Turns out our 1980s timber cabin in Johanna wasn’t exactly standing tall. In fact, it was more like leaning, sagging, and doing its best impersonation of a funhouse. Every room had a slope, doors wouldn’t close properly, and one of the stumps wasn’t even touching the ground. Before we could think about new kitchens or decks, we had to deal with the big one… re-stumping the entire house.
This was one of those jobs I didn’t want to tackle myself. It’s not technically difficult, but it is awkward, messy and involves crawling through dirt, hauling concrete, and spending way too much time under the house. But when the quotes came back at $24,000 to $40,000 plus extras and no local tradies were available, we decided to do it ourselves .
Stage One: Re-Stumping the Cabin
We started at the front of the house where things were at their worst. Out of nine stumps, only two weren’t floating in the wind . Some stumps were so rotten they crumbled like paper, others were sitting in pools of water from dodgy downpipes.
Armed with 24 car jacks, LVLs, and endless Bunnings runs, we ended up lifting almost the entire front of the cabin in one go. Windows skewed, doors jammed, and Lucy’s main concern was that the house “looked like it was about to collapse” — but slowly, we got it back into shape.
In the end we replaced around 55 stumps, poured concrete, and even left some of the LVLs in place to strengthen the frame. Now the house finally sits level instead of rocking in the wind. A Full cost breakdown at the end.
Re-Stumping | What We Used
Stage Two: Pulling Up the Floors
Once the house was level, we thought we might keep the old floors. Famous last words.
The boards had cracks running everywhere, gaps you could see daylight through, and joists that were all different sizes. Levelling them would’ve taken a week, so we ripped the lot out.
👉 Lucy said: “What did you do to the floors, Jonno?”
(For the record, I didn’t do anything. The house did.)
New joists went down in a day, properly sized and spaced this time. Then we laid a subfloor using STRUCTAflor YELLOWtongue flooring sheets, a foil-backed board with termite protection and a added insulation rating. Basically, a tougher, fancier version of yellow-tongue. Great in cold areas for that little extra R Value when you get to insulating under old floors too. It gave us a solid, flat base ready for the final finish.
New Sub-Floor | What We Used
Stage Three: Engineered Timber Flooring
Finally, the fun part. We chose engineered timber boards with lots of variation, blonde tones, darker grains, and a rustic look that felt right for the cabin .
Installing them was a two-person job (thanks Freddy) and took two days. We glued straight onto the subfloor, tapped the boards tight, and pinned them in place while the glue set. The first run along the sliding doors had to be perfect, otherwise the whole room would feel crooked. After that, it was all rhythm and glue.
By the time we laid the final board — in the dark, covered in glue, sore knees — it was one of the most satisfying moments of the entire project.
New Flooring | What We Used
💬 Lucy’s hot take on the loft:
“We should’ve knocked it out while we were at it. It’s too low, it has to go.”
She’s probably right, but one massive job at a time.
The End Result
What started as “just fixing some bouncy floors” turned into a complete re-stumping, re-joisting, and re-flooring marathon. It was muddy, exhausting and there were plenty of “why are we doing this” moments.
But now the cabin feels like a completely different house. The floors are rock-solid, dead flat, and sealed. The engineered boards add warmth and character, while the new subfloor means we can insulate properly and keep the cabin warm in winter.
We crawled under the dirt, mixed concrete until our backs ached, and glued ourselves to the floors, but this place is finally ready for the next 40 years.
📌 Cost Breakdown: Re-Stumping
Concrete mix and cement: about $500
65 concrete stumps: about $855
Jacks (24 of them): about $3,200
LVLs and timber: about $2,000
Screws, strapping, hardware: about $100
Labour (mates’ rates and favours): about $3,500
Total: around $10,000 all in
💡 We saved about $30,000 compared to professional quotes.
🎥 Watch the full project on YouTube
We’ve Got a Problem… Restumping Our Entire House DIY
