# Forum Home Renovation Sub Flooring  Restumping help

## some_one

Hi people, I am trying to find some good recomendations for professionals who do restumping. I am in Clayton area in Victoria. Would like to hear from people who have had good and bad experiences with restumping , and also from people who can give hints on what to miss and what to get for sure. Any precautions and suggestions will be most welcome. Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR..... :Smilie:

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## ozwinner

I keep trying to give my missus a restumping but to no availe. :Frown:   
Al  :Smilie:

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## some_one

Even after three days I am unable to get even one recomendation from anyone! Is there a reasonable person who can be good enough to be recomended ? There must be some one in this industry who has done a reasonable work for some one, some where(Victoria, Melbourne, South East)....???   

> Hi people, I am trying to find some good recomendations for professionals who do restumping. I am in Clayton area in Victoria. Would like to hear from people who have had good and bad experiences with restumping , and also from people who can give hints on what to miss and what to get for sure. Any precautions and suggestions will be most welcome. Have a very HAPPY NEW YEAR.....

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## leeton

Some one...I noticed you didn't get much of a response...I had a great bloke come and do my place...Melbourne Outer East...I even got him to do another property I was had...Kevin is his name...but I can't remember his business name...but I think he has got out of restumping anyhow...he does new houses only I think...if I can find anything I will post it...but other than that at least this gets your thread to to the top of the list again. :Smilie:

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## some_one

Thanks leeton for your help, it will be great if more people can come up with some suggestions. As I said there should be more people who would have gone through restumping their properties but seems no one had any joy out of it for they cannot find one recomendations! I have searched through this site and found information on the topic but it does not solve the point of recomendation, which I think is very important because if that many people can give comments about a topic they must know more about it. Waiting...

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## Sturdee

> ........ it does not solve the point of recommendation, which I think is very important ...

  
Whilst I have had to restump some parts of my house, as part of building the workshop, I can't give you a recommendation as I did it myself. :Biggrin:   
Similarly, most of the posters on restumping either did it themselves or are not in Melbourne.  
Peter.

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## Skew ChiDAMN!!

Or had it done long enough ago that they don't remember who...
or the "who" is no longer in the trade.  [shrug] 
Sorry.

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## some_one

Hi everyone as I have been told most of the people here have done their restumping themselves, can I be advised on some pitfalls that I should watch out for. I just cannot be assured that anyone who did the work themselves did not come across any problems or were not caught out any where, so can I get some valuable suggestions please!! Some thing you thought would be easy but turned out otherwise....Hummm..Thanks.. :Rolleyes:

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## leeton

It is certainly a job I wouldn't tackle...would have to be one of the toughest jobs around...poor buggers...crawling around under a house everyday...and digging bloody holes with a small shovel...no way...and you wouldn't want the whole thing coming down on you...

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## Goose

Hey Some One, I had a house done in Greensborough about 4 years ago. Pretty sure the company was called "Gold Star" or something along those lines. Old bloke who did a great job.....
Good Luck

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## Sturdee

> I just cannot be assured that anyone who did the work themselves did not come across any problems or were not caught out any where, so can I get some valuable suggestions please!! Some thing you thought would be easy but turned out otherwise....Hummm..Thanks..

  Actually I did not find it terribly difficult to remove stumps and replace them with beams and install new ones. But I suppose it depends on your knowledge and experience so what I think was easy may be very difficult for others. 
It also depends on whether you use concrete or timber stumps and on the amount of clearance you have to work in. I had plenty of room. :Biggrin:   
The main thing is to make sure that your bearers are properly supported on either side of the stump to be replaced and a couple of car trolley jacks come in very handy in levelling the floor but don't rely on them and use proper support once the floor is level. Once the floor is level and properly supported remove the old stump and replace with new one and pour concrete around to hold in place. 
But if in doubt of your ability get a professional in to do it, for stuffups will be ever dearer to fix and could cause serious injuries.  
Peter.

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## Ivan in Oz

G'Day Some one,
I did a restumping job on the rear extension of the house a couple of years ago.
Doug around 'em; and Pulled out the old stumps one at a time, and supported the house with Pallets and some largish Timber with a bit of GRUNT!!!! 
I then doug out between the location of the removed stumps so that I had room to pour a "Footing" and used the old stump holes as well. All Boxed.
When the concrete was poured, I used locally fabricated 100mm x 100mm x [about] 3.2mm wall steel stumps with a 1" threaded rod for fine adjustment.
I Dyna Bolted the posts to the Concrete 'Footing' and Coach screwed the Stump 'FOOT" to the rafters/beams. 
HEY!! I could do it by myself.
Easy Peasy; and you're not out the other side of TBStump :Biggrin:

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## czk

I had these guys do the house for me, long time ago now and I can't remember how much it cost, but I do recall a bunch of guys running (crawling) around under the house digging like rabbits 
Raise & Level House Restumping
8 Halwyn Crs Preston VIC 3072
 ph: (03) 9484 0326

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## Ben (TM)

I used these guys.  Australian Reblocking Co. Pty. Ltd.
Malvern VIC 3144
 ph: (03) 8508 9868  
It was about $4800 to do a hundred pins under a Cal Bugalow. Service was excellent and job quality appears to be good. There were in and out in about 4 days. The guy's name is Mick.

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## some_one

Thanks a lot guys I seem to be on the right track. Ever since I have come to this forum it has increased my info by leaps and bounds, so thanks to all of you and as the work begins I will keep people up to date with events and pitfalls I go through. Cheers.  :Biggrin:

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## Grahame Collins

I have had my house in Mackay restumped at the end of 1994. The contractor hired unskilled labour and did not supervise them nearly enough. Though the contract read to level and re stump the house and the end job was that the flooring was and still is not truly level. In fact the finished job left an inch of airgap above a post.
They had to be recalled via the building authority to fix that one. The Duragal stumps were under size in wall thickness. He also used unwashed salty sand in the concrete.This has caused a failure of the galvinising with corrosion below the concrete level. 
The house is only 600mm or thereabouts off the ground.This bloke was supposed to be a proffessional builder but allowed his unskilled workers to work unsupervised 95% of the time. The straps that are meant to connect the  external concrete posts to the bearers were black steel painted silver-not galvinised.
They failed to realise that the posts need to be placed  far enough back to avoid the drip line off the walls. Water  would sit on the ant caps and be sucked up by the bearers causing the originals to rot.This alone cost me $3500 to fix on top of the restumping cost of $6000. Before you commit to a job get this sort of stuff sorted out byadvice from  a competent building inspector and then get it written into the contract.
I hope this helps you aunderstand what to avoid at least.
Cheers
Grahame

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## Justin

We had our place in E.Bentleigh done many years ago, from memory the company name was D.J Baker & Sons (or something similar). Very happy with their workmanship. 
Justin.

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## Ivan in Oz

> I will keep people up to date with events and pitfalls I go through. Cheers.  :Biggrin:  
ArrHHH!!!!
It's the other Forum with the "Without Pictures it's useless" Smilie :Frown:  
We need Pics 
If you do do it yourself,
Talk to your local building Inspector; if they're anything like the one out here.
Most helpfull,
and he told me where to go!!!!:eek: 
For the Gal Stumps, and who to get 'other' help from
The other thing I did was to ask him how HE would do it/like it done................ :Tongue:  Suck  :Tongue:  Suck

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## some_one

The work is going to start very soon and as it goes ahead I will try to get as many pictures and will try to make a before and after type of presentaion. Cheers. :Biggrin:

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## some_one

First stage of work has begun and sand around the outside of the property has been removed. It was necessary to remove the clading and the job was done OK....ish as there was a lot of stuff from the clading left around and I still have to ring the people to get it fixed. I asked them to be careful with the piping and other stuff around the house but the workers were not exactly careful. humm....work has just begun......let the fun begin....:eek:

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## tcns

This is sounding like a great thread. I will be very interested in all the photos you can possilby get I am looking at restumping  under my house in Brisbane and using longer steel sumps, increasing the spans and then excavating around and under the house to pick her up to legal height 
Any photos would be fantastic 
Thanks 
Tom

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## some_one

Need to know from experienced people if I can put pictures on this thread? Lot of people have asked for pictures and my computer is getting flooded with them and my curiosity is increasing day by day. It will be very informative. I want to create some thing here that a person like me was looking for to get some starting point. It should be informative so feed back and requests from people will be most welcome, and I will do my best to do as much as possible.:confused:

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## some_one

Guys work on day one was alright and some stumps have been removed. Now can anyone suggest some good use of the rotten or some what rotten stumps apart from burning them? Also there will have to be new base boards installed. Now what type of protective coat of paint or some thing can be applied to save the wooden boards from rotting when in contact with damp soil. Thanks. Still waiting on photo questions??
 Cheers.. :Smilie:

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## some_one

Jacks will be removed very soon and all the hard work will come to light then. I have one advice for people getting this work done. Make sure you check with the mob doing relevelling how many jacks they will be using as in my case the guy just kept pumping one jack which meant that one corner came up more than the other and then  other corner to get it up, this caused the house to come up unevenly and caused a few CRACKS. If they had raised slowly and at many more points than they had it would have been a different outcome for sure. Any comments? But it seems to have gone alright over all but we will find out exact details when jacks come off. Wait and watch. :Tongue:  :eek:

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## some_one

I have decided to make some use of the not so rotten and some what rotten stumps. I am looking for ideas?? APART FROM GREAT BURNING WOOD... As the guys digging the stumps said you cannot get more mature and seasoned wood than this (The base plate). many of then were in perfect good nick. Apparently there has been some water dampness under the house which has kept the stumps under soil perfectly wet and safe. Wood seasoning?? The only damage was where the stumps went through constant cycle of wet and dry wet and dry ......that is where the rotting has occurred. Humm

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## some_one

With my first and hopefully last project involving restumping there is a lot of good advice that I can give out to anyone looking for help, so feel free to ask! Also I will try to put up these points here so that it is easier for everyone. But it will be after the plaster patch work is done and paint work is done.
Cheers :Smilie:

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## Metal Head

We had our 3 bedroom weatherboard done 6 months ago by a local company. They at the time claimed that they were members of HIA and had it on their quote sheet as well as their business card. However, a couple of months ago I had to reduce the height on 3 of the internal doors as they were either sticking and even worse they would not even close:mad:. So I kindly asked them to come out and have a look. After coming around and having had a look they said that they would put extra stumps under in the location of where the (problem) doors were. They said they would be around the following day. Well after numerous calls over the following 3 week period they refused to answer the phone so I contacted HIA to see what recourse I could take. They told me nothing could be done as they were not members of the organization since 2002. However, they would would prosecute them for having used their logo falsely on their quote and business card. So I contacted a couple of companies who belong to the master builders association who said that $2.500 would be the starting point on coming out to check the level of the property. Thus this is the reason I am keen to check it out myself!!. 
Cheers
MH

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## Metal Head

Btw, what I forgot to mention was that the crowd who did ours did not loosen off any of the screws on outside fittings e.g. the gas water tank. As a result we have got several bends in the copper water pipes and downpipes broken away at the joints. The images I have supplied may help others understand some of the things that have been said. 
Cheers
MH

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## some_one

My friend what is the wood doing on top of the stump and why have you used that piece of cement on top of the other stump? Is that for the thing you just mentioned? And also I can see from the pictures that the level of the house will be lower in side the stumps as you have used cement on the outside, how do you manage to get any excess water that may enter the ground below and doesn't it affect the stumps? I too yet have to do some thing about the new boards as the garden is heigher that the inner level of the stump, and I will have to put in sand to make it look good outside but I too will get some pictures here and will surely be able to explain to you better. By the way as I have mentioned before the guys who did work at my place could have done a better job while lifting but seemed to be runnig out of time before the concrete pump came so we have ended up with more cracks than we should have. BETTER LATE THAN SORRY.......who said that...:eek:

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## Metal Head

Hi some_one, 
I will answer your questions/queries like this :Redface:   
My friend what is the wood doing on top of the stump and why have you used that piece of cement on top of the other stump?  I'm sorry but I don't quite see what you are getting at :Frown: . I didn't do the job a building practioner did it:eek:. The cement sheet is used as a packer - I had this confirmed by the building consultant we hired to do a report on the house and outside features.   
And also I can see from the pictures that the level of the house will be lower in side the stumps as you have used cement on the outside  I apologize once again but I didn't get the jist of what you were saying but then again I am a POMMIE :Biggrin: . 
how do you manage to get any excess water that may enter the ground below and doesn't it affect the stumps?  Are most weatherboards constructed the same with the ground underneath the house being lower than any pathway or surrounding ground?. After these pictures were taken the contractors put treated pine boards around the bottom to fill in the gap. 
I too yet have to do some thing about the new boards as the garden is heigher that the inner level of the stump, and I will have to put in sand to make it look good outside but I too will get some pictures here and will surely be able to explain to you better. By the way as I have mentioned before the guys who did work at my place could have done a better job while lifting but seemed to be runnig out of time before the concrete pump came so we have ended up with more cracks than we should have. BETTER LATE THAN SORRY.......who said that...:eek:  Cheers Metal Head

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## some_one

Hi my friend, I will make things more clearer with pictures but give some days as there is still work is being done at home. cheers :Smilie:

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## thebuildingsurv

Make sure that packer is adequtely fixed to the bearer maybe a nailplate would help. I would suggest the restumper did an average job if he needed to pack it that much.

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## Metal Head

> However, a couple of months ago I had to reduce the height on 3 of the internal doors as they were either sticking and even worse they would not even close:mad:.

  Well I came to close 2 of the doors today and I couldn't get them to shut:mad:. Given that I have already taken 6mm of the tops of them previously, should I reduce them again by another 3mm or consider getting someone in to restump under the flooring by the doors?. I assume the doors wouldn't swell by that much would they?, so the floors must be sinking - I certainly getting that feeling inside me atm!!. 
Cheers
David

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