Slow change is easy to miss

A house on stumps doesn't usually fail overnight. The changes creep in over months and years, and because you live with them every day, they become normal. A door that needs a shoulder in winter, a crack you've stopped noticing, a hallway that feels slightly downhill. Taken one at a time they don't seem like much. Taken together, they often point to stumps that are no longer doing their job.

Floors that slope or bounce

Uneven floors are the most common sign. You might notice furniture rocking, a marble rolling to one corner, or a feeling of walking downhill along a hallway. A floor that drops towards the outside walls often means the perimeter stumps are sinking, since the ground near the edge of the house wets and dries the most. A dip in the middle of a room can mean a single sunken stump or a sagging bearer.

A floor that feels springy or soft underfoot is worth checking too. Sometimes it means a stump has dropped away and is no longer touching the bearer it should be holding up.

Doors and windows that stick

When the frame of a house moves, doorways and window openings go out of square. Doors catch on the head of the frame, won't latch, or drift open on their own. Windows bind in their tracks. If the problem gets better and worse with the seasons, that is a strong hint the house is moving with the ground beneath it.

Cracks that keep coming back

Look for:

Diagonal cracks running out from the corners of doors and windows
Cracks along cornices and where walls meet ceilings
Cracks that reopen after patching
New cracks appearing in a pattern, rather than one or two hairline marks

Older Melbourne homes with lath-and-plaster walls often show a network of fine cracks just from age. What matters is change. Cracks that are growing, reopening or following the same direction as a sloping floor are the ones to take seriously.

Gaps at the skirting boards

When the floor drops but the walls don't, a gap opens up between the bottom of the skirting board and the floor. It often shows first in corners or along outside walls. It is one of the clearest signs that the floor itself has moved.

What you can see under the house

If you can safely look through a vent or a subfloor hatch, check for:

Timber stumps that are rotted, soft or crumbling at ground level
Stumps that are leaning or have sunk into the soil
Packers stacked between the stump and bearer from earlier repairs
Termite mud tunnels on stumps or bearers
Damp soil, pooling water or a musty smell

Timber stumps in older Melbourne houses have often been in the ground for many decades. Even good hardwood eventually breaks down where it meets damp soil.

Why Melbourne's soil makes houses move

Much of Melbourne sits on reactive clay. Reactive clay swells when it takes up water and shrinks when it dries out. In parts of the north, clays formed from volcanic basalt can be highly reactive. In many eastern suburbs, clays weathered from older sedimentary rock behave differently but can still move. Within a single suburb the soil can change from one street to the next.

Melbourne's weather adds to the effect. A wet winter and spring can swell the clay and lift the edges of a house, and a long dry summer can shrink it again and let them drop. That seasonal heave and settlement puts stumps and footings through a cycle year after year. Over time, stumps that were set too shallow, or that have lost strength through rot, can't keep the floor level through it.

Things that make seasonal movement worse include:

Downpipes that discharge onto the ground instead of into stormwater
Garden beds and paving that trap water against the house
Large trees that draw moisture from the soil close to the footings
Leaking pipes under or near the house
Poor subfloor ventilation, which keeps timber stumps damp

Signs that can have other causes

Not every crack means restumping. Plaster cracks can come from normal timber shrinkage, a sticking door can be a swollen frame, and some unevenness in old floors is just character. That's why an inspection matters. The aim is to find out whether the house is genuinely moving, which part is moving, and why.

When to get it checked

It's worth booking an inspection if you notice:

More than one of the signs above at the same time
Cracks or gaps that are clearly getting bigger
Seasonal sticking that gets worse each year
Any visible rot, termite activity or leaning stumps

Early checks often mean simpler, more targeted repairs. Leaving it longer usually means more damage to bearers, joists and plaster.

Talk to Melbourne Restumping Co

We'll look under your floor, check your levels, and tell you plainly what we find, including when the answer is that the house doesn't need restumping yet.

Is Your Melbourne House Moving? The Warning Signs It Needs Restumping