Does restumping add value before you sell?

Nobody pays extra for a level floor because a level floor is the baseline expectation. What they do is pay less, or walk, when the building inspector writes up failed stumps. In practice a $14,000 restump on a Goulburn Valley weatherboard tends to protect somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 of price, because buyers discount an unknown structural problem far harder than the actual cost of fixing it.

That gap is the whole point. A buyer reading “evidence of stump failure, further investigation recommended” is not thinking “that is about sixteen grand”. They are thinking about the worst case, about whether the walls are next, about whether their lender will care, and about the fortnight of their life it will take to find out. They price all of that, and they price it in their favour. You are not competing with the cost of the restump, you are competing with their imagination.

When it is genuinely not worth doing.

If the movement is minor and historic, the calculation flips. Spending $16,000 to correct a 15mm slope in a 1950s home that buyers in Shepparton already expect to be a bit uneven is money you will not see again. Plenty of sound weatherboards around Mooroopna and Tatura have a gentle lean that has not changed since the Whitlam government and never will. The question is not “is the floor perfectly level”, it is “is the floor still moving, and will an inspector say so”. A free inspection and a laser level read answer that for nothing, and we will tell you to leave it alone if that is the right advice.

Allow ten to fourteen weeks if you want it done and finished properly before photos. One to three weeks for the engineer’s footing design and the building permit, two to three weeks on site for a full restump of a typical home, then the part people forget: jacking a house back to level opens cracks in plaster and cornices, and that make-good plus a repaint needs three to four weeks of its own. Starting six weeks out means photographing a house with fresh cracks in it, which defeats the purpose.

There is a seasonal wrinkle too. Levelling a Shepparton house in late February, when the reactive clay has been shrinking since November, sets the floor to the driest condition of the year. It is workable and we do it constantly, but a good restumper allows for where the ground sits in its cycle rather than pretending the clay is a fixed thing. If your sale timing is flexible, the shoulder months are kinder.

Does restumping add value to a house in Shepparton?

Not the way a new kitchen does. Restumping does not add a premium, it removes a discount, and that is a different thing worth understanding before you spend the money. Nobody pays extra for a level floor because a level floor is the baseline expectation. What they do is pay less, or walk, when the building inspector writes up failed stumps. In practice a $14,000 restump on a Goulburn Valley weatherboard tends to protect somewhere between $20,000 and $40,000 of price, because buyers discount an unknown structural problem far harder than the actual cost of fixing it.

Should I restump before selling or let the buyer negotiate on it?

If the stumps have clearly failed, doing it first almost always nets more. Once a buyer’s inspector reports evidence of stump failure and recommends further investigation, you have lost control of the number, because the buyer is not costing the repair, they are pricing their own uncertainty plus the hassle. If the movement is minor and historic, the calculation flips: spending $16,000 to correct a 15mm slope in a 1950s home that buyers in Shepparton expect to be a bit uneven is money you will not see again. Get it inspected and levelled first, then decide with real numbers.

Does a restump have to be disclosed in the Section 32?

Yes, if the building permit was issued within the seven years before the sale. The Sale of Land Act requires the vendor statement to disclose particulars of building permits issued in the preceding seven years for domestic building work, and a restump always has a permit if it was done properly. That is a good thing rather than a burden: a permit number, an engineer’s footing design and a final inspection in the Section 32 turn a scary word into documented, signed-off structural work. An undocumented restump is the one that causes trouble at settlement.

Will a building inspector pick up bad stumps?

Almost certainly, and it is one of the first things they look for in an older Goulburn Valley weatherboard. A pre-purchase inspection to AS 4349.1 includes the subfloor where it is accessible, and inspectors carry a level for exactly this reason. They will note sloping floors, packing under bearers, perished or rotted stumps, and inadequate subfloor ventilation. They will also note when the subfloor was not accessible, which buyers read as a warning rather than a clean bill of health.

How long before listing should I restump?

Allow ten to fourteen weeks if you want it done and finished properly before photos. One to three weeks for the engineer’s footing design and the building permit, two to three weeks on site for a full restump of a typical home, then the part people forget: jacking a house back to level opens cracks in plaster and cornices, and that make-good plus a repaint needs three to four weeks of its own. Starting six weeks out means photographing a house with fresh cracks in it, which defeats the purpose.