Preparing for Stumps

As we detest slab floors, we are having a traditional suspended timber floor supported on stumps spaced at 1500mm intervals. The bearer spacing is 1650mm max, so we are well inside the building code for structural performance. We have 121 stumps, ranging from 500 deep, to 1200 deep.

To mark the stump locations measurements are made off the base brickwork. At each stump location, a small divit is removed from the ground, and filled with lime. This method is very robust against damage from the hole-digging machinery -- if the machine covers the location of a hole with excavated soil, it can easily be found again as the lime will show up when the covering soil is removed.