Bathroom RenovationsStrip-Out to HandoverFully Waterproofed
Complete bathroom renovations across Harare — strip-out, plumbing, waterproofing, tiling and sanitaryware delivered as one coordinated package by one accountable team.
Service overview
A bathroom concentrates more trades into fewer square metres than any other room. Demolition, drainage, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, screeding, tiling, joinery, glazing and decoration all have to happen in a space where two people can barely work at once — and in a strict order, because each one buries the last.
That sequencing is where bathroom projects fail. When a homeowner coordinates separate trades, the tiler arrives before the waterproofing has cured, or the plumber comes back to chase a pipe into a finished wall. Nobody is responsible for the result, and everyone blames the trade before them.
Tawaka Contracting delivers bathroom renovations in Harare as a single package. One programme, one supervisor, one company accountable for whether the finished room leaks.
We work on single family bathrooms and en-suites, and on multi-unit refurbishment for landlords, complexes and guest houses. The tiling and decoration are our own trades, not subcontracted.
Why Tawaka
Everything that determines whether a bathroom survives is hidden behind the finish. These are the stages you will never see, and they are the ones we will not compromise.
Our process
Eight stages in a fixed order. Each one buries the one before it, so none can be revisited cheaply.
We measure the room, locate the soil stack and drainage runs, and establish what layout changes are actually possible. You get honest answers on moving the toilet before you fall in love with a plan.
An itemised quotation covering strip-out, plumbing, electrical, waterproofing, tiling, sanitaryware and decoration, with a programme and a materials schedule.
Doorway sealed, route protected, then the room stripped back to substrate. Old tiles, screed, sanitaryware and any saturated material removed and cleared.
Plumbing supply and waste altered to the new layout, electrical runs for lighting, extraction and heated rails installed, and any partition or noggin work completed.
Walls made good and flat, floor screeded to level or to falls towards the drain, and moisture-resistant board installed where required.
Liquid tanking membrane applied across the wet zone and up the walls, reinforced at all corners, junctions and pipe penetrations, then cured and checked.
Room set out and tiled, grouted after full cure, then sanitaryware, taps, screens, mirrors and accessories installed and all services tested.
Ceiling and remaining walls painted, silicone applied to all junctions, room cleaned, then walked with you and every snag closed before sign-off.
Applications
One family bathroom, or forty identical units on a rolling programme — the method is the same, the logistics are not.
Family bathrooms, en-suites, guest cloakrooms and wet rooms in homes across Harare.
Offices, guest houses, schools and public buildings where the specification is driven by traffic and cleaning rather than by taste.
Materials & systems
You choose the visible items. We specify the concealed ones, because those are what determine whether the room is still sound in ten years.
| Element | What we use and why |
|---|---|
| Tanking membrane | Liquid-applied waterproofing over the full wet zone, reinforced with tape at corners, junctions and pipe penetrations. |
| Moisture-resistant board | To all humid areas and shower walls in place of standard plasterboard, which softens and fails in wet conditions. |
| Screed | Laid to level or to falls towards the drain, at correct thickness for the tile finish above, and cured before tiling. |
| Porcelain tiling | Low water absorption and hard-wearing, with anti-slip rating specified for shower and wet floor areas. |
| Flexible adhesive | Modified adhesive suited to wet areas and to movement, with full coverage under every tile. |
| Grout and silicone | Cementitious or epoxy grout depending on use, with silicone to all movement junctions rather than rigid grout that will crack. |
| Drainage | Point or linear drains set at the low point of the designed falls, with correct trap depth and rodding access. |
| Sanitaryware | Supplied by us or by you. Wall-hung units fixed to purpose-built frames or noggins, never to plasterboard alone. |
| Mechanical extraction | Ducted to outside air, sized for the room, and where useful run on a timer or humidistat. |
| Mould-resistant paint | To ceilings and non-tiled walls, over a properly sealed and ventilated substrate. |
Benefits
Recent related projects
Completed
Residential · Kamfinsa, Harare
Room taken back to substrate, walls made good, floor re-screeded, wet area tanked and checked, then tiled and fitted out. Handed over sealed, grouted and snag-free.
Completed
Residential · Harare
Complete rebuild delivered to programme, with waterproofing tested before tiling began and the room handed back cleaned rather than merely finished.
Completed
Commercial · Harare
Hard-wearing wall and floor systems installed in a high-traffic public washroom, phased so part of the facility remained available throughout.
Questions answered
Practical answers from our team in Harare. Still unsure? Ask us directly.
A standard full bathroom refit in Harare runs one to three weeks depending on scope, and that assumes materials are on site before we start.
The programme is driven by curing times rather than labour. Waterproofing must cure before tiling, adhesive must cure before grouting, and grout must cure before the room is used.
No — a bathroom under renovation is out of service from strip-out until handover. If it is the only bathroom in the house, tell us at survey stage.
Where the property has more than one bathroom we sequence them so you always keep one working. For single-bathroom homes we can compress the programme and work continuous days to shorten the gap.
After the substrate is prepared and screeded to fall, a liquid tanking membrane is applied over the shower area and floor, taken up the walls to the required height, and reinforced with tape at every internal corner and pipe penetration.
It is then left to cure fully and checked before tiling. This is the single most important stage, and it is completely invisible once the room is finished — which is exactly why it gets skipped by others.
Yes. Plumbing first and second fix, waste and supply alterations, shower valves and traps are part of the package, as is electrical work for lighting, extraction, heated rails and shaver points.
Because we coordinate both alongside the building trades, nothing has to be chased back into a finished wall afterwards.
Usually yes, but it depends on where the soil stack and drainage runs are. Moving a basin or shower is generally straightforward; moving a toilet is more involved because the waste needs adequate fall to the stack.
We check the existing drainage at survey and tell you plainly what is achievable and what it will cost before you commit to a layout.
We can supply everything, or you can choose and buy the sanitaryware and tiles yourself and we install them. Many clients enjoy selecting fittings and leave the technical items to us.
If you are supplying, order early and have everything on site before we start. Waiting on a delayed shower tray with a stripped-out bathroom is the most common cause of overrun.
We find the source before rebuilding. Long-term leaks often mean saturated screed, rotten timber or damaged ceilings in the room below, and all of that has to be dealt with at strip-out.
Tiling over a wet substrate traps the moisture and guarantees the new bathroom fails too.
Poor extraction is the main cause of mould, peeling paint and black grout in Zimbabwean bathrooms. We install mechanical extraction ducted to outside, not into a roof void.
Moisture-resistant board, mould-resistant paint and adequate ventilation together solve a problem that repainting alone never will.
Yes, and it is mostly about layout and light rather than knocking walls out. A wall-hung basin or toilet, a walk-in shower instead of a bath, large-format tiles with minimal joints, and a well-placed mirror all make a real difference.
We will suggest options at survey stage, including whether borrowing space from an adjoining room is practical.
Yes. A wet room needs the whole floor tanked and graded to a linear or point drain, with the correct fall so water does not pool.
It is the most technically demanding bathroom to build correctly, and the least forgiving of poor waterproofing.
Strip-out is dusty and noisy — there is no way around that. We seal the doorway, protect the route in and out with sheeting, remove rubble daily and sweep at the end of every day.
The room is handed back cleaned, not just finished.
We work throughout Harare from Greendale, including Borrowdale, Highlands, Avondale, Mount Pleasant, Marlborough, Belgravia, Chisipite, Newlands, Glen Lorne and Kamfinsa.
We also take on multi-unit bathroom refurbishment for landlords, complexes and guest houses.
Where we work
We work from 33 Western Road, Greendale, and cover Harare and the surrounding suburbs. Travel time matters on a project like this — being local means we can get back to site quickly if something needs attention after handover.
Outside these areas? Tell us where the property is and we will let you know honestly whether we can deliver our standard there.
Related services
Most projects need more than one trade. We run them under a single contract so the sequencing is our problem, not yours — see all services or browse our completed projects.
Tell us the property, the suburb and roughly what needs doing. We will visit, measure properly and send an itemised quotation — no obligation.