Brisbane is full of old Queenslanders, timber homes on stumps, some pushing 100 years old, sitting across Paddington, Red Hill, Bulimba, Annerley, Ascot and every other pocket of the city where these houses were built to catch the breeze. They’re loved for the character. What’s less loved is what happens underneath them over time.

If your doors have started sticking, your floors have a lean to them, or you’ve noticed a crack that wasn’t there last year, the question homeowners usually land on is: do I need a relevel, or a full restump? They sound similar. They’re not the same job, they don’t cost the same, and getting the wrong one done means paying for it twice. Here’s how to tell the difference, what causes the movement in the first place, and how we handle it.

First, how to spot the signs

Old Queenslanders move. That’s not a fault, it’s how a timber-framed house on stumps behaves over decades of Brisbane’s wet and dry seasons. The trick is knowing which movement is normal wear and which needs attention.

Doors and windows sticking, especially ones that used to close fine, is one of the most common early signs of leaning or sinking stumps. If it’s worse in the wet season and eases off in the dry, that’s often the stumps moving with the soil.

Sloping or bouncy floors are another. A little character in an old floor is normal. A floor that’s visibly out of level, or where a marble would roll to one corner of the room, usually means one or more stumps has sunk, rotted or shifted.

Cracks worry people most, and not every crack means the same thing. Hairline cracks in cornices, or gaps that open and close with the seasons, are usually just the house moving on reactive soil. Cracks that are wide, growing, or running diagonally through brickwork or render are worth getting looked at properly, since they can point to a stump that’s failed rather than just shifted. If you’re not sure and the house is one you’re about to buy rather than one you already own, a pre-purchase subfloor inspection will settle it before you sign anything.

Wobbling or shaking, particularly if you notice it when someone walks through another room or in strong wind, is usually a bracing issue rather than a stump replacement issue. Uncomfortable to live with, but often one of the more straightforward fixes.

So which one do you actually need?

This is where relevelling and restumping get mixed up, understandably, since the symptoms overlap.

Relevelling means jacking the house back to level on the stumps it already has, sometimes replacing a handful of the worst ones along the way. It’s usually the right call when the house has drifted out of level over time but the majority of stumps are still structurally sound. Our relevelling process will often fix sticking doors and windows and close up cracks that opened from the house being out of square.

Restumping is the bigger job: replacing stumps outright, because they’ve rotted, rusted or cracked beyond repair, or because termite damage has gone too far to save them. If you’re restumping, we’ll often recommend upgrading to adjustable steel columns, which means if the house drifts out of level again down the track, it can be adjusted without digging everything out a second time. In Brisbane’s climate we’d usually pair that with hot dip galvanising, since it holds up far better against rust than untreated steel.

The honest answer is you can’t reliably tell which one you need from what’s happening upstairs. A sticking door could mean either. That’s why an inspection under the house matters more than trying to diagnose it from the symptoms alone.

Why Brisbane Queenslanders move in the first place

A lot of it comes down to soil. Large parts of Brisbane and Ipswich sit on reactive clay that expands when wet and shrinks when dry. That constant movement puts pressure on stumps and footings that newer slab-on-ground homes never have to deal with.

Drainage makes it worse. Stormwater that isn’t directed away from the house will pool around stumps, accelerating rot in timber and rust in steel, and feeding the same soil movement that causes stumps to lean or sink.

Then there’s straightforward age. Original timber stumps in Queenslanders built last century are well past the point where rot and termite damage become a real risk. Steel stumps from later renovations can rust in Brisbane’s humidity. Concrete stumps can crack. Different stump types fail differently, which is exactly why a proper look under the house matters before anyone starts pulling anything out. In some cases the better long-term fix isn’t a like-for-like stump replacement at all but full underpinning, depending on what’s found.

How we tackle it

We run 3 dedicated restumping and relevelling crews working across South East Queensland, on top of our house raising teams. It’s a core part of what we do every week, on old Queenslanders and everything else on stumps across Brisbane and Ipswich, not something squeezed in around bigger jobs.

The process starts with getting eyes under the house. We assess the condition of every stump, check for rot, rust, cracking and lean, and look at how drainage around the house is behaving. From there we’ll tell you plainly whether you’re looking at a relevel, a partial restump, or a full restump, and why. Our full restumping process is laid out step by step if you want the detail.

If it’s a restump, we remove and dispose of the old stumps, bore and inspect the new holes, and install your choice of timber, concrete or steel, with adjustable steel columns and galvanising available where they’ll pay off long term. If it’s a relevel, we jack the house back to level and tighten everything up, often resolving the sticking doors and windows along the way.

Either way, we clean up as we go and keep you in the loop at each stage, so there are no surprises about what’s happening under your own house.

Get it looked at before it gets worse

None of these signs mean your house is falling down. Most of the time it’s a manageable job when it’s caught reasonably early, and knowing whether you need a relevel or a restump up front saves you paying for the wrong fix. Left alone, sunk or failing stumps tend to get more expensive to fix, not less.

If your Queenslander’s doors are sticking, the floor has a lean, or you’ve spotted a crack that’s growing, get in touch for a free quote. Check our FAQ for more on common questions, or we’ll tell you straight which job you actually need and what it’ll take to sort it.