Inner West · Seddon 3011
Restumping in Seddon
Seddon is the suburb where restumping and renovating are almost the same conversation. The Edwardian cottages and early bungalows around Charles Street are being renovated at a steady clip, and the single most expensive mistake we see here is a new kitchen or a polished floor going in over stumps that had two years left in them.
Seddon housing — what we are usually dealing with
Seddon's stock is tighter and more uniform than neighbouring Footscray — largely Edwardian weatherboard cottages and California bungalows built between about 1905 and 1935, on narrow blocks with a shared or near-shared boundary. Original stumps are timber, and in the bungalows you often find a mix: a few early concrete stumps under the front verandah where they were exposed to weather, with timber everywhere else. The floors are almost always original hardwood, which is worth protecting — hardwood that has been re-levelled properly comes up beautifully, hardwood that has been sanded flat to hide a slope cannot be fixed twice.
The ground under Seddon
Seddon sits on the same inner-west transition as Yarraville: silty flats grading into the clay that dominates further west. It is not the aggressively reactive clay of the growth corridor, so slab heave is not the issue here — the failure mode is straightforward stump rot and settlement over a very long time frame, accelerated by subfloor damp on the lower-lying streets.
What this means for your job
The sequencing advice matters more in Seddon than almost anywhere. If a renovation is on the cards in the next few years, restump first. Re-levelling a house moves every wall, every door frame and every cornice by a few millimetres, which means new plaster, new tiling and new cabinetry installed before a restump will crack, gap or need adjusting afterwards. Doing it in the right order costs nothing extra; doing it in the wrong order can mean paying for the same finishes twice. Access is as tight as Yarraville — expect hand-dug stumps and material carried through the house.
What we see in Seddon homes
- A slope you can feel walking from the hallway into the front bedroom
- Cornice cracks that keep reopening after being patched
- Sticking sash windows in the original front rooms
- A renovation planned within the next two to three years — reason enough to have the subfloor assessed now
Restumping costs in Seddon
$13,000 – $21,000 for a full restumpSeddon prices track Yarraville's closely because the access constraints are the same. Where the job is being done ahead of a renovation, it is often worth restumping the whole footprint at once rather than in stages — mobilising twice is the single biggest avoidable cost.
Indicative range only, based on typical jobs in this area. Access, soil conditions and the extent of movement change the number — a fixed price follows an on-site inspection.
The right service for Seddon
Seddon homes of this era have suspended timber floors on individual stumps, so restumping and reblocking is the service that applies — replacing failed stumps and re-levelling the floors above them. Read what the full job involves, including permits and the lifting process, on our restumping page.
Restumping in Seddon — your questions
Should I restump before or after renovating my Seddon home?
Before, essentially always. Restumping re-levels the entire structure, which shifts wall and door positions by small but real amounts. New plaster, tiling, cabinetry or a freshly sanded floor installed beforehand will crack or need adjusting afterwards. Restumping first means the renovation is built on a level, stable base and the finishes stay intact. The only exception is emergency work where the house is unsafe and the renovation is years away.
Will restumping damage my original hardwood floors?
Done properly, no — and it is often the thing that saves them. The house is lifted gradually with the floor structure intact, so boards are not lifted or removed except where access to an internal stump requires it, and those boards are refitted. The greater risk to Seddon's original floors is the alternative: sanding a sloping floor flat to disguise the movement, which removes board thickness you can never get back and leaves the underlying cause untouched.
How long does a restump take on a Seddon cottage?
Typically one to two weeks on site for a full restump of a single-fronted Edwardian, plus permit time beforehand. The hand-dug access here pushes it towards the longer end. That is site time only — allow additional lead time for the building permit and surveyor inspections, which commonly adds two to four weeks before anyone starts digging.
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