Stump Inspections in Melbourne — Know What's Under Your Floor

Why get a stump inspection

Floors, doors and cracks give clues about a house's foundations, but clues are not answers. A stump inspection replaces guesswork with measurements and a close look at the structure. People book one for different reasons:

• Buying an older home. Many Melbourne period and post-war homes are sold with original stumps, and knowing their condition can matter when weighing up the purchase.
• Floors starting to slope. A quick check shows whether it is minor settlement, failed packing or failing stumps.
• Cracks appearing. An inspection helps separate cosmetic cracking from movement worth acting on.
• Planning a renovation. Before new floors, a new kitchen or an extension go in, it makes sense to know the subfloor can carry them.
• A previous quote. If you have been told the house needs a full restump, an inspection gives you a second view.

What we check

Floor levels

We take level readings in a grid across each room. The readings show how far out of level the floor is, where it has dropped and whether the pattern suggests general settlement or a localised problem, such as a single sunken corner.

Stumps

Where access allows, we check stumps for:

• Rot and decay, especially at ground level where timber stumps fail first.
• Sinking, where stumps have pushed down into soft or wet ground.
• Leaning or twisting, which can mean the footing has moved.
• Cracking or spalling on concrete stumps, sometimes caused by rusting reinforcement.
• Missing or makeshift supports, like bricks or offcuts wedged in by previous owners.

Bearers, joists and packing

We look at the timber framing above the stumps for rot, sagging, splitting and borer damage, and check the packing between stumps and bearers for crushing, gaps and decay.

Moisture and ventilation

Damp is the biggest enemy of a subfloor. We note leaking pipes, ponding water, blocked or missing vents, soil built up against walls and downpipes that discharge too close to the house.

What you get afterwards

After the inspection we walk you through what we found in plain language. You will know:

• Whether the house needs work now, later or not at all.
• What kind of work it needs: a re-level, partial restump, full restump, subfloor repairs, underpinning, or a combination.
• What is causing the problem, and whether anything like drainage or a plumbing leak should be fixed alongside it.
• What the next step is if you decide to go ahead.

If the house needs work, we can scope it and give you a real figure. If it does not, we will tell you that too.

Common findings in Melbourne homes

Every house is different, but some patterns come up again and again across Melbourne:

• Inner north weatherboards in Northcote, Thornbury, Brunswick and Coburg often still have red gum stumps that have softened at the ground line, along with bearers that have been patched more than once.
• Post-war weatherboards and brick veneers in Box Hill, Blackburn, Mitcham, Ringwood and Croydon commonly show stumps that have settled unevenly and packing that has crushed over time.
• South-east homes on reactive clay, around Oakleigh, Bentleigh, Moorabbin and Cheltenham, frequently show seasonal movement and cracking linked to dry summers and wet winters.
• Foothills homes in Boronia, Ferntree Gully and Upwey often have damp subfloors caused by water moving downhill under the house.
• Bayside and peninsula homes, from Mentone and Frankston down the Mornington Peninsula, can show drainage-related settlement and corrosion on older fixings.

What a stump inspection is not

A stump inspection focuses on the foundations and subfloor. It is not a pest inspection, a full pre-purchase building inspection or an engineering report. If we see signs of termites, roof problems or anything that needs a structural engineer, we will recommend you get the right specialist to look at it. For a property purchase, a stump inspection works best alongside a standard building and pest inspection, not instead of one.

Booking an inspection

Inspections are arranged at a time that suits you, and we will need reasonable access to the subfloor through a hatch, a vent opening or an open side of the house. If there is no safe access, we can still take level readings and check what is visible, and we will explain what that does and does not tell you. Book an on-site inspection for a clear picture of the house and, if work is needed, a real figure.