Reblocking
Reblocking is the Victorian term for restumping: replacing the stumps a house sits on once they rot, sink or crack.
Restumping in Norlane
Restumping Geelong restumps Norlane's 1950s homes, from standard Housing Commission weatherboards to the prefab houses the Commission imported from Europe. Stumps set in that era are now around 70 years old and failing street by street. Request a quote and we'll inspect the subfloor and price the job properly.
Norlane was built in a hurry. The Housing Commission started its program here in 1947 and kept going until 1976, putting up almost 2,500 houses for workers at Ford, Shell, International Harvester and the other factories along the northern industrial strip. The peak years were 1951 to 1957, and more than 1,200 of the houses were prefabricated units imported from Holland and France.
Nearly all of that housing went onto timber stumps, and stumps set in the early 1950s are due. If your place near Labuan Square has floors running off level or doors that no longer meet their frames, the fix is well understood, because the same house exists many times over across the suburb. Request a quote and we'll give you a firm price.
Local knowledge
Restumping older homes in Norlane
Commission homes were built to standard designs, which makes them predictable to restump. Once we know the model, we know roughly how many stumps sit under it and where the load runs. The imported prefabs have their own quirks in the floor framing, but they sit on conventional stumps like everything else and restump the same way.
The flat ground across Norlane is basalt-plain clay that shrinks hard in dry summers. Long dry spells open gaps under stumps; wet winters swell the ground back and push them sideways. Seventy years of that cycle, plus plain old rot, is why so many local homes now sit visibly out of level. Renovators buying into Norlane should budget for stumps as a matter of course: it's often the first trade on site.
What to look for
Common problems we see in Norlane
- Commission-era timber stumps from the 1950s rotted or sunk
- Prefab and weatherboard homes sitting visibly out of level
- Doors planed and re-planed over the years instead of the floor being fixed
- Floor frames bouncing where bearers no longer bear on stump tops
- Stump failure flagged in pre-purchase building reports
What we do
Services for Norlane 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 Norlane
Tell us about your place and we will get back to you with an honest assessment and a fixed price.
Norlane restumping questions
My house is an old Housing Commission home. Is it worth restumping?
Usually, yes. The frames on these houses are solid hardwood and the designs are simple, which keeps restumping straightforward and the cost at the lower end. A restumped and relevelled Commission home is a sound house. The maths only gets marginal if the house needs major structural work on top of stumps.
We're renovating a 1950s Norlane house. Should stumps come first?
Yes. Restumping moves the whole house slightly as it comes back to level, and anything rigid you've just installed can crack. Do stumps before plaster, kitchens and tiling. It also means the new work goes onto a level floor rather than a compromise.