# Forum Home Renovation Sub Flooring  Best material for new stumps

## quigs

Hi Folks,
I am just embarking on an extension on our 10 year old holiday home in the bush in Central Victoria.  This will be a large room with a verandah on two sides, following the existing verandah.  The house is on flat sloping ground.  A bench for the house, which is big enough for the extension, was cut out of the existing slope when the house was built and has very little soil over soft sandstone containing lots of quartz rocks.  The height of the house above the ground is 1000mm, sloping a further 300mm to the corner of the build over a total distance of 7 m.  
My problem is the best material for the stumps.  The existing house has hardwood (red gum I think) but there are termites in the area, so I am thinking cypress or TP.  I assume the length is too great for concrete, since the corner stump would need to be 1300 plus the in-ground portion.  The draftsman specified 700 stump holes, which look excessive in this very hard ground, but there you go...   If I go with cypress or TP, would I need to pour a pad to sit them on or could I embed them in concrete?  If it is a case of pour a pad then install, could I back-fill with quikset?  Any suggestions greatly appreciated. 
Quigs

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## Moondog55

Tek Stump by Stump Systems &ndash; Products: Manufacturers of Concrete and Steel House Stumps, concrete products, sole plates and ant caps for restumping, reblocking and new house sites, Lilydale, Mt Evelyn, Melbourne, Victoria  Fixing diagonal timber braces to concrete stumps? [Archive] - Woodwork Forums  Concrete Kerbs, Paving & House Stumps from Precast Concrete Wangaratta 
I have seen 125 * 125 to 3000mm in Qld

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## quigs

Thanks Moondog, I would be pleased to use concrete, but I am a little worried about the weight of an 1800 100*100 stump.  Might be a struggle dropping it into a wet 200 mm base and getting height and levels right.  Am I being too cautious? 
Quigs

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## Moondog55

Good question I'm not qualified to answer, biggest I've used was 1100mm and the restumping type where you level fist, set the stump and then pour the concrete

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## Pulse

75mm x75mm x3mm shs duragal steel, weld on a top plate dangle in the hole and pour! Easy, light and strong 
Cheers 
Pulse

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## wazzabp

> Thanks Moondog, I would be pleased to use concrete, but I am a little worried about the weight of an 1800 100*100 stump.  Might be a struggle dropping it into a wet 200 mm base and getting height and levels right.  Am I being too cautious? 
> Quigs

  When you buy your concrete stumps, they have a little loop of steel on the top.
Put a nail in your joists and hang the stump from it. When you poor in your concrete, just push it into position as it will hang cockeyed until you pour in your concrete.
Hardest part is dragging the damn things under the house.

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## r3nov8or

> ...When you buy your concrete stumps, they have a little loop of steel on the top.
> ...

  I think quigs is talking stumps for his new build, not restumping the old, although that would be inevitable at some stage.  
Anyway, the steel loop version is for hanging concrete stumps during a restump, and for a new build I'd buy the stumps with a spike which goes through the bearer and is bent over tight to tie the bearer down. 
Quigs, I agree that a 2m concrete stump will be heavy and cumbersome. Regardless of the way you go I would always pour pads first and let them cure.  
If concrete stumps, and because your pad is very unlikey to be the perfect depth for every stump at every bearer position, pour the pad a little low (or buy the stumps a little short after you have measured each from the pad to your bearer string line), then when setting your stumps dump some wet concrete in, maybe 1/2 a barrow, lower the stump (don't drop it) and settle it into the mix to your string line, also ensuring it's plumb, and brace the high ones (or backfill straight away to ensure they stay plum). The aggregate should give enough resistence so you can gradually riggle the stump down to the string line. It does take some practice, and I'd start with the shorter, lighter ones. Don't use quick-set for this method of setting. You should always be looking to buy concrete stumps less than 100mm too short, so you have less than 100mm of 'new' concrete from your pad to the bottom of the stump. Any decent supplier will sell them in 100mm increments. 
If you go TP, you could simply set them a little high and then cut them off once they are solid. But personally I wouldn't go to all this trouble using TP, especially if you plan to own it for the long haul.

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