The big four symptoms
Cracks in walls and cornices — especially diagonal cracks from door and window corners, or cracks that keep growing after patching. Sloping or uneven floors — the marble that rolls to the same corner every time, furniture that needs packing to sit level. Bouncy or spongy floors — floorboards that flex underfoot, often worst mid-room or near wet areas. Doors and windows sticking — frames pushed out of square as the structure twists, often seasonal at first, then permanent.
One of these alone is a maybe. Two or more, clustered in the same part of the house, is a pattern — and patterns are what inspectors look for.
A 20-minute self-check
Walk every room and note symptoms on a rough floor plan. Roll a marble in each room and record where it goes. Open and close every door and window; mark the stiff ones. Photograph every crack next to a coin for scale, and write the date on each photo. Outside, sight along the weatherboards or brick courses from each corner — dips and waves show where the frame has dropped. Check the wettest spots last: near bathrooms, under leaking gutters and downpipes, and the shaded south side, because moisture is where stump failure usually starts.
Looking under the house
If you can get under safely, you'll learn more in ten minutes than any amount of upstairs observation. Look for stumps that are visibly leaning, sunk (bearer no longer touching), or packed with timber wedges from past adjustments. Probe timber stumps at ground level with a screwdriver — sound hardwood resists; rot doesn't. Count roughly how many stumps look affected and where they are: that number is the difference between a partial restump and a full one. If access is too tight, don't force it — contractors quote crawl-space jobs every day.
What to do with the results
Symptoms in one area with an obvious moisture source: get quotes, and fix the drainage regardless. Symptoms across the whole house on a pre-1970s home with original stumps: budget for a full restump and read the cost guide first. No urgency either way in most cases — but photograph, date, and re-check monthly, because the trajectory (stable vs worsening) is the single most useful thing you can tell an inspector or contractor.
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Common questions
How fast do failing stumps get worse?
Usually slowly — years, not weeks. The exception is after extreme weather: a long drought or a saturated winter can move a marginal house noticeably in one season, which is why symptom checks after unusual weather are worth the twenty minutes.
Could it just be the house settling?
New houses settle for a year or two. A 60-year-old weatherboard doesn't 'settle' — new movement in an old house has a cause, and original-era stumps are the leading suspect.
Should I get a building inspector or a restumping contractor first?
Contractors inspect and quote free, but they sell restumping. If you want a disinterested opinion first — worth it when symptoms are ambiguous — a building inspector or structural engineer charges a few hundred dollars and has nothing to sell.