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Restumping and structural repairs in Victoria, a guide by Dotto

Victoria · the work under the floor

Restumping and structural repairs in Victoria

Behind the vents in the brick base of an older house are the stumps it stands on. Victoria treats work on them differently from almost any other job around the home, and the difference has nothing to do with what the job costs.

The brick base of an older house below its weatherboards, with three sub-floor vents in a row.
Three vents along a brick plinth, one for each guide below.

Restumping and structural repairs in Victoria is a guide to the rules for the work that holds a house up, written and published by Dotto. In Victoria, registered building practitioners must carry out demolition, re-stumping, re-blocking or structural work, and Consumer Affairs Victoria says so on its checklist for home improvements costing $10,000 or less. For structural work, its checklist adds that the builder or tradesperson must be registered whatever the work costs, and that a building permit is needed as well.

General informationA summary of what the Building and Plumbing Commission (BPC), Consumer Affairs Victoria and Victoria’s Building Act and Regulations say, as at 9 October 2026. Not legal or building advice about any house. The BPC suggests asking the local council, or a building surveyor, whether a particular job needs a permit.

Dotto is not a builder, tradesperson or property manager. Dotto holds no builder’s or trade licence. It does not do, offer, contract for or arrange any building, trade or maintenance work. This is general information, not advice.

What sits behind the vent

Victoria’s Building Regulations 2018 give re-stumping and re-blocking a registration class of its own among the classes of domestic builder. The work that class may do is described as work below the floor: levelling an existing building and supporting it so that it stands on solid foundations.

Repairs belong to the same family of work as new building. In the BPC’s description, domestic building work covers building a home, renovating it, improving it and maintaining it. A job that keeps an old house level is domestic building work in that sense, even though nothing new is added.

Three vents, three questions

Each guide takes one question an owner meets before anyone lifts a floorboard.

  1. First ventWork that needs a registered builder at any priceWhy restumping and other structural work sit outside Victoria’s $10,000 line, and which registration covers them.
  2. Second ventWhen a structural repair needs a building permitWhere the Regulations’ exemption for repairs stops, and who issues the permit when it does.
  3. Third ventOwner-builders and structural workWhat Consumer Affairs Victoria recommends to an owner-builder about stumps, and what the Building Act sets.

Who is who in these guides

Building and Plumbing Commission

The body whose website Consumer Affairs Victoria points to for checking a builder’s registration. It also issues an owner-builder’s certificate of consent.

Consumer Affairs Victoria

Publishes the plain-language checklists these guides draw on, including the one that names re-stumping and re-blocking.

Building surveyor

Issues building permits. A permit is approval in writing, given by a building surveyor who may be private or municipal.

Local council

Responsible for issuing planning permits, which are separate from building permits.

What these guides leave out

Plumbing and electrical work run on their own licences. Consumer Affairs Victoria’s checklist says plumbers, gasfitters and drainers must be registered or licensed with the BPC, and electricians licensed with Energy Safe Victoria. Building contracts, insurance and disputes are outside these guides too. Their subject is narrower: the stumps, and the rules that follow the work on them.