Our services in Melbourne
Everything we do for Melbourne and the surrounding area. Pick a service to see what’s involved, what it costs and how soon we can start.
House Reblocking & Restumping
Reblocking means pulling out the stumps under a timber floor, putting new ones in on fresh footings and setting the floor back to level. Most of Victoria calls it restumping; the job is identical. In the western suburbs it is needed on two big groups of houses: the Victorian and Edwardian cottages of Footscray, Seddon, Yarraville and Williamstown, and the postwar weatherboards and fibro homes spread through Sunshine, Braybrook, St Albans and Altona North. Both groups have spent decades sitting on timber in reactive basalt clay.
Floor Re-levelling
A floor that has dropped does not always need a full reblock. When the stumps underneath are still solid but the floor has wandered out of level, a re-level can lift it back without replacing them. On the basalt clay of the west this is a common fix for houses that have been pushed around by years of wet winters and dry summers, or that were packed carelessly the last time someone worked under them.
Bearer, Joist & Subfloor Repairs
Stumps carry the house, but the floor itself rests on bearers and joists. When that framing rots, sags or gets chewed by borers, the floor goes bouncy or soft even if every stump is perfect. In the west, damp subfloors near the bay and along Kororoit Creek and Stony Creek, plus decades of blocked vents in older cottages, mean framing repairs often go hand in hand with reblocking.
Underpinning & Footing Repairs
Underpinning takes an existing footing and extends or reinforces it so the load ends up on firmer ground. Brick walls and slab floors have no stumps to swap, so this is how they are stabilised once the foundation has moved. On the reactive basalt clay of Melbourne's west, underpinning is a regular repair for interwar brick houses in Footscray and Yarraville, postwar brick veneers in Sunshine and Altona North, and the brick plinths under many period cottages.
Subfloor & Stump Inspections
Before you sign a contract, book trades or panic about a sloping hallway, it helps to know what the stumps are actually doing. Perhaps you are buying a cottage in Seddon, your hallway in Sunshine has started to tilt, or you are planning an extension in Williamstown and want to know the subfloor will cope. We go under, measure, test and then tell you in plain terms where the house stands.
Tell us what’s going on. We’ll point you the right way.
Free on-site inspections · Permits arranged · Footscray, Williamstown, Sunshine, St Albans & Altona