We harp all day long about the benefits of restumping. We wax lyrical about the euphoria that you and your loved ones will feel once your home has been properly fortified. And we do it for good reason. Homes that are properly restumped, reblocked, or underpinned are worth more, they’re more comfortable, and most importantly- they’re safer. But we spend all day long sharing the different benefits, the process, the key players that help make this happen. How are you supposed to know the why behind our work? Today, let’s take a step back and look at the reason that underpinning, restumping and reblocking came to life as necessary pieces of foundation fortification.

The number one reason behind the need for any of these services is natural shifts in the earth. It doesn’t need to be a 7.1 earthquake, like the one that unfortunately occurred recently in Mexico city. Earth, especially water soluble varieties like clay and silt, just moves over time. It moves because the tectonic plates beneath the earth are moving, minute by minute, year over year. Think about Antarctica. Did anyone ever anticipate that we’d end up with two different continents in the next 50 years? Preparation is key.

So, natural movement of ground just happens. But when heavy rains like hurricanes or tropical storms take place, this process is sped up significantly. When water interacts with the ground beneath the structure, it causes the soil to expand. As you can imagine, this is not ideal for the foundation of a home, as it is either spread too thin, or pushed in directions that the architect didn’t plan for. Key examples include homes that are built on hills, because it’s a regular occurrence that they may be pushed to lower altitudes without warning.

There are also human variables, which play a role in the need to restump a home. You may be looking to expand it in size. You may be looking to build lower levels like basements, or upper levels like attics. When your home was originally designed, the foundation was designed in a specific way to properly support the planned weight above. When this weight changes, that can put undue stress on the fortifying pillars beneath. This is the number one cause of foundation damage that homeowners tend to forget. It’s understandable. After all, you can’t see the foundation, or feel the pillars that are holding up your home. Not unless, you’re looking to explore a potentially dark and wet crawl space below. Just know, that any updates to your home, require keeping your foundation in mind.

None of these are anything to be terribly concerned over. That is, if you’re working with a company like Restumping Melbourne. We know that each property is as unique as its owners, and we’re dedicated to identifying a solution, which will fit the bill perfectly for you. Questions? Comments? Concerns? Don’t hesitate to reach out to the Restumping Melbourne team. We’re excited to make your home safe and comfortable.

It’s like a large-scaled Titanic situation. All over the world the foundations of homes or businesses are sinking deep into the ground. We’re not trying to sound dramatic, it’s the honest truth. Luckily, when you work with Restumping Melbourne, our processes and services ensure that you know about said sinkage early and often. When you have early visibility into situations like this for your home or business, you’re much more capable of stopping the issue at its source. In general, it’s a great mystery—why the heck are our foundations sinking? Here are some frequent causes:

Earthquakes- As if they didn’t have enough negative implications, you can add sinking foundations to the list. Earthquakes cause the ground to shake. This means that the saturated soil begins to liquefy. Thus begins a process of deterioration as the soil loses its strength and allows the footings of the building to sink. Of course, once earthquakes are done, the soil will no longer be liquid, but the damage is already done.

The systems used for footings- This is frequently found in either older homes, or homes that have had extensions added on at a later point in the building process. They will perform differently than the rest of the foundation. This is why it’s really important to work with a company like Restumping Melbourne that will perform proper analysis on the ground and ensure consistency within the foundation. Most footings settle within the first five years following initial construction.

Too much Water- Often the most volatile of the weather conditions, while water has its good side, it can also be detrimental to the footings of your foundation. When floods occur, the soil conditions change. If the soil is particularly sandy, then finer grains remove themselves, and the larger and more dense grains settle towards the bottom. This is another way to break down the strength of the soil.

Construction or home renovations- Make sure that you think through all home renovations, because they impact your foundation more frequently than you might imagine. If excavation is taking place, and done poorly, soil can slip and cause any adjacent footings to sink into the ground. Additionally, loud machinery or heavy traffic can both have negative effects.

Droughts- Man, you really can’t win here. You don’t want too much water, but you certainly need a little bit. Droughts will remove all moisture from the ground. This means that any clay in the soil, which is reactive, will shrink immediately. If you have nearby trees or large plants on your property, these can both capitalize on any remaining moisture in the ground, encouraging even more settlement of the foundation.

Not to despair! Things are not as scary as they sound. Many of these are events that occur naturally, and there’s not too much you can do to stop them. You can however, ensure that the foundation of your home is properly enforced, so that your nights are much more worry-free, and you can focus your energy on more important things, like building memories with your loved ones.

Not that any other industry is particularly fond of the little buggers, but those in the restumping business are seriously averse to termites. It’s like many years ago, restumpers and termites got into it and kicked off a permanent war where one cannot survive if the other does.

We’ll have to get to the root of that problem another time. Today, we tackle the problem of termites themselves. What are they? What havoc do they impede on residential and commercial properties? And above all, how do we eradicate them so that the value of homes and businesses is not impacted.

Termites are eusocial insects. They were once separate from cockroaches, but that is no longer the case. They are a truly successful group of insects on planet Earth. Their colonies have impeded every landmass except for Antarctica. So if you’re looking for a permanent way out, that’s the place to go. That being said, we don’t offer restumping services on continental Antarctica…yet. The colonies range in size. We’re talking as small as a few hundred, to as large as several millions. The queens especially, have notably long lifespans, up to 50 years. Many confuse termites for ants but there is one detailed difference. Ants undergo a full metamorphosis. Termites go through incomplete metamorphosis. They proceed from egg to nymph to adult. (Gross) Fun fact of the day? Some cultures view them as diet delicacies… Hey, we’re not a judgmental company! To each, their own.

One place we don’t recommend that you chow down on termites—at home, when they’re fresh and young. What kind of damage do termites cause to your home? Termite colonies will burrow down in the very foundations of your home, where the ground is the darkest and most moist. They’ll use underground tunnels that they nibble through, before they traverse the hollow core of a timber stump within your foundation. By tunneling through this core, they can build a mud tunnel all the way up to the underfloor of your home. From there, the rest is history. They’ll take advantage of any access to wood that they can find and munch right through it. They’re a chaotic problem to have, ever growing, ever spreading.

Never fear! Part of the mission of Restumping Melbourne is to educate our valued customers. While we will take the work off of your plates, it never hurts to be in the know about the services that we offer or why we’re doing the work that we’re doing. So, a few helpful tips from us:

• Don’t store firewood on the ground- instead, make sure that you have a special container, or closed area for it.
• Make sure that the battens aren’t attached to your floor framing.
• Maintain under-floor ventilation.
• Don’t allow sardens to build up over your battens.

Afraid that some of this lingo may be jibberish…? Never fear, look out for next post around the restumping lingo that you need, to be in the know.