How can you tell if house needs restumping?

[mandyther]

HI All,

I just had a guy come over to give me a quote on a bathroom reno and then he tells me that the floor of the bathroom is on a lean (20mm) and that he reckons the house needs restumping. There are no other obvious signs around the house , so how would I know? Would there be large cracks or anything? I had a building inspection done 12 months ago but they couldnt gain access to under the house. Would they have known the signs to look out for inside the house?
Thanks in advance,
Mandy

[lbgking]

Maybe a water test?

20mm doesn't sound like much and could be fixed with a self leveler such as Ardit.

[stu71]

Here's what I would look for:
- Dig around the base of the stumps, particularly those on the sides of the house. typically they will rot in the first 6 inches below ground
- Look for double hung windows or doors that stick
- Check the level of the floors in different rooms using a laser level or spirit level or even a marble / ball bearing / billiard ball
- Check the level of the floors where they join up to any brickwork eg. chimney or verandah as the stumps will often drop but leave the brickwork high and dry.

I agree with the other guy, 20mm isn't a lot and if it doesn't worry you, you could probably live with it or adjust using a self levelling material.

When our house was re-stumped recently, the floor was lifted between 50-100mm.....

[Bleedin Thumb]

Doors and windows sticking is an indication.......coming home and finding your house sitting on the ground is another...........

[echnidna]

unless its a really wide bathroom 20mm slope tells me your contractor is absolutely correct. So start looking at restumping now before you reno the bathroom.

If you ignore the stumps now & reno the bathroom, in a year or so the slope will have increased and you might even need to do the bathroom reno all over again.

Listen to the tradesmen in the forum and not the corner cutters.

[Terrian]

and if the stumps are all concrete, that could be fun.

[Canetoad]

The sign on your contractors ute didn't say "ACME Bathrooms and Restumping did it.
Would have thought there were several much less alarming causes for the slope in your bathroom floor. First thing to remedy is not having access to your subfloor. 2 minutes with a saw fixes that. A manhole under the carpet will answer most if not all your questions. Look at how your doors line up in their frames. When stumps sink doors bind pretty quick.

[OBBob]

Not sure I agree that the slope on it's own is an indication ... the house may have been restumped but not levelled very well (we know not all re-stumping jobs are great :) ). Sometimes a section of floor especially around a chimney can be very hard for the stumpers to rectify and the previous owner may have elected not to go to the extra effort in that particular room ... but still structurally supported the floor.

My last bathroom had a resonable drop in one corner due to 100 years of movement. It was restumped so that it was structurally sound but still had the dip. I could have levelled the floor as per the suggestions by other above but I decided to build a floor level shower into that corner and used the dip for drainage ... worked really well. :)

Guess you need to get under and have a look.

[wheelinround]

does the rest of the rooms around the house/bathroom bounce when you walk in them thats if they are timber floors.
You could crawl under the house if possible and see how much gap there is between the stumps and the bearers or if the stumps are floating.

[Bleedin Thumb]

I don't think I have ever lived in a house (with timber floors) that don't have a slope to them.
Depending on how wide the bathroom is you would expect a fall to waste & 20mm is nothing.

My advise is don't panic, try as others have said to gain access under the floor and check it out -chances are you just have a sloping floor no big deal.

BTW my office floor slopes so much that pens roll of my desk! and its concrete!!!