ozzieeagle

I dont suppose many people on here have had a house restumped here in Aus.

We had planned to pull our house down and put up two new ones. Turned out we would have had to get "commercial style" finance for that, which I calculated could have been left up out of pocket to the tune of 250,000 dollars plus. Plus I didnt trust the housing market to sell the 2nd place to cover the costs.

So after much soul searching, we decided to renovate...... Well errrm it's proving to be a bit of a headache... I'll probably end up owing just us much.

Restumping is the first thing you have to do... then roofing.. electrics, plumbing, then you may extend (I doubt if we will be able to afford it after this)

The restumpers found a problem in our kitchen... they couldnt get in under the house in any part as it's too low. So besides having gaping holes in each room, we now have this to contend with. We only found out about this problem yesterday... after a bit of negotiation we decided we would do/pay for the excavation.



We are actually living here whilst this is done. It's rained a lot and all the holes are full, they will have to pump them out next week if they dont drain/evaparate.

The reason our kitchen is like this, is when the kitchen extension was put on, the previous owner (30 years ago plus) didnt excavate enough leaving the joists too close to the ground. We have to remove 200 mls of soil from the whole floor area of the Kitchen at our effort or expense.

Not a happy chappy today. Reason we are living here whilst this happens, we couldnt get short term accom for anything less than 1200 bucks per week... miles away. Got a tent for the back garden if needs be though. Didnt fancy living with friends

.
So anyone else fancy restumping their low to the ground house ?

It's a 'mare... thank gawd I took two weeks off. May have to insist on more... cant sleep in the daytime (I work nights) whilst this crap is going on.

BadgeIsBack

Commiserations!

That extra space will help with ventilation and help prevent other problems.

Pomster

Aww feel for you Ed.

Mr P loves renovating and we always seem to live in conditions like these.
Just think how fab it will be when you have finished.....

Restumping in other rooms should be OK though? Mate of mine had it done and you barely noticed

ozzieeagle

LOL... we've got plenty of ventilation in the other rooms now.

We knew we were in trouble at the start of the week, when the Two Vietnamese workers turned up, and in very broken English started waving their arms around and speaking very fast when they first set eyes on our kitchen area.

The first shock came when they finally made us aware of the fact that they couldnt work in the kitchen without us or them demolishing the whole kitchen....removing everything... not sure how I figured they were going to do it otherwise. Head in sand approach from me I guess.

I honestly figured we would just be minus a kitchen for a while, which wasnt a big deal, as the whole lot was going to be replaced. I didnt think I'd be losing the whole bloody floor though LOL !

I think my low 100K's plus budget will end up a lot closer to high 100k's now dammit.... there goes my retirement trips.... unless I bloody move




Oh well sitting here isnt getting the floor dug.... dammit !

ozzieeagle

The other rooms are liveable... we've got bits of kitchen cabinet covering the holes... so it's still being used

BTW the soil is surprisingly good, must have been a decent garden/vegie patch before ... so we are dumping it in the backyard, rather than the skip at present. I suppose thats one small bonus.



'

sonlymewalter

nice update

Hope its all done quickly especially since you're living in it mate

ps. keep the piccies coming, its great to see step home improvements.

unfair dinkum

bleedin 'eck I feel for you having gone through all this shit meself, but luckily they could do the resumping without removing any boards etc.
They did however burst a water pipe on the first morning just when they were removing pavers. Stayed with in-laws for a week. Happy days.
Why did they remove all the kitchen cabinets?

Rambi

Eek.

Doing some reno myself at the mo. Did have a dingo booked for the weekend but cancelled it because of the rain predictions this weekend.

Good luck. Hope you get it sealed soon.

ozzieeagle

They moved the cabinets so they could access the stumps from above as there wasn't enough ground clearance. Dont really care about that as the kitchen was over 15 years old and really crappy looking... we are going to bring part of it back in temporarily, whilst we sort out a new kitchen. Plus we need the old parts to support the kitchen sink.

Lots of issues now about replacement floorboards, as we are supposed to put in Baltic Pine @ 150mm x 22... and the buggers are 17 dollars per linear meter.

Thats what I bloody need one of those Dingo things. Oh well back to the digging.

Re the water pipe... there is always something eh

TiddlyPom

Euhhhh, that looks stressy!
Good luck with it. Keep posting shots.

unfair dinkum

there IS always something, yes
in our house it was
crappy brittle plastic (?!) water pipes (burst on 2 occasions)
suspected gas leak (was just a blind ending old gas line)
having central AC/heating system fully installed only to find (in the blazing heat of january) that there isn't enough power to switch it on (!?)
dodgy powdery white insulation material material in loft (which caused everyone who went up into roof to cough and splutter)
leaking roof
asbestos in bathroom
shed and cupboards full of someone else's crap

ah the memories!
we've sold it

Buzzy--Bee

How close are the joists to the ground mate? We were told there had to be 150mm gap when we built but as our joists and stumps are galvanised steel I was hoping there wouldn't be future issues. Then after we'd built I thought about it and realised the flooring was red tongue which is not quite as robust! It's not too late for me to get under there and dig it all out but it would be a major effort!

BB

ozzieeagle

The bearers were touching at some parts, so god knows how they got started. I'm just aiming for 30 mls for the bottom of the bearers now, and 150 mls for the joists.

We've got serious rain coming this afternoon... our gutters have been leaking badly and filled some of the holes, so we put some effort into making those gutters as water tight as possible. There were mounds of earth where they dug the stump holes originally under the floor almost touching the floorboards, so trying to make the floor even as well.

Where did you get your kitchen from, we are looking at Kitset. Got some very capable handymen friends that can help with the tricky parts. 13 feet ceilings in this place, so a kitchen company would be super expensive.

I can just imagine Sarah Beenys voice in my head, going on about "if they had got the place surveyed" Still we havent had much of an issue with this house uptil this point.... save for all the kitchen tiles cracking within 2 years of being laid....now we know exactly why.

Buzzy--Bee

We looked at kitset too and then priced some kitchen companies, we went with Central Cabinets who were only a couple of thousand more expensive for supply and install than Kitset were for supply only, it's a father and son company and I can 100% recommend them - very impressed, one of the best trades we had. Call Kevin on 9588 0656.

BB

ozzieeagle

Thanks

Got a really strong strapping 16 YO coming today, who helps his builder father with labouring work.... I reckon we will get the depth required now.... 100 bucks for the day. I'm happy.

The wife and I did at least 50pct of the digging yesterday. around 80 to 100 wheel barrow loads.