how to tell if house is on stumps..

[Melbournee]

Hello all,

Its probably a really silly question for some but how can you tell if a house is on stumps or not?

For the house in question the stumps arent visible from anywhere (from the outside) but the walls have this small ventillation grills on the outside at ground level. Someone suggested that these vents normally mean the house is sitting on stumps.

Vents like these ones
http://www.heatregisters.com/g/woodwahllvents.jpg

But there is no entry point into the ground as well. The house is 60 years old in Melbourne.

how can you tell if its on stumps ?? and if it is how can access be created onto the stumps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RumpledElf]

Sounds like it is a house with a timber floor. The floor may be pretty much at ground level, same as a house on a slab. Those are just subfloor vents.

Houses on stumps usually don't have little vents, they often have quite 'gappy' covering around the bottom instead. They are up quite a bit higher too, so the main give away is you're looking at a house with two or three steps leading up to the front door and it is on flat ground.

Also, brick or stone houses are NEVER on stumps. This assumes you can tell the difference between asbestos with fake spray-on bricks, cement sheeting rendered to look like ... well, render, and real bricks

 

[The Y-man]

how can you tell if its on stumps ?? and if it is how can access be created onto the stumps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

What's the floor made of?

One of our IP's had close to ground floor on low stumps (just enough to get ducted heating through). You access the stumps by ripping up the floorboards


Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[marg4000]

Also, brick or stone houses are NEVER on stumps. This assumes you can tell the difference between asbestos with fake spray-on bricks, cement sheeting rendered to look like ... well, render, and real bricks

Maybe not interstate, but in Brisbane brick veneer houses on stumps were not uncommon around 30+ years ago and there are still lots around. The Housing Commission often built this way.
Marg

 

[RumpledElf]

You're kidding - how do they support the bricks above the ground? Steel bars?

I've seen lots of houses where the wall is on foundations and the floor is on stumps - this is pretty normal - but I have NEVER seen a brick or stone house on stumps.

Edit: there is a house not far from here that is a 'fake' rendered cement sheet house, complete with fake quoins. It is on stumps. It looks truly ridiculous, a house that looks like it is made of stone, hovering 2 feet above the ground on a handful of concrete stumps.

FILL THE BASE OF YOUR HOUSE IN lol

Makes me laugh every time I drive past it.

 

[Propertunity]

Walk around the outside of the house and look for the sub-floor access door. Open it up and have a look (take a tourch).

 

[marg4000]

You're kidding - how do they support the bricks above the ground? Steel bars?

I've seen lots of houses where the wall is on foundations and the floor is on stumps - this is pretty normal - but I have NEVER seen a brick or stone house on stumps.
.

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-woodridge-106614016
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-woodridge-106760144
http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-qld-slacks+creek-105779133


Maybe there is confusion in interstate terminology - in Queensland "brick" houses are normally brick veneer.
Marg

 

[RumpledElf]

Same here, WA has double brick as standard, here it is brick veneer as standard.

That's a concrete slab on stumps? Never seen that before ... that explains how the bricks are held up. Houses on stumps here are invariably timber floor (real or particleboard) and weatherboard cladding of some persuasion. In SA if you want a brick house (double or veneer) you need a slab on the ground.

Damn Queenslanders and your high rainfall needing houses up high

At least the definition of 'stumps' seems consistent

 

[The Y-man]

Walk around the outside of the house and look for the sub-floor access door. Open it up and have a look (take a tourch).

Prop, I've owned 2 properties, both wood floor on stumps, where neither had access doors.

Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[Propertunity]

Prop, I've owned 2 properties, both wood floor on stumps, where neither had access doors.

Wow, that must have made pest inspections for termites and building inspections 'interesting'. Not to think about how you'd fix plumbing / electrical issues that you'd need access to?? if run under the floor.

 

[The Y-man]

Wow, that must have made pest inspections for termites and building inspections 'interesting'. Not to think about how you'd fix plumbing / electrical issues that you'd need access to?? if run under the floor.

Like I said, the only way I could figure was "rip up the boards" (considering the place had polished boards inside, and bag rendered brick exterior!)

Inside shot and outside shot. Space under floor the height of the 2 steps (enough for heating duct - and that was the highest point!). Note vent grill to right of steps.



Cheers,

The Y-man

 

[NBS]

Rumpledelf,

I have to disagree you can have bricks on stumps. It is done with concrete stumps and a solid beam of concrete on top of the stumps around the house and the bricks are laid on this, It can be double brick infact.

Internally you still have stumps and the bearers and joist are installed as per normal with a timber floor on top.

Usually with the sub floor vents you will have stumps or small brick piers to support the timbers.

Brian

 

[RumpledElf]

I have to disagree you can have bricks on stumps.

You're a Queenslander too - I need to qualify my original comment with "in South Australia" lol. Probably WA too with their tendency towards double brick. Stumps are a fantastic way to deal with a slope, in SA you have a slight slope you are pretty much guaranteed a cut-and-fill unless you go through an architect or something.

Amazing the subtle differences between states, eh?

Of course this begs the question - what's standard building practises in NSW and VIC, where the original poster is?

 

[Melbournee]

Firstly thanks for the comments so far.

Yeah, the floors are hardwood. The inside of the house is only one foot and a half above outside ground so not much.(def not as much as most stump houses as I have seen.)

Wanted to get central heating put in hence the enquiry. Might go the heating in the roof in that case.

 

[marg4000]

Firstly thanks for the comments so far.

Yeah, the floors are hardwood. The inside of the house is only one foot and a half above outside ground so not much.(def not as much as most stump houses as I have seen.)
.

Our son owns a house in Melbourne, the stumps are around 20-30cm high. Better than his first house in Ferntree Gully, at the back he would be lucky if the stumps were 15cm high.
Marg

 

[Tools]

I have to disagree you can have bricks on stumps. It is done with concrete stumps and a solid beam of concrete on top of the stumps around the house and the bricks are laid on this, It can be double brick infact.

Maybe a silly question, but why would anyone build this way with all of the additional costs of forming up perimeter beams instead of pouring a footing in the ground and building brick from ground level?

Tools

 

[RumpledElf]

Our house has the floor up on limestone dwarf walls, excavated underneath. There's heaps of space down there but the dwarf walls are continuous so you couldn't put in a heating system or anything.

Our kitchen on the other hand - the bearers were mostly sitting on the GROUND. In some places the floorboards were sitting on bricks, which were sitting on the ground. Needless to say the bearers and joists had various levels of rot, and the floorboards were cupped beyond recognition. Amazingly, no termite damage

We did major excavation in there to get a decent amount of space between bearers and ground, completly relaid and relevelled the floor from the bearers up, and the neighbour got the floorboards for firewood.

 

[Bill.L]

Hi all,

The place we had in Mulgrave was one of those brick veneer places with stumps for the floor and no access. When we put in a gas heater was when we found out. We used a sledge hammer to make an opening between 2 brick piers to get access.

It was at that point that I realized the building inspection we had done at purchase was worthless, the professional report stated that all stumps, bearers and joists were in good condition.

With the brick veneer houses, the bricks are on foundations and the bearers rest on the piers just below floor level, there is no need for concrete beams, masonry takes all the weight of the bricks.

bye

 

[NBS]

Maybe a silly question, but why would anyone build this way with all of the additional costs of forming up perimeter beams instead of pouring a footing in the ground and building brick from ground level?

Tools

Well it was the thing in the 60's it seems for housing commission. I have to agree one would think its easier to do a slab, maybe it was a termite issue and they raised them to enable a good way to inspect.

This is one I am working on at the moment. the perimiter is stumps with a thinkening beam with double bricks on top. Inside are also concrete stumps taking the bearers none are infact attached to the exterior walls.

The whole place is of interesting construction and has needed some thinking outside of the square to renovate.

Brian

 

[reeco]

Does anyone know the relative cost saving one might recieve from this kind of residential construction? Im considering building a number of houses on my lot.

Ive got a slant on my block (120metres) from front to back and id rather go for stumps then drop a slab. Any suggestions?