# Forum Home Renovation Sub Flooring  Question re battens around bottom of house (between stumps)

## LotteBum

I'm a bit lost, so I'm hoping you guys can help me.    We had our house restumped some months ago, and now that we've landscaped, we want to put battens/palings (whatever you call them) around the bottom of the house in between the stumps.  Does anyone actually know what I'm talking about?? 
Anyway, the stumps are metal, so I'm wondering how you fix the rail to these.  Also, should we place the rails in such a way that the front of the stumps run flush with the palings (ie. so that we can paint them and they look inconspicuous), or should we run the rails flush with the stumps and put a paling on the front of the stump?  If we do the latter, how would we go about attaching said paling to the stump? 
I'd appreciate any advice you guys can come up with - it's always very useful.   :2thumbsup:  
Cheers,
Lotte

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## Tools

You could either run the plinth between or over the face of the stump depending on your preference, and on how straight and plumb all of the stumps are.For fixing, use a type 17 screw to fix a piece of timber down the side of the stump,and fix you plinth in to that. 
Tools

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## scooter

Tools, the stumps are steel.  
Cheers.................Sean

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## namtrak

Photo would be handy, 
but could you screw two metal roofing battens across the stumps, and then fix your palings into them?

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## ian

lotte 
do you really want to do waht you're thinking of?
with metal stumps termites will find it hard to get into the house
with timber palings attached to the stumps it'll be a real snack — forgive the pun  
ian

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## LotteBum

> do you really want to do waht you're thinking of?
> with metal stumps termites will find it hard to get into the house
> with timber palings attached to the stumps it'll be a real snack  forgive the pun

  I know what you're saying, but current it looks quite ordinary.   
I'll take photos on the weekend and post them up here. 
Cheers,
Lotte

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## silentC

Any idea what the stumps are made from? You have to be careful fixing to steel because you may be allowing moisture inside which can cause rust problems. If they're internally painted galvanised steel, like Duragal, you should be okay to use a tekscrew with a nylon washer - but I'm not sure about fixing wood to steel like that because the wood may allow moisture in under the washer. Maybe you could consider fixing a bit of galvanised angle to the stump and then bolt or screw your base boards to that. 
An alternative might be to use a bit of strapping to make a bracket to wrap around the post and fix to each board. I wouldn't run a batten from top to bottom because you're giving the termites somewhere to hide. They will come up between the batten and the stump. Under no circumstances should you have any timber in contact with the ground that would allow termites to bridge your ant capping undetected. 
I'd also plan to leave at least a 100mm gap between the lowest board and the ground and probably a similar gap between each board so that you can see any termite tracking. 
What about planting a garden or something in front, or maybe erecting a T/P screen with lattice or decking just in front but not attached? 
I'm not actually allowed to enclose the underside of my verandahs the way you're proposing because of bushfire building regulations - and the same would go for a house on stumps. They have to either be fully enclosed with masonry, or left clear so that leaf matter can be raked out regularly.

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