Partial vs full restumping: the honest decision guide

Nobody should pay for a full restump when a partial will do — and nobody should pay for a partial twice when a full was the honest answer. Here's how the decision actually works.

When partial makes sense

• Localised failure with a cause: the wet-area stumps under a leaking bathroom, the southern wall that never sees sun, the corner under a failed downpipe. Fix the cause, replace that section: $3,000–$7,000.
• Previous good restump, one missed zone: common when a past owner did "everything except under the chimney".
• Newer concrete stumps with isolated damage — vehicle impact, tree-root heave, one bad pour.

When partial is false economy

• Same-age timber throughout: if the ten stumps you can see are gone, their 40 siblings of identical age and soil are close behind. Paying mobilisation, permit and levelling twice within a few years costs far more than one full job.
• Levelling ambitions: you can't properly level a floor by lifting one side onto new stumps while the other side keeps sinking on old ones. The level lasts months.
• Pre-sale: buyers' inspectors flag "mixed-age stumps, further works anticipated" — which reads as a problem half-fixed.

The test an honest contractor applies

Condition-map every stump (sound / marginal / failed), then look at the pattern. Clustered failures with an identifiable cause → partial. Scattered failures across same-age stumps → the rest are following; full restump is the honest call. Make any quoting contractor show you their map — if they can't, they didn't really inspect.