Archicentre - Seeking Advice

[Metal Head]

Hi,

As many of you will know that I have had ongoing problems with restumping issues of our 3 bedroom weatherboard house over the past 6 years. Given that I have had 2 reputable restumpers come out to my place over the past fortnight, neither of them were willing to give me a warranty with the work they would carry out. We have several cracks in many rooms of our house but I am hesitent to have them repaired until the house (if possible) stops moving.

Thus I have decided that it is time to get some professional advice as to fix the above mentioned problem. Whilst I have been a member of this great forum I have come across this company's name mentioned from time to time (I am believe it is the building advisory service of the Australian Institute of Architects) usually for fixing problems like this.

Has anyone here used them and if so were you happy with the service and associated costs? Is there any other company that you would recommend (that you don't work for) who have expertise in this field? I would be very appreciative of any replies.

Btw, I had a fencer (who lives in the area) came around yesterday to give me a quote - no not for this problem - he said that the ground is classed as at level H which is only just above the worst level P. He says that he had a garage extension completed recently that had footing going down 1.25 metres. He as a solid brick house that has many cracks in it to.

Kindest regards
MH

[rsser]

Well you've just been given a foundation rating for nix that cost me several hundred from a soil engineer. Well done!

The restumpers are being careful; can't blame them for that.

Sounds like you may have clay not too far down and that moves with cycles of wet and dry. You may need an engineer's advice on whether restumping of any sort can resist that. It may not.

I used Archicentre 20 years ago when we moved into our current place. There were decent cracks in the BV in a couple of places (guess what .. clay) and the guy recommended getting in an underpinner. I did and he looked at the cracks and said ptui. Just a cosmetic problem.

We had to restump anyway. The redgum stumps were 50 yrs old and starting to rot in places. There was also damp underhouse and the main cause of that was a cracked terra cotta sewer pipe (guess what ... clay again!). We replaced that, the damp went away, there was some reduction in masonry movement and a few internal wall cracks stabilised.

Archicentre just send out an architect anyway; as far as I know that still holds.

Dunno if this is of any help.

EDIT: prob out of all those the soil engineer was the most useful; he said the basic prob was the clay expanding and contracting and to address any pipe leaks & also remove all shrubs near the footings, and all trees near them as well acc to a formula I can't remember but something like 2/3rds their height.

[Bebbo]

You need to speak to an engineer.

We've had these problems before.

[China]

As said above you know what the problem is, so you need a engineer to formulate a repair strategy I have used Archicentre for a pre purchase inspection, I would use them again, if I was to get a independent opinon, otherwise these days for pre purchase I would do it myself

[Mal F]

I used them back in 1993 when I had major foundation problems.
The Archicentre put me in contact with one of their Architects who came out, assessed the likely problem, organized an Engineer and Soil Tester and then gave me a written report with the outcome and potential solutions.
I went ahead with his recommendation and he provided the plans and specifications, arranged quotes for the repair work and supervised the work.
I can still remember during the construction that the builder asked me "what is your definition of pier height". My reply was "you better talk to the architect about that". I had no idea.
Can't remember the cost but I thought it was reasonable and it was good to have an independent person in control.
I suppose that it depends how you get on with the Architect but you could ask for a number of recommendations and speak to each of them independently before you proceed.
Best of luck.

Mal