Preston and Reservoir have long been popular with first-home buyers and renovators. The area has good transport, parks along the Darebin Creek and a steady supply of older houses on decent blocks. Many of those houses are timber-floored on stumps, and plenty still have their original stumps.

Why the subfloor matters

The stumps hold the house up. When they fail, the floor drops, doors stick, plaster cracks and, eventually, the house needs restumping. Restumping is not a small job, and its cost can significantly change your renovation budget.

Most houses for sale are presented well. Fresh paint and a polished floor can hide a lot. Sloping floors are easy to miss at an open inspection, especially when the house is furnished.

What a standard building inspection covers

A general pre-purchase building inspection looks at the whole house: roof, walls, wet areas, electrics in passing, and the subfloor. On the subfloor, inspectors often look from the access point or crawl a short distance in. That may be enough to flag an obvious problem, but it may not show the full picture.

What a subfloor check adds

A dedicated subfloor inspection goes further under the house:

Stump type and condition. Original timber, replaced concrete, steel or a mix. How many show rot, cracking, lean or settlement.
Packers. Crushed, rotted, missing or stacked too high.
Bearers and joists. Sag, decay, borer and notches cut for pipes.
Floor levels. A level survey of the main rooms to show how far out the floor is.
Drainage and moisture. Pooling water, leaks, damp soil and blocked vents.
Different stump systems. Extensions and sleep-outs on different footings.

What to look for in Preston and Reservoir

Housing in this area varies a lot, so the issues do too.

Inter-war bungalows in Preston. Often on original hardwood stumps. Some have been partially restumped. Look for floors dropping toward the middle and sagging verandahs.

Post-war weatherboards in Reservoir. Many were built quickly with variable materials. Stumps may be softwood or lower-grade hardwood and are often near the end of their life.

Former Housing Commission homes. Some are weatherboard, some concrete panel. Concrete panel homes are less tolerant of footing movement, and cracks at panel joints are worth checking.

Brick veneers in Kingsbury and Reservoir. Internal floors on stumps may have dropped while the outer walls stayed level. Look for gaps under skirting boards.

What you can spot yourself at an open inspection

You cannot crawl under the house at an open for inspection, but you can look for clues:

Roll a marble or a coin along the hallway floor and see where it goes.
Open and close every internal door. Doors that swing on their own, stick or have been planed are telling you something.
Look at the tops of door frames for diagonal cracks, especially where they have been recently painted over.
Check under the skirting boards for gaps between floor and wall.
Walk outside and look through the subfloor vents with your phone torch, if you can do it politely.
Note fresh patching and paint in otherwise tired rooms; it can be cosmetic, but it can also cover cracks.

None of these replaces a proper subfloor check, but they help you decide which houses are worth spending money on.

Timing before auction

Many houses in Preston and Reservoir sell at auction, which means you have to do your checks before you bid. That leaves a short window. Contact the selling agent early to arrange access to the subfloor, and book your inspection as soon as you are serious about a property.

For private sales, check the terms of your contract and cooling-off period, and consider making your offer subject to a satisfactory building and subfloor inspection.

What to do with the findings

If the subfloor is in good shape, you can buy with more confidence. If restumping is likely, you can:

Factor it into your budget, alongside any other renovations.
Adjust your offer to reflect the work needed.
Plan the order of works, because restumping before renovation avoids redoing floors and walls.

A subfloor check is not a guarantee of future performance, and it is not an engineer's report. Where something looks beyond a stumps-and-floors problem, we will recommend a structural engineer.

Book a check

If you are looking at an older house in Preston, Reservoir, Kingsbury or Bundoora, get in touch as soon as you have a property in mind. We will arrange a time with the agent, get under the house and give you a plain-English summary of what we find.

Buying an Older House in Preston or Reservoir? Check the Subfloor First