Reblocking in Yarraville, Kingsville and Spotswood

Three neighbouring suburbs, similar houses

Yarraville is best known for its Victorian and Edwardian cottages around the village and the streets climbing west from the railway. Many are weatherboard on timber stumps, and many sit within heritage overlays.

Kingsville has more interwar housing, including Californian bungalows and timber homes from the 1920s and 1930s, alongside some postwar weatherboards.

Spotswood is small and full of character, with workers' cottages that grew up close to the old industries along the river.

Across all three, original stumps are common, and the subfloor is often a patchwork of different eras of repair.

Stony Creek and drainage

Stony Creek runs through the western edge of Yarraville and past Kingsville, and parts of these suburbs sit on lower ground where water lingers after heavy rain. Homes near the creek, or on blocks that drain toward the house, can have damp subfloors for much of winter. Wet timber decays sooner, and the soaked clay swells harder.

Basalt below

The whole area sits on the basalt plain. In some streets the clay is a decent depth before rock. In others, digging a footing hole means getting through a short layer of clay and then working into broken or solid basalt. That affects how long holes take to dig and is something we look at before quoting.

What we usually find

• Hardwood stumps that have softened and sunk unevenly, especially along the middle line of the house.
• Bearers rotted at the stump contact under wet areas.
• Weatherboard base boards hiding stumps that have been patched several times over the decades.
• Older extensions on mismatched stumps, often lower or shallower than the original house.
• Covered or missing vents, leaving the subfloor stuffy and damp.

Heritage and street appearance

Where homes sit within a heritage overlay, we keep the existing base boards or plinth wherever we can, and the new stumps stay hidden behind them. If a job would change the height of the house or the look of the front, it is worth having a word with Maribyrnong or Hobsons Bay council, depending on which side of the boundary you are on, before work begins.

Re-levelling and partial work

Not every Yarraville cottage needs a full reblock. Some have sound concrete stumps from an earlier job and just need re-levelling. Others have one failing section, often a rear lean-to or a wet laundry. We measure and inspect first, and only recommend the work the house actually needs.