Bathroom landed in Adelaide

The bathroom we priced

1200 wall-hung vanity with stone top, basin, basin mixer, shower rail and rose with a concealed mixer, toilet suite with concealed cistern, towel rail and accessories. Tiles priced separately.

Landed in Adelaide, line by line

Every line from the factory gate to your site. Low, middle and high use the low, middle and high of every published rate at once. Estimate: no delivered Elje job sits behind this figure yet.

Shipped with a kitchen

On its own, a bathroom pays the full set of fixed charges and Elje's minimum fees. Added to a kitchen in the same shipment it adds about $4,254 to the kitchen's landed price ($3,296 to $5,554), because the port, broker, delivery and Project Plan are already paid. Estimate.

Against Adelaide prices

Supply only is the fair comparison with a landed price; installed prices include labour, which you pay either way.

The local set is priced from real products at an Australian online retailer that ships nationally: a Timberline or Parisi 1200 vanity, Phoenix or Gessi tapware, a Caroma or Villeroy and Boch wall-faced toilet suite. Many were on sale.

Is it worth it?

Not on its own. Shipped alone it lands at about $7,909, inside the $5,900 to $10,100 a local set costs, because one bathroom carries a whole shipment's fixed charges. Shipped with a kitchen it adds about $4,254, well under the local price. Estimate.

The Adelaide market

Adelaide is the cheapest of the eight on the cost index, about 8 percent under Brisbane: kitchens $11,050 to $41,400 installed, bathrooms $9,200 to $32,200, tiling labour $37 to $92 per m2. Stone fabrication is 15 to 20 percent cheaper per metre than in Sydney or Melbourne. Cheaper local prices mean a smaller gap to landed here than on the east coast.

How it gets to Adelaide

Foshan factory to Nansha, Shekou or Yantian, then a service to Outer Harbor, often with a stop or a transhipment on the way, then about 25 km by road to the city.

One container terminal, Flinders Adelaide Container Terminal at Outer Harbor, about 25 km north-west of the city.

Most Adelaide suburbs take a container at the kerb. Older inner-east streets can be narrow; ask before booking a 40 ft.

What moves the number

• Vanity size and top. A 1200 vanity with a stone top costs about twice a 900 with a ceramic top.
• Cistern. A concealed cistern and panel costs more than a close-coupled suite, and needs a wall cavity ready for it.
• Finish. Brushed brass, gunmetal and other PVD finishes cost more than chrome at the factory, but far less than the same finish here.
• Two factories. Tapware and sanitary ware often come from a different factory to the vanity, so two inspections.
• Tiles are priced separately. See tiles.

What it has to comply with

• Every tap, mixer, waste, toilet and cistern needs a current WaterMark certificate in the maker's name. A licensed plumber is not permitted to install a product without it.
• Toilets, taps and showers need WELS registration and labelling before supply.
• Toilets and basins: tariff 6910.10.00, general duty 5 percent, Free from China with a certificate of origin.

Notes for Adelaide

Hot dry summers and mild winters. Check veneers and solid timber are kiln-dried to suit dry air, and specify UV-stable finishes outdoors.

• Adelaide has fewer direct calls from South China than the east coast ports, so transit is longer and less predictable. Build the extra weeks into the program.
• Shared-container (LCL) services into Adelaide are thinner. Some forwarders route LCL through Melbourne and truck it across; ask which.
• Plumbing and building work is licensed through Consumer and Business Services SA. Imported WaterMark and RCM products go in the same way as local ones.

Questions