Hi,

I'm happy to find this forum, there looks to be a lot of knowledgeable and helpful people around - hopefully someone can help with my questions.

Looking to buy a house in Melbourne's Inner West (footscray)
Here's the particulars:
- single brick on concrete slab
- suspended hardwood floor
- approx. 75 square metres of hardwood flooring throughout (fairly standard 2 bedroom house)
- no sub-floor access from outside (because single brick exterior encloses subfloor)

While inspecting the house, I noticed these things:
- floor is very 'bouncy'. i.e. when I put a bit of weight into the floor, I can feel it move, and furniture on the floor rattles, or moves around a bit.
- the bathroom is also solid timber floor, and in the corner of the building, the bathroom floor has rotted away.
- in some parts of the building, the floor is uneven and slopes
- the timber boards are in 'okay' condition, but at least some would need to be replaced (rotting, splitting). Plus, they're a bit ugly (pine).

Now, I don't know much about flooring, but from what I've read, this sounds like a fairly big (and expensive) job, because:
- Stumping and leveling with no sub-floor access is expensive
- Leveling can cause some other problems like doors not shutting flush, cracks, etc
- the existing floor is probably beyond being repaired

So, with my limited knowledge, I suspect the appropriate course of action would involve restumping and leveling, new sub-floor joists, bearers etc and new hardwood floorboards. Everywhere except the bathroom.

I definitely won't be doing this myself, 'cause I'm not that sort of guy.
What I'd like to know is roughly what to expect cost-wise for that sort of work.

Based on what I do know I'm guessing costs will look something like this...
stumping & leveling (inc. crack fixing etc): probably $5k to $12k?
new joists and bearers, installation + materials (during stumping/leveling): $1700?
hardwood floorboards (materials only, jarrah): $3,500 (75sqm)
installation: $1200 (3 days at carpenter trade rate $50/hr+)
finishing: $1000 (blind guess)

Am I miles of the mark here, or am I close to realistic?
Advice and suggestions much appreciated.

Cheers, -rogerwilco


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