Reblocking
Reblocking is the Victorian term for restumping: replacing the stumps a house sits on once they rot, sink or crack.
Restumping in Newtown
Restumping Geelong restumps Newtown's period homes: the Victorian villas and Edwardian weatherboards on the hill and the bungalows toward the river. We replace failed stumps, relevel floors and doorways, and work carefully around original plaster and joinery. Request a quote and we'll inspect the subfloor and give you a straight answer.
Newtown's housing stock is one of the reasons the suburb holds its value: Victorian and Edwardian homes from the 1850s through to the 1920s, many of them large timber villas on generous blocks. The Newtown Hill and Clarkes Hill areas are recognised heritage precincts. Under nearly every one of those homes is a grid of timber stumps, and the oldest have been carrying the house for well over a century.
When stumps in a home this age start to fail, the signs show up fast: a hallway that slopes toward the back, cracks reappearing in freshly painted plaster, a veranda pulling away from the front wall. We restump and relevel period homes for a living, and we're careful with them. Request a quote and we'll take a proper look underneath before pricing anything.
Local knowledge
Restumping older homes in Newtown
The suburb runs from the Pakington Street shops down to the Barwon River, and the housing changes as you go. Up on the hill it's larger Victorian and Edwardian houses, many timber, some solid brick. Toward Queens Park and the river you find more interwar bungalows. The timber homes sit on stumps; plenty of the brick ones have timber-framed floors on stumps behind a brick perimeter, and those floors can be restumped too.
Newtown's clay soil moves with the seasons, the same shrink-swell pattern found across the Geelong region. Mature trees, which Newtown has in numbers, make it worse by drying the clay on one side of a house. That's why you sometimes see one corner of a period home drop while the rest stays put.
Levelling a large villa is slower work than a small cottage. The house gets lifted in small increments across many jacking points so the original plaster and cornices move as one. That's the difference between a relevel you can barely see and a lounge room full of new cracks.
What to look for
Common problems we see in Newtown
- Stump rot in homes now past the hundred-year mark
- One corner dropping where mature trees dry out the clay
- Old lath-and-plaster walls cracking as the frame settles unevenly
- Verandas and rear additions settling at a different rate to the main house
- Failed stumps found during pre-purchase or pre-renovation inspections
What we do
Services for Newtown homes
Timber Stump Replacement
Timber stumps rot from the ground line down, where soil moisture sits against the wood, and termites finish what damp starts.
House Levelling
House levelling, also called relevelling, brings sloping floors back to level by jacking the house and packing or adjusting the existing stumps.
Restumping Cost Guide
A full restump of an average Geelong home usually costs $4,000 to $20,000.
Get a free restumping quote in Newtown
Tell us about your place and we will get back to you with an honest assessment and a fixed price.
Newtown restumping questions
Can a big Victorian villa be restumped without wrecking the plaster?
Yes, if it's lifted properly. We raise the house a few millimetres at a time across many points rather than jacking hard in one spot. Hairline cracking at old repairs is always possible, but careful staging keeps it to a minimum. We'll walk you through what to expect for your particular house at the inspection.
Do heritage precincts like Newtown Hill change the process?
The restumping itself is under-floor work and doesn't change the street view of the house, which is what heritage controls mostly care about. A building permit is required for restumping across Victoria regardless. Where your house sits in an overlay, we confirm any extra requirements with the council before starting.