Should an old amenities block be refurbished or rebuilt?

Many schools, parks and sports grounds have amenities blocks that are decades old. Sooner or later the owner has to decide whether to fix the existing building or replace it.

The answer comes from the building itself and from what the block now has to do.

Start with the structure

The first question is whether the building itself is sound. That takes a proper look at the walls, the slab, the roof framing and the drainage under the floor, because a block that looks tired on the inside can be perfectly sound underneath, and one that looks tidy can be moving.

If the structure is in good condition, a refurbishment can strip the inside back and rebuild the fit-out while keeping the shell. If the slab has moved, the walls have cracked through or the roof framing is failing, new finishes would sit on a building that is still breaking down.

Then the layout

An old block was designed for the rules and the needs of its time. A brief today often asks for more: accessible toilets, ambulant cubicles, separate changerooms for each team, rooms for officials and easier spaces to clean.

Some layouts can be reworked to fit. At the Memorial Oval Cricket Ground in Bankstown, Monument carried out a complete internal strip-out and structural modification to turn the existing building into multi-use amenities that meet Cricket Australia guidelines.

Some cannot. When the footprint is too small, or the walls that would have to move are the ones holding up the roof, a new building is the simpler answer.

Heritage changes the question

If the block is part of a heritage building, replacing it is often off the table. The work then has to bring the amenities up to current standards while protecting the original fabric.

Monument did this at Concord Public School, upgrading the toilet amenities to new facilities standards on a heritage building while respecting its heritage fabric. More on school amenities is in how school toilet and amenity blocks are upgraded.

How long the site can go without

A refurbishment works inside the existing building, so the site loses those toilets while the work runs. A new building can sometimes go up beside the old one, which stays in use until the new one opens.

Either way the work is planned around the people using the site. Monument refurbishes existing council and institutional amenities in a sequence that fits inside operating hours, and it completed the Como West Public School staff amenities during normal operating hours. Where a fixed school holiday break is available, the work can run straight through it and hand back before the new term.

What a new building involves

A new amenity or clubhouse building runs from earthworks through to fit-out. It needs new services connected, often across a park or a school, along with the approvals a new structure requires.

Monument's council examples include the architecturally designed amenity buildings within the new recreational playground zone at Parry Park, Lakemba. The rooms a sports building needs are set out in what rooms a sports clubhouse or changeroom building needs.

What decides how long it lasts

Whichever way the decision goes, amenities wear out from water, heavy use and vandalism. The details that decide how long they last are covered in what makes amenities buildings difficult to build well.

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