The Trade-off Between Affordability and Reliability

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The Trade-off Between Affordability and ReliabilityAh, the age-old travesty. That centuries old battle between deciding to pinch pennies and to sacrifice the quality of work. Welcome to the Restumping Melbourne blog! We’re thrilled to have you here, especially as we know just how many options you have in the Melbourne area and beyond. If you’ve already made it to our little site, chances are good that you have a need. Rather, chances are good that your home or business’ foundation has seen better days and has opportunities for improvement. Well, a pat on the back from the Restumping Melbourne team. Your exact need was why our team was formed and your intuition and proactivity to visit the blog mean that you’re headed in the right direction already.

Frequently on this blog, we focus on broader information. We’re passionate about the industry-at-large and the only way that we can continue to be the best in the business and ahead of the game, is by expanding our horizons and knowing the role that we play in turning your house into a safe and comfortable home. So, we’ll scour the internet, we’ll have extensive conversations with each other and with others, we’ll ask the tough questions and we’ll be sure to find the answers. So that when you visit the Restumping Melbourne team or our site or our blog, you’ll leave feeling comfortable and confident – not only with the idea of reinforcing your foundation through our premium restumping, reblocking and underpinning skills – but ready to tackle whatever home renovation or construction project is next on your list.

This is not one of those posts. This is a post specific to the Restumping Melbourne team and our work. While we appreciate our competition, we also know that we are a cut above the other companies in the area and beyond. There are many reasons why but what we want to focus on today is the trade-off between companies that are affordable and those that are reliable.

Here’s the kicker… most of the time, it’s one or the other. When you see low rates that appeal to your wallet, you need to do your research and understand if this is a company that you want to trust with one of your most important assets – your home. When you see five-star ratings, much of the time the prices tend to rise with the number of positive ratings. It’s an unfortunate business model and in the minds of the Restumping Melbourne team members, it simply shouldn’t be the case.

That brings us to the second kicker… here, it’s not one or the other. One of the many reasons that you should choose Restumping Melbourne is that we believe that affordability and reliability are partners-in-crime. They complement each other, and you should never have to choose. Because of our extensive relationships in the industry, we’re able to seek out the best materials and the best resources, so that you have no qualms about deciding that it’s about time to properly reinforce the foundation of your home.

Things to Keep in Mind When Building a Custom Home

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Building a Custom HomeBuilding a custom home can be both a thrilling and exhausting undertaking. On one hand, you know that the vision and watching it come to life are purely because of you. On the other hand, you are most likely looking at an exponentially longer timeline and probably a little bit more money out of your savings. Tough to decide, right? Not if you’ve already made the decision to visit the Restumping Melbourne blog. Welcome! (or welcome back!) Restumping Melbourne is a team of talented and passionate individuals whose number one goal is to properly reinforce the foundation of your home or business through reblocking, restumping and underpinning solutions. We keep you safe and comfortable from the ground up – literally – so our interest extends to all sorts of facets of construction and renovations. Today’s post focuses on setting you up for success and offering insight into a few different things to keep in mind if you take the plunge and decide to build a custom home.

The best way to go into the process is with all of the facts. There’s a misconception, which The Washington Post details here about the sequencing of the process. Many think that they can find their perfect lot and then the builder with their plans and vision, but that’s problematic. You really need to link up with your ideal builder first and then choose the lot together. The reasoning is simple, these builders know what will work and where. If you buy the lot first, you could be very disappointed if your dreams can’t come to life there.

That’s not to say that you should leave the choice of lot entirely up to the builder. Know the construction market and the real estate market. There are a lot of “spec” homes on the market right now, which are different than custom homes. With a spec home, the builder purchases the lot, designs the home and then “speculates” that they’ll be able to sell it for a profit.

Of course, there are always questions and frequently confusion about how to and much to pay for a custom home. The key word here that you want to know is “outsale.” The outsale price is a direct output of a builder “speculating” what they think they’ll be able to sell a home for once its complete. Once you and the builder know this amount, the builder will take out hard costs and soft costs. What are the differences? A hard cost is directly related to the actual build, while soft costs are anything associated like permitting fees. You take out these numbers and voila – you have a clear look at what you can expect to pay out of pocket for your dream custom home.

We hope that this helps paint a clearer picture. Questions? Comments? Let us know. The Restumping Melbourne is here for you by email, phone or in-person and wants to talk!

The Best Way to Decorate Your Home for the Holidays

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Decorating Your Home for the HolidaysWe mentioned that we had lots of holiday fun in store for the blog of the Restumping Melbourne team and we weren’t kidding. It’s one of our favourite times of the year, in fact you may remember posts of similar vein in past years. It doesn’t matter where you are and what you celebrate. While we may not see white flurries of snow as a regular practice, it’s still an opportunity to get together with those that are closest to you. It’s time to laugh, eat and drink far too much, and the purpose of this particular blog post – it’s time to decorate your home inside and out.

If you’ve visited the Restumping Melbourne blog a time or two, you know that we’re passionate about not only reinforcing the foundation of your home, but ensuring that it’s safe, comfortable and beautiful from foundation to roof. We stood up this blog as the perfect way to circulate the ideas that we learn about and the stories that inspire us with the valued community of customers that we appreciate so much.

Back to business. What is the best way to decorate your home this holiday season. Let’s focus on the exterior first. It starts at your fence, where you can stand up statues, you can wind lights around the fence, or you can look into greenery. There are pros and cons to each. If you’re looking at anything that needs to take advantage of electricity, you’ll need to confirm what kind of power sources you have outside your front door. Depending on the extent of power that you require, you may need to bring in a generator, but more likely than not, you can run all-weather power cords from within your home or the immediate exterior. If you’re a fan of greenery, it can be a beautiful, clean and classy look to wind branches around your fence or hang a wreath. Just keep in mind the weather and temperate zone of the area in which you live. If you happen to live in an area that doesn’t see a lot of rain, you’ll just want to make sure that you’re taking care of any plants on a regular basis, so that they don’t dry out.

You can continue any sort of decorating motif up to the front door and inside. This is your opportunity to get creative. Don’t be afraid to have fun with colour. Gone are the days when the only lights available to you were of the white variety. You can now choose any colour off a paint palate and chances are good that there will be options available to you.

Not sure where to start for inspiration? There are streets all over the world that aim to have the most festive houses in their communities. Some standouts include these in Britain, these in Canada and this especially comprehensive look around the globe.

Looking forward to a great holiday season with the Restumping Melbourne team.

Tis the Beginning of the Season (for Restumping Melbourne)

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Tis the Beginning of the Season (for Restumping Melbourne)Ah, the most joyous of seasons. And every year since we’ve launched the Restumping Melbourne, we have been more and more inspired by those that love the holiday season – no matter what holiday they’re celebrating or how they’re celebrating. The Restumping Melbourne team was founded on the basis to celebrate and support every customer that reaches out to us. This may mean the customers that reach out via phone, it may be the customers that want to correspond by email, and it definitely always includes those that want to see us in person. We’ve been in the restumping, the reblocking and the underpinning business long enough to always appreciate our customers and to know that not only do you have all of the options possible in the surrounding areas, but that you’ve chosen the team at Restumping Melbourne. So, though you can most definitely appreciate and enjoy a myriad of blog posts over the coming weeks in the celebration of the holiday seasons around the world, let’s start here, and know that the Restumping Melbourne team has lots of holiday cheer headed your way through December 31, 2018.

It’s been a year, hasn’t it? We feel like we were just saying this last year and that doesn’t matter, because it turned into another prolific 365! We saw pop culture moments (and we’re sure that we’ll see them through the end of December). We saw moments in the news that broke our hearts, that made us laugh, that made us learn and that encouraged us to take a leap of faith in living in 2019. More to come in future posts before the new year, but this should focus on exactly what the Restumping Melbourne team is grateful for in you and how best to prepare your home and your household for the holiday seasons.

First things first, an overview of what you can expect on the Restumping Melbourne blog over the coming weeks. Again, it doesn’t matter what holiday you’re celebrating, if you’re celebrating any sort of holiday with those closest to you, the most basic of social and hostess-ing / hosting best practices should be top of mind. Luckily for you, because we help reinforce your home from the ground up, it’s a top-tier priority to turn houses into homes and ensure that your homes are the best possible canvas for the holiday celebration of your dreams.

SO, here’s what you can expect:

  • The best ways to weather-proof your home, no matter what mother nature has in store for your area.
  • The best ways to interact with your neighbours – whether you’re doing yard work, inviting them over to celebrate, or asking for an extra egg for the recipe that will make or break your recipes… we’ll talk through the best ways for you to communicate
  • The best ways to maximize your celebration! Hey, we don’t just work on your foundation… we’ve put in our time determining the most magical ways to make sure that you have the best holiday season of all time.

Famous Homes of Horror

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Famous Homes of Horror Many countries around the world celebrate Halloween, in unique and interesting ways. Most of the traditions are based in the root of scaring one another, whether that’s through frightening movies, decorations or themed parties. But while some may consider it a Hallmark holiday that was designed to make lots of money, there is a lot of history behind Halloween. There are many myths and tall tales, and lot of them have to do with homes. That’s what really interests the team at Restumping Melbourne. We’re passionate about reinforcing the foundation of your home and that means it’s important to us to learn all about the different elements of each home. We love learning about and sharing how they’re designed, how they’re built, how they’re maintained and how they’re improved. And a big piece of that, is looking at their history. So we thought this would be the perfect opportunity for a spooky blog post about the world’s most famous scary homes.

Our first home can be found in a small rural American town in Iowa. More than 100 years ago, an entire family and two guests were bludgeoned. It’s remained a cold case every since and the house has been untouched as far as updates and renovations. That doesn’t stop interested visitors from spending more than $400 a night. History repeated itself a little bit in 2014, when a paranormal investigator, no less, stabbed himself in his room.

In England, there is a beautiful country home called Raynham Hall. It’s located in Norfolk. It may be easy on the eyes, but it has a dark past. It’s said to be home to Lady Dorothy Walpole, or the mysterious “Brown Lady.” She’s famously an apparition that was caught on camera in the Country Life of December 1936.

When you think of Venice, Italy, you probably think of the beautiful architecture and famous food. While if you take a quick jaunt over the island of Poveglia, you’ll learn about a very different accolade. It used to be the quarantine zone for anyone who suffered from the famous plague. It was also used in the 1900s as an insane asylum. Between the two, Poveglia has earned a reputation as a “hot bed of paranormal activity” by ghost hunters from around the world.

Another American example can be found in Kansas. It’s called the Sallie House and was home to a little girl who had a botched appendectomy. It’s rumoured that her spirit remains and is quite active – causing flying objects and apparitions that are famously targeted at male visitors. The home was even the subject of a TV show in the 1990s called Sightings. It’s vacant, if you’re looking to make the move…

All of the hocus pocus aside, the Restumping Melbourne team is here to ensure no tricks befall your current or future home. Questions? Comments? Let us know. We’d love to hear from you and start the conversation about properly reinforcing your foundation.

Rebuilding Homes After Natural Disasters

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Rebuilding Homes After Natural DisastersIt’s never a good year for the number of natural disasters around the world, but 2018 has gone above and beyond. We’ve seen hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes and more. It doesn’t matter what you believe, science shows that there is no area that’s safe around the globe from mother nature. She’s a fickle friend and unfortunately, she tends to have a ripple effect on everything that’s important to you. The element here that’s nearest and dearest to our hearts here on the Restumping Melbourne team is your homes. They’re one of the biggest investments that you can make in life, and one of the most vital. The Restumping Melbourne team is dedicated to properly enforcing the foundation of your home so that you can live safely and comfortably. We’re passionate about educating our customers so that you navigate decisions related to your homes in the way that makes the most sense for you. That’s why we started this blog after all. And today we’re discussing what it takes to rebuild a home after a natural disaster.

First things first, you definitely want to make sure that you have homeowners insurance. It’s one of the most pesky steps in becoming a homeowner, but it is an absolutely vital thing to check off of the list. Homeowners insurance protects your wallet from natural disasters, even if it protects nothing else. In some areas, it’s illegal to not have homeowners insurance because in rare instances it can protect you if you’re at fault for harming someone else’s property.

That brings up the whole budget conversation. They call it a rainy day fund, but it’s important because it’s the account that you can dip into when unforeseen circumstances happen. Make sure that you’re setting some money aside on a regular basis, so that if a natural disaster took place, it wouldn’t be detrimental to your livelihood.

You’ll notice an influx of vendors that come calling after natural disasters. It’s an unfortunate time to go about it, but you can work it to your benefit. Yes, they can probably all get the job done, but we can’t stress enough how important it is to still do your homework. It may seem like it’s paramount to fix any damage immediately, but you don’t want to do it at the expense of not doing it right. You’ll just be spending more time and energy in the long run.

This is also a key time where you can rely on your community. There are many tools and resources that you can take advantage of. They include services for meal deliveries, ride services and opportunities for healing conversation. Natural disasters can bring out the best in people and they tend to rally communities. Just remember to pay it forward, because you never know when you’ll end up in a situation where you need some help.

Questions? Comments? Let the Restumping Melbourne team know. We’d love to hear from you and help make your home a safe and comfortable one.

The Sneaky Things You Should Look for When Buying a Renovated Home

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The Sneaky Things You Should Look for When Buying a Renovated HomeThe funny thing about the letter “R” is that you see it a lot around Restumping Melbourne. It may be a prominent letter in our brand, but it’s also a great signifier about a few terms that we use frequently around here. We call them the three “R’s”. What exactly are the three R’s? Rewiring, roofing and (our personal favourite) restumping. What do these have in common? Well, lucky for you, you’ve stopped by the Restumping Melbourne blog and we’d be happy to explain them. The goal of the Restumping Melbourne blog is to educate and inform our valued community of customers about the work that excites us. This doesn’t stop with just restumping, although it’s always our goal to properly reinforce the foundation of your home. The blog goes far beyond that, and you can always check back in for tips and tricks ensuring that your home is safe, comfortable and easy on the eyes.

It’s a common marketing ploy to see signs that say, “renovator’s delight” on homes that are about to go on the market. The phrase delights many a project lover and terrifies those who veer on the side of staying safe. The point that we want to focus on today is that it can be misleading. The scale of possible renovations is vast, so you don’t want to take that sign at face value.

The first thing to think about is purchase price versus resale. As you’re initially exploring the property, are you seeing where you can add initial and long-term value? If you’re seeing a lot of possibility, the next step is pricing out exactly what the renovations will cost. You don’t want to purchase the renovated home, find a whole host of other renovations that are necessary, and end up paying even more than you bargained for. Be clear about your intentions and you’ll notice a huge difference in the cost of your home overall.

If you’ve seen and toured the renovated home, and you know that it’s something that you want to move forward with, the next step is home inspections. Here’s where we really want you to keep an eye out, specifically for the three R’s that we mentioned – roofing, restumping and rewiring. You’ll see them a fair few times on here and for good reason… they can be expensive.

Older homes will always benefit from rewiring, but there’s a large price tag attached. It won’t add any value if you’re planning to sell, and though it’s necessary, it won’t add visual appeal. Restumping is another necessity that you can’t avoid. If a home needs to be restumped, make sure that you’re adding those costs to that of the renovated home before you buy. Roofing can go either way. If you’re just looking at repairs or repainting, it’s not a deal breaker. If you need to replace the roof, that’s a whole different story.

The bottom line is that it’s always important to ask as many questions as possible. Consider us a valuable resource and email, call or visit us any time.

Keeping Mice Away from Your Home

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Keeping Mice Away from Your HomeSometimes on the Restumping Melbourne blog, we have to discuss less than savory topics. We don’t like to, but it’s a never wavering part of our ethos as a company, to always properly educate our customers. Since we’re known as your best option in the area for restumping, reblocking and underpinning – each a strong solution to reinforce your foundation – our passions extend far beyond your foundation. We quickly learned that the only way we can be successful at our jobs is to cultivate an interest around everything related to your home. This means renovations, this means cleaning and maintenance, this means that we care about everything on your property.

Today we’re focusing on cleaning and maintenance. And that brings us to our less than savory topic. Specifically, we’re talking about keeping any small and furry friends away. Yes – we’re talking about mice and rats.

They may be cute from a distance, but you don’t want mice in and around your home. The biggest way to avoid them is to eliminate any food sources. They’re no different from humans in this capacity, if food is out or they can even smell it, it will attract them immediately. You can purchase and take advantage of rodent-proof metal, but heavy plastic is a good alternative for your containers. This extends to your pets as well. Make sure that you put away any uneaten pet food as mice will sniff it out.

Proof your rubbish bins against rodents by setting them on elevated platforms. 10 centimetres is a good baseline. If you see that your rubbish bins have cracks or holes, it’s time to bid them goodbye.

You may be seeking advice a little late in the game, and they’ve already invaded your home. Don’t fear! We still have advice for you to kick them out as soon as possible. Some of our favourite tips include eliminating their entry points, setting up bait stations and choosing the best bait for your mousetraps, and focusing on good sanitation for everyone in your household. Where you place your mousetraps is critical; if you’re seeing more and more mice, keep an eye on where they tend to congregate.

We reference entry points and poorly reinforced foundations and dirty crawlspaces are prime locations. Look for holes, it doesn’t matter how small them are. You’ll find them around your foundation, eaves and soffits. You can cover fill the holes with any matter of material, but options include sheet metal, plaster and cement.

That’s why it’s really important to work with an underpinning company like Restumping Melbourne to ensure that your foundation is safe and any crawl spaces are clean. We offer a full range of services and all you need to do to kick off the process is reach out. We want you to feel empowered to make the decisions for your home that make the most sense for you. We’re available by phone, email or in person and happy to answer any questions that you might have.

The Dirty Tricks That Will Cost You More than You Realize (Part 2)

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The Dirty Tricks That Will Cost You More than You Realize 2Welcome to the Restumping Melbourne blog – where we share everything that you need to know about the ins and outs of reinforcing your foundation at home or at work. No pun intended, we truly believe that when your foundation is constructed well and cared for properly, you’re set up for success from the ground up. This blog is our outlet for not just news about us, our products and services; rather, we feel that it’s in everyone’s best interests to share our passions and knowledge with our valued customers. These passions are rooted in your foundation and our restumping, reblocking and underpinning services, but they extend far beyond that. We want to know the industry trends in home renovations, in construction, in landscaping and more, and then we want to share them with you.

In our last post, we kicked off a series discussing the pitfalls that homeowners tend to run into when they bypass home inspections. You wouldn’t believe the costs that you can incur, just by saying no to a home inspection after signing on the dotted line, purchasing your next home.

Today’s post focuses on three areas that you need to keep an eye on during the process of buying a home and definitely follow up on after the process is complete. They are restumping, roofs and plumbing.

Restumping is up first, by no means of playing favourites. Looking for signs? A home for sale is probably staged. If you’re walking through it and the glasses on the shelves are rattling, you know that you’re walking through a home that needs a new foundation. This is a key moment to request to look at the sub-floor and do a full inspection so that you can determine the state of the stumps. Restumping can cost around $100 a stump within the Melbourne and surrounding areas. This can total up to thousands of dollars, if all of the stumps need to be replaced. This is definitely a cost that the previous owners should be responsible for.

Next on the agenda is roofs. Roofs get an underrated amount of attention, since they’re not something that you encounter all day. Think about the weather – heavy rain and wind is not something that you can anticipate, and it can create a huge amount of damage. Less invasive but still worth calling out is the influx of leaves when the trees start to shed for colder months. The big question to ask during an inspection is the structural soundness, otherwise you could be looking at up to $10,000.

Finally, let’s discuss plumbing. It can be the bane of many homeowners’ existences when it’s not properly looked after. Luckily for you, you visited the Restumping Melbourne site, so you can know to look for the following red flags – makeshift drains, leaking pipes, termites and damp areas in your crawl spaces.

Stick with our team and you’ll be in good shape as you navigate the home inspection process and move forward with your next dream home.

The Dirty Tricks That Will Cost You More than You Realize (Part 1)

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The Dirty Tricks That Will Cost You More than You RealizeIt’s a bit of a minefield out there when it comes to home ownership. There are so many question marks, so much uncertainty, so many leaps of faith as you make decisions that impact your wallet, your family, your entire livelihood. We know that we sound a bit dramatic, but we’re in the business of setting you up for success, and for us, that means reinforcing your home from the ground up. We have decades of experience, here on the Restumping Melbourne team, of working with every sort of property imaginable. We’re talking about size of property, shape of property, condition of property and beyond. That means that we’ve unfortunately seen our fair share of faux pas, everything ranging from easily-fixable, to full-blown nightmare. It’s our job here on the blog to educate you in a timely manner, so that you always avoid these mishaps. Let’s dive in to our first of two posts – today, we highlight exactly why you need to avoid these pitfalls. Tomorrow, we explain how.

Today’s post is very much a “by the numbers” type post. According to the Herald Sun, “Things such as restumping, repairing termite damage and rewiring generally come in $5000 and $10,000 lots and unbudgeted repair bills can bring financial ruin to buyers already stretched to their limit.” This is beyond mortgages, interest rates, down payments and more. It’s absolutely vital to incorporate these into the planning process.

It’s unfortunate but true that many a time, vendors know the defects that are common in different styles and ages of homes. Instead of creating long-term solutions, they instead opt to patch with short-term fixes, which mean that you’ll just spend more money over time. That’s why it’s key to do a home inspection before you ever sign on the dotted line. Here’s another fun fact – more than 80% of home purchases in this country take place sans home inspection. Once you bypass a home inspection, you’re basically giving up your power to ask the previous owners to make any sort of adjustments or improvements. While you may be enthusiastic about racing to the finish line of purchase, it should never come at the cost of emptying out your wallet over years to come.

The challenges are amplified when you aim to purchase a period home. Yes, they’re beautiful, and yes, they have many stories to tell. But you want to be able to repeat stories of the past, not have to create your own when you add on surprise maintenance costs. Families around the area have been doing this more and more frequently, spending up to 50% more than they anticipated when they kicked off the process.

We’re teasing you a bit today, ensuring that you’ll come back for the next post. Looking for tips on avoiding these pitfalls, these will definitely be coming shortly. Questions? Comments? Give us a shout. The Restumping Melbourne team would love to hear from you.