Reblocking
Reblocking is the Victorian term for restumping: replacing the stumps a house sits on once they rot, sink or crack.
Restumping in Ocean Grove
Restumping Geelong restumps Ocean Grove's older homes: the timber holiday houses and cottages of the old town between the river and the surf beach. Coastal conditions are hard on stumps and subfloors, and we build for them. Request a quote and we'll inspect under the house and give you a written price.
Ocean Grove began with a huge 1887 subdivision, laid out by Methodist founders who famously banned the sale of liquor on the estate, but it only took off as a holiday town after the Second World War. That postwar boom built the old town: timber holiday homes and beach houses on the hill between the Barwon River mouth and the surf beach, most of them on stumps. The newer estates on the town's northern side came much later and are slab-built.
Many of those postwar holiday homes are now permanent residences, renovated and extended, and their stumps are 60 to 80 years old. If your place in the old grove has floors with a lean, or a subfloor you've never wanted to look into, request a quote. We'll inspect it properly and price the work in writing.
Local knowledge
Restumping older homes in Ocean Grove
Homes in old Ocean Grove deal with conditions Geelong suburbs don't. Salt air corrodes the steel parts of a subfloor, ant caps and fixings especially, and coastal sand over clay means ground conditions can change within a single block. Add the original build quality, which for holiday houses of that era was often light-on, and stump problems here tend to come with company: soft bearers, undersized joists and damp-affected floor timber.
The other Ocean Grove pattern is the renovation restump. Old holiday homes get lifted, extended and opened up, and engineers, lenders and building surveyors all want the stumps right before that work starts. We restump ahead of renovations and coordinate with your builder so the levelling is finished before frames and plaster go in.
What to look for
Common problems we see in Ocean Grove
- Postwar holiday-home stumps now 60 to 80 years old
- Salt-air corrosion of ant caps and subfloor fixings
- Light original construction sagging under modern renovations
- Sandy topsoil over clay giving uneven settlement across one house
- Stump condition flagged when holiday homes become permanent residences
What we do
Services for Ocean Grove homes
Steel Stumps
Steel stumps are galvanised posts, usually with adjustable heads, that neither rot nor attract termites.
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 Ocean Grove
Tell us about your place and we will get back to you with an honest assessment and a fixed price.
Ocean Grove restumping questions
Do coastal homes need different stump materials?
The stumps themselves, concrete or galvanised steel, handle coastal conditions well. What matters near the coast is the detail: galvanised or stainless fixings, proper ant caps and good subfloor ventilation so salt-laden damp doesn't sit under the house. We spec for the coast as standard on Ocean Grove jobs.
Our beach house is up on tall stumps. Can it still be relevelled?
Yes. Taller subfloors are actually easier to work in than tight crawl spaces. Homes on high stumps just need proper bracing checks as part of the job, since bracing matters more as height increases. We assess stumps and bracing together and quote the lot.
Is the old grove's sandy soil better or worse than clay?
Different. Sand drains well and moves less with the seasons than clay, which is kind to stumps, but many blocks here are sand over clay, so one house can sit on both. That mix is why coastal inspections check ground conditions stump by stump rather than assuming the whole block behaves the same way.