Restumping Melbourne Homes — Level Floors on Solid New Stumps

There is no honest flat price. The figure depends on the floor area, how many stumps are failing, how much crawl space there is under the floor, how easy the site is to get into, the soil, and whether bearers or joists need replacing as well. A partial restump or a re-level is usually a much smaller job than a full restump. An on-site inspection gives a real figure, and that inspection is free.

We work across metro Melbourne, including the inner north (Brunswick, Coburg, Northcote, Thornbury, Preston, Reservoir), the eastern suburbs (Box Hill, Blackburn, Mitcham, Ringwood, Croydon), the Dandenong Ranges foothills (Boronia, Ferntree Gully, Upwey), the south-east (Oakleigh, Bentleigh, Moorabbin, Cheltenham, Mentone), and Frankston down through the Mornington Peninsula.

Two reasons. Much of Melbourne's older housing still sits on its original red gum or timber stumps, which rot and sink after decades in damp ground. And large parts of the north, west and south-east are on reactive clay that swells when wet and shrinks when dry, so stumps get pushed and pulled every year. Over time that shows up as sloping floors, sticking doors and cracked plaster.

Generally, yes. Restumping a house in Victoria normally needs a building permit issued by a registered building surveyor, and the new footings are inspected before the house is lowered onto the new stumps. We organise the permit and book the inspections as part of the job.

Both outlast timber by a long way. Reinforced concrete stumps are the usual choice for most Melbourne homes. Adjustable galvanised steel stumps can be wound up or down after they are installed, which helps on reactive clay or on homes likely to need fine-tuning later. We recommend one or the other after seeing the house and the ground.

It depends on how it is built. Brick veneer homes with timber floors usually sit on stumps inside a brick perimeter, so they may need restumping, underpinning of the perimeter footing, or both. Double-brick and solid-brick homes, and homes on a concrete slab, have no stumps to replace, so movement there is dealt with by underpinning. An inspection works out which applies to your house.