Restumping in Melbourne

I bought my investment property five years ago and did not notice it had cracks in its low brick fence. The fence eventually collapsed probably being knocked down by the tenant's car or by itself (no body could tell or would tell.)

Last month, the property agent reported that cracks appeared in many places of the house internally. It took quite a few weeks for them to get someone to look at the house and the answer is it needs restumping. The quotation is back today asking for AUD 8910 incl GST:



My questions are:
1. Is it a fair quotation? I have no knowledge at all about restumping and have no idea of how to assess.
2. The quotation just gives 3 years' guarantee. Is it too short? Isn't building work supposed to be guaranteed for 6 or 7 years ?
3. Is it difficult to get someone out to the site to give quotes? Will it inconvenient the tenant a lot? I hesitate whether I should ask the agent to get a second or even a third quotation.
4. Any recommendations for quotations?

What makes it more difficult for me is I am now staying overseas and have to totally rely on the agent to deal with the case.

 

Having a few quotes done should not be enough of a problem for an agent to say no - if it is, then you need to ask yourself why you are paying them.
I also don't see how it will make any difference that you are overseas. The company who does the work will need to be let in (and maybe the tenants will need somewhere to stay for a few days - not sure about that bit), nothing of which will make any difference if you are there or not. Again - why are you paying a property manager if not to manage your property?

 

Hi @annmak

The stumping team will need to access the subfloor. You'll either have a trap door outside that gets them under the house, or there will be a "door" in the floor somewhere in the house. If the access trap door is outside, it is a lot less inconvenient to the tenant, because the stumper's equipment can enter there without going inside the house. If the trapdoor is inside the house it is more hassle and it is likely that the furniture will need to be covered with sheets or plastic to stop the inevitable dust and dirt getting onto it. Restumping can in theory be done with tenants residing in the house (check if applicable to your specific property with the stumping company) and hassle to the tenant can be minimized with careful planning.

Can you share with us suburb your property is in? That will help people recommend stumping companies that service the area.

With the fence... I probably would have tried my luck at tribunal (VCAT in Victoria) to get compensation from the tenant for the damage, or gotten the damage definitively related at least to malicious damage or accidental damage by tenant rather than fence just falling down, and claim on insurance.

I wouldn't pester a property manager to get three quotes for something that is going to cost say $100, but it is perfectly reasonable to want to get a couple of quotes for a largeish job such as this. Property managers don't have to organise stumping companies to attend properties very often and therefore may not know who is good. They'll probably therefore be wary of recommending someone due to lack of comparable jobs that allow them to gain confidence in the company's work. Better to get some recommendations for companies that forumites have experience with, and then have your property manager get those specific companies in to quote for you.

I would also encourage you to converse with the restumping companies to try and determine what has caused the movement in the house. It could be things like giant tree roots from nearby trees... moisture getting under the house from paving with inappropriate slopes pushing rain water towards the foundations rather than away, it could be broken downpipes, it could be leaks in the bathroom, or aggressive soil types or something else. If it can be identified what the cause is, you could potentially also address the cause and thus stop/delay need for restumping/relevelling again in the future. They won't always be able to identify the reason but it is certainly worth asking the question.

We have observed good results and pricing from Perfection Restumping and Underpinning. There was also a thread somewhere on the forums about a restumping chap that is quite a small person and thus could crawl around in the subfloor thus minimizing need to cut into the floor where it otherwise might have been needed. This is the thread ; Re stumping cost for small weatherboard?

 

Anthony, thank you for your very quick reply. I will collect more info and ask them for more quotes.

 

Hi JacM,

Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply! It really helps a lot!

My property is in Spotswood in West Melbourne. Any recommendations?

As for the fence, it was 5 years ago. I tried to claim insurance but the insurance company needed a police report to prove it was accident or malicious damage. The agent insisted that it fell by itself and said that she would not lie. I was overseas and thus gave up. I had no option but to clear up the debris and left the property unfenced. A new fence had to be built two years ago upon the complaint of the new tenant when someone broke in.

I will ask the agent to try their luck to get a quote from Perfection Restumping and Underpinning and Brett from Brock reblocking as mentioned in the thread you provided.

I am happy that I can have one step further. Again, my sincere thanks for your help .

 

Do you mean recommendations for stumping? We've already covered that I think with a couple of company names so you should be fine from here. Or did you mean recommendations for property management?

Glad you feel you are now moving forward.

 

What I mean is recommendation for restumping. Yes, you are right that you have already made some recommendations. I was thinking that you may have recommendations for the Spotswood area.
I have already looked up the web and asked my agent to get the quotation.

 

I'm pretty sure both those companies will cover Spotswood. Stumping companies have reasonably big service districts.

 

Would be helpful for others if you could post here how it goes (companies and their quotes, if tenants need to move our, how long it takes, etc).

 

go to seekingservice or even airtasker and ask for a quotes. Professional companies will bid for your jobs.

I needed restumping done on one of my ips the cheapest quote came up to $5-6K
though I didn't go ahead and left it as it is.

 

Currently obtaining quotes for my PPOR which requires a total re stumping..
Received 2 quotes around 15K which seems excessive..
Guarantee’ s are 7 & 15 years respectively..

 

My property agent has tried very hard to contact the above companies recommended but got no reply from them.

One of my friends then recommended www.underpin.com.au They came for inspection and quotation promptly. To my surprise, they advised that my house is sitting nicely on concrete stumps and there is no movement of the house detected. The only problem is the front room is around 40 mm out of level and a built in robe has been installed many years ago with floor and ceiling wedges to compensate for the poor levels. They advised that unless we are going to do major renovations, otherwise it would be better leave it as even partial relevelling will cause damage to the bathroom, which in turn will elicit unnecessary renovations.

It sounds very good news! But what a different assessment of the situation. Should I just leave it as it is?

 

@annmak
You need to ask your stumping contractor some more questions,

Exactly how severe is the problem?
Major / minor?
Which exact areas of the property are the worst affected?
If severe? Then in the worst affected areas what could the potential damage be internally to plasterboard (cracking), windows (cracking), tiles in bathroom (cracking/dislodging) etc.
As none of the above will be covered by their insurance. They take all care but no responsibility for that.

I knew when purchasing my PPOR many years ago that it needed a total restump & that the rear RHS needed to be risen by several inches.
I knew I had to get it done before any other renovations could be even thought about.
In that rear RHS we had all the above, cracked windows, major spider web cracks/crazing through the plasterboard walls, tile dislodgement (both initially & over the next few months) in the bathroom situated in that area.
It didn't bother me as it was a ground up PPOR reno from the start.
But its a different story when its a tenanted IP.
I was forewarned by my stumper what areas this could/would happen in.
He also told me everywhere else would be fine elsewhere (& it was) no damage whatsover.

Sorry, I cannot remember his name, as its nearly 2 decades ago.
Unfortunately restumping can sometimes open a further can of repair worms in severe cases. With IP's this is where your buffer might take a hit.
Best you know what the possibility of that in advance so ask.
Hoping yours is a just minor fix.
Cheers.

 

In Melbourne it costs around $50 per stump ex gst.

So for 30 stumps, the OP's quote is a rip off (unless there is no access underneath the sub floor).

 

Yes, leave as is.

 

The above has recently been completed with the company I engaged completing the works over an 8 day period.

Generally had 3 guys on site doing works over that period with old redgum stumps removed(70 yeas old) and a total of 135 concrete stumps put in..

Overall really happy with works completed with only minor cracking through a few walls..

 

Sincerely thank you all for all the valuable advice. Just want to know if the stumps have no problems, why do the walls crack?

 

Over time, stumps can settle into the ground. Also, some ground moves a lot.

The footings (if it’s a brick house) can also drop.

If the front room is 40mm out of level, something has happened - unless it was built that way?

What did the stumping company say about the reasons that room is out of level?

 

He said the house was probably restumped in 80s and the levelling was not perfectly done. He pointed out that a built in robe has been installed many years ago with floor and ceiling wedges to compensate for the poor levels. Thus the out of level is not something new.

 

I think it will be useful for those who need help for restumping to post the restumping company info here. They are really honest and helpful.
email: [email protected]
Director: Derek McKenzie
www.underpin.com.au
31 Farmer St
Burnley Vic. 3121
0411 556 874