Reblocking in Sunshine, Albion, Braybrook and Maidstone

Postwar housing, original stumps

The typical house here is a modest postwar weatherboard or fibro home on a quarter-acre-style block, with a timber floor on timber stumps. Some have been reclad, extended or reblocked over the years. Many have not, and the original stumps are still in the ground.

There are also older pockets, including some interwar homes near the Sunshine town centre, and plenty of brick veneers from the 1960s and 1970s. Each type has its own subfloor quirks.

Signs we see over and over

• A noticeable lean toward one side of the house, often the side that gets less sun.
• Doors that will not latch and windows that stick.
• Cracked fibro or plaster sheets at corners and around openings.
• Soft floors in bathrooms and laundries, where years of small leaks have rotted stumps and bearers.
• Stumps sitting on loose bricks or packed with whatever was handy at the time.

The basalt clay

Sunshine, Albion, Braybrook and Maidstone all sit on the basalt plains. The clay here is notoriously reactive and opens up in deep cracks in dry weather. Where it is shallow, footing holes run into rock quickly. Where it is deeper, the seasonal swelling and shrinking work the stumps hard. Either way, it is ground that rewards proper footings and punishes shortcuts.

Fibro homes

A lot of postwar homes here are clad in fibro, and some have fibro sheeting around the base of the walls. Fibro made before the late 1980s may contain asbestos. Reblocking does not normally involve removing wall cladding, and we plan the work so that it is not disturbed. If base sheeting has to come off for access, it should be tested first and handled under Victoria's asbestos rules. We talk through this at the inspection.

Brick veneers

The 1960s and 1970s brick veneers around Sunshine West and Sunshine North often have a timber floor on stumps inside a brick outer skin. If the internal stumps have failed, they can be reblocked. If the brick skin has cracked, the footing under it may need underpinning. We work out which is moving before recommending anything.

Keep, extend or rebuild?

Many owners in this area are weighing up whether to keep the old house or start again. If the frame is sound, reblocking often makes a postwar weatherboard good for many more years, and gives a solid base for an extension. We can give you an honest view of the subfloor to help with that decision.