The space under your floor is doing something. Almost nobody measures what.
A focused, measured check of the space beneath your floor, anywhere on the Coffs Coast.
We record moisture, ventilation and air conditions under the house, so you know whether that space is drying out, holding damp, or feeding conditions into the rooms above.
Led by a licensed builder with nearly 20 years in residential building. Licence 332487C. Based in Coffs Harbour, working Port Macquarie to Yamba.
On many homes the subfloor is the single most informative space that goes unmeasured.
Musty smells, damp air and cold floors upstairs often start below. Air moves upward through a house, so what sits under the floor tends not to stay under the floor.
It is dark, tight and dirty down there, so the subfloor usually gets a torch and a quick look rather than a set of readings. That leaves you deciding on an impression. Subfloor ventilation, moisture barriers and drainage work are not cheap, and none of it should be bought on a hunch.
What measuring it actually changes
Once the space is measured, you know three things you did not know before: whether air is moving through it, how wet the ground and timbers actually are, and whether the conditions under the floor line up with what you are noticing above it. That is the difference between a quote you can assess and a quote you have to trust.
What we measure
- Moisture in bearers, joists and the underside of flooring, taken at marked points so the same spots can be measured again later.
- Ground and surface conditions under the floor, including standing water, damp soil and debris, recorded with photos.
- Humidity and temperature under the floor, compared against the outside air and against the rooms above.
- Ventilation: whether air is genuinely moving through the space, where it enters and leaves, and where it is blocked.
- CO₂ as an air-exchange indicator, where conditions suit it. Where a subfloor is not exchanging air well, that tends to show up in the readings.
- Thermal indicators where there is enough temperature difference for them to be useful. Where conditions are unsuitable, that limitation is recorded rather than producing imagery that cannot be interpreted.
- The conditions on the day: recent rainfall, outside air, and how the house was being used, so a reading can be read in context.
What you get
A plain-language subfloor report
Opening with the status of the space and the top measured findings, then what the readings indicate, the recommended next step, and any limitations.
A map of every point measured
Your key moisture readings shown against their recorded locations, so you can see exactly where each number came from.
A ventilation and air-exchange summary
What the space is doing, with the conditions on the day and photographs of what was observed.
Permanent reference points
Every mapped point gets its own reference, so the same locations can be measured again after work and the two sets compared directly.
Areas are recorded against these four statuses, the same way they are in every Joe Builds assessment.
Who this is for
- Musty smells, damp air or persistently cold floors in the rooms above.
- Homes on piers, stumps or a suspended floor, particularly on a sloping, shaded or poorly drained block.
- Anyone who has been told they need subfloor ventilation and wants measured evidence before spending.
- Before and after ventilation or drainage work, so the change is recorded at the same points rather than assumed.
- Buyers and owners who want the space under the house understood without opening anything up.
Already had a baseline?
A Subfloor Assessment can be booked on its own, or added to a Home Performance Baseline so the whole house and the space under it are recorded together on the same visit.
We measure and report.
We do not lift flooring, cut new access, or provide structural, waterproofing, pest or compliance sign-off, and we do not identify surface growth or name a mould species by sight. Those are specialist referrals.
Where the measured evidence supports further investigation, the report explains why and names the appropriate professional pathway.
Access depends on safe clearance and entry. Where an area cannot be safely reached on the day, that limitation is recorded rather than guessed at, and that part of the scope is refunded.
Find out what is happening under your floor.
Moisture, ventilation and air conditions recorded before you repair, re-vent or assume the cause.
Not sure which one you need? Start Your Review and Joe will recommend the right starting point.