underlay.

Bathrooms and kitchens

hipages gives $8,000 to $35,000 for a bathroom renovation, citing HIA data from 2023 for an average of $26,000, and $500 to $750 for waterproofing an average bathroom. The regulator’s figure for defective bathrooms is similar: Queensland Building and Construction Commission, Industry Snapshot Top 10 defects: Waterproofing reports almost $25,000 on average per residential bathroom claim finalised under the Queensland Home Warranty Scheme in 2024–25. If a leaking shower is behind the damage, the leaking shower guide covers whether the builder’s statutory warranty pays. Tiling labour is $35 to $120 per square metre on the same page, which is why a bathroom that only needs a section of floor retiled can cost a fraction of one that needs the membrane replaced.

Where kitchen cabinets have to come out, hipages gives $30,000 to $50,000 for a basic kitchen renovation; it publishes no figure for replacing cabinets alone, so none is given here.

The order, and who pays

1. Drying first. On the published rate card, two rooms dried over five days is $2,269 excluding GST. The cost page has the calculator.
2. Then the moisture reading. Nothing is closed up until the structure reads dry.
3. Then the rebuild, as building work. Above your state’s threshold the builder must hold statutory building-work insurance before taking a deposit: in New South Wales over $20,000 including GST, in Queensland more than $3,300 including materials, labour and GST. The city hub compares every state.

If the damage came from a listed event, the reinstatement is part of the insurance claim, The insurance section covers the claim.

Common questions