Tiler Chatswood

At Leerberg Tiling we specialise in the areas of bathroom tiling, floor and wall tiling, kitchen splashbacks, apartment and strata tiling, tile repairs and licensed waterproofing across Chatswood, Willoughby, Artarmon and the surrounding Lower North Shore. We are a family owned business with over 53 years in the tiling trade, fully licensed and insured, and we do all the work ourselves rather than sending subcontractors. The same team handles your job from the first measure through to the final grout line.

There’s more on the areas we cover on our North Shore tiling page, or back to the Leerberg Tiling home page.

Our Chatswood tiling services at a glance

Apartment and unit bathroom tiling
Strata wet area renovations and balcony remediation
High-rise and over-station tower tiling
Floor and wall tiling, including large format and natural stone
Kitchen splashbacks and floor tiling
Waterproofing to Australian Standards (AS 3740 and AS 4654)
Tile repairs, regrouting and resealing

Tiling in Chatswood: The Local Issues

Chatswood is the most vertical suburb on the North Shore, and that single fact drives almost every tiling job here.
It is the commercial heart of the City of Willoughby, built around the Chatswood Transport Interchange where the North Shore line meets the Metro, and its skyline is dense with apartment towers in a way no other North Shore suburb is.
The work that comes from that is overwhelmingly high-rise: unit bathrooms, tower balconies, and strata wet areas, set against the older brick and Federation homes of Willoughby and Artarmon on the surrounding ridge. A generic page that just swaps a suburb name in cannot tell you that a Chatswood tiling job is far more likely to be on the fifteenth floor than the ground.
Underneath it all the ridge sits on Wianamatta shale over the underlying sandstone, so the shale-derived clays here behave differently to the shallow sandy soils of the harbour-side suburbs. But in Chatswood the ground matters far less than the building, because so much of the suburb is concrete towers rather than slabs on soil. The defining tiling challenge here is height, density and the particular generations of apartment stock that fill the centre.

Apartment and Unit Bathroom Tiling

The unit bathroom is the single most common job we do in Chatswood.
These are tight, fully tiled wet areas on a concrete slab, often many floors up, where a waterproofing failure does not just damage one home, it tracks straight down into the unit below and becomes a building-wide problem.
We strip back, confirm the substrate, build the falls so water runs to the waste, and lay a continuous membrane to AS 3740 across the floor, up the shower walls and over hobs before any tile goes on.
In a tower, the waterproofing is the part that matters most, because in Chatswood the consequences of getting it wrong land on a neighbour, an owners corporation and sometimes a whole floor of units.

Over-Station and High-Rise Tower Tiling

Some of Chatswood’s newest residential towers are built on a podium directly above the rail and Metro concourse, with apartments and shared podium gardens sitting high above the tracks below.
Tiling in over-station and podium-deck structures is a different proposition to a standard apartment block.
Podium decks and the levels above active rail carry their own movement and waterproofing demands, so falls, membranes and movement joints all have to be right, and an external podium or terrace over occupied space below must be waterproofed to AS 4654 with falls that actually carry water to the outlets.
We tile and waterproof in these high-rise and over-station settings with the structure, the movement and the levels below all in mind, rather than treating a fifteenth-floor terrace like a backyard courtyard.

Strata, Balcony and Defect Remediation

Chatswood’s apartment stock falls into two very different generations, and they fail in different ways.
There are the older towers from the 1980s and 1990s around the commercial centre, where original waterproofing membranes have simply reached the end of their life, and there is a large wave of high-rises built during the recent apartment boom, an era in which waterproofing has been the single most common serious building defect reported across newly built NSW apartments.
Both generations generate the same call: a leaking wet area or balcony that has become a strata dispute.
We begin by establishing where the water is actually getting in, because in a tower the damage often shows up well away from the source, then carry out compliant remedial waterproofing and retiling, working in with the owners corporation, strata manager and building access requirements.
Apartment balconies in particular need an external membrane to AS 4654, correct falls and slip resistant tiles, because a balcony leak in a tower quickly becomes the problem of the unit below.
We keep the site clean and protected throughout, which matters in an occupied building.

Floor, Wall and Kitchen Tiling

Beyond the towers, we tile the older brick and Federation homes of Willoughby and Artarmon on the ridge, laying floor and wall tiles, kitchen splashbacks and floors.
On these the shale-clay ground does matter, so we check and prepare substrates before laying, use crack isolation where movement is a risk, set out so cuts fall evenly and large format tiles sit flat, and cut splashbacks neatly around power points and cabinetry.
Whether it is a high-rise unit refresh or a Federation house renovation, we match the tile and finish to the property.

Tile Repairs

Cracked or drummy tiles, failing grout, tired joints and leaking showers can often be repaired without redoing a whole room.
We replace damaged tiles to match as closely as we can, renew grout and reseal so the surface stays watertight.
In Chatswood’s apartments we are often called to sort out a leaking wet area or balcony before it becomes a bigger strata problem, and we assess whether a repair will hold or whether the area needs stripping and redoing.

Recent Chatswood Projects

Archer Street, Chatswood — leaking tower bathroom traced to a failed floor membrane. The owners corporation called us after a unit two floors down reported water staining on the ceiling. We started with a leak investigation rather than assuming the obvious, and found the leak was not coming from the unit directly above but from a bathroom higher up the line, where the original floor membrane had failed at the junction between the floor and the shower hob. We stripped the wet area back to the substrate, rebuilt the falls to the waste, laid a new membrane to AS 3740 across the floor and up the walls, and retiled. The downstairs staining stopped.
Victoria Avenue, Chatswood — podium balcony over occupied space. On a tower balcony sitting above an apartment below, water had been pooling rather than draining and had begun tracking through to the ceiling beneath. We lifted the tiles, found the falls ran the wrong way toward the building, re-screeded to establish correct falls to the outlet, laid a new external membrane to AS 4654, and retiled with a slip resistant tile. The balcony now sheds water away from the building.
Mowbray Road, Willoughby — cracked floor in an older brick home on the ridge. In a Federation-era home on the shale ridge, a tiled floor had cracked along a line across the living area. We found the tiles had been laid straight onto a substrate with no allowance for movement. We took up the affected area, installed a crack isolation membrane, set movement joints, and relaid with large format tiles set out to sit flat.
All work is completed by our own licensed tradesmen, not subcontractors.

Areas We Service

Leerberg Tiling service
Chatswood,
Chatswood West,
Willoughby,
North Willoughby,
Artarmon,
Naremburn,
Castlecrag,
Castle Cove and the surrounding Lower North Shore.
We work on apartment towers, strata buildings, brick and Federation homes and commercial properties across the area.

Why Choose Leerberg Tiling Pty Ltd?

Family owned with over 53 years experience
Fully licensed and insured, all work warranted
No subcontractors, the same team start to finish
Experienced with high-rise unit bathrooms, over-station towers, strata wet areas and balcony remediation
Waterproofing to standard, never skipped or rushed
Fixed written quotes measured on site, no hidden fees

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you do tiling in Chatswood’s apartment towers?

Yes, it is the majority of our Chatswood work. We tile unit bathrooms and balconies and carry out compliant strata remediation in high-rise buildings, working in with owners corporations and building access.

Do you tile balconies and podium areas in high-rise buildings?

Yes. Apartment balconies and podium terraces over occupied space need an external membrane to AS 4654, correct falls and slip resistant tiles, which we install so water runs away rather than into the home below.

Why do so many Chatswood apartments have waterproofing problems?

The suburb has both older towers whose original membranes have aged out, and newer high-rises from a building era in which waterproofing has been the most common serious defect in NSW apartments. Both lead to leaking wet areas and balconies, which we remediate to standard.

Who pays for balcony waterproofing in a strata building?

It depends on the strata plan and by-laws. The membrane is often common property while surface tiles can be the lot owner’s, so a leak investigation to establish the source is the sensible first step, and we can carry out the remedial work either way.

Do you remove the old tiles?

Yes, demolition and removal of old tiles is part of the job where a wet area or floor is being redone.