Leaking basement on a historic duplex in St. Louis

[Megan Greathouse]

Hello! I'm hoping some of my fellow St. Louis investors with experience with older multi-family properties in the city might have some thoughts for me. I'm under contract on a duplex in the city (near Soulard) that was built in the early 1900s. The sellers fully remodeled, so most systems are new and the units look good.

I just got the inspection report back, and the only big concern noted is leaking in the basement. It was raining quite a bit the day of the inspection, and a lot of water was coming through the old stone foundation. At the very least, it will need tuckpointing and sealing of the interior basement walls... and the gutters will need a thorough cleaning and possibly some repairs. But it will also likely require better grading, etc. of the land around the structure to better direct water away from the building.

I'm working quickly to get a few estimates... or at least some thoughts... from contractors in the area. Just curious if anyone else has dealt with similar repairs for an old leaky basement? What all did it entail? How much did you spend in total? Trying to figure out if my repair budget will be enough to cover this before my inspection period is up on Friday. Thank you!

[Perron Riley]

@Megan Greathouse

The limestone foundations in the old Soulard houses are designed to “seep” water; they are not the water tight basements in today’s construction.  Tuckpointing the inside of the basement walls,  along with maintaining/replacing gutters and grading will certainly reduce this seepage.  Making it water tight is another story,  and much more costly.  If you have a lot of water coming in,  you might need to address the problem from outside by excavating the area,  Tuckpointing,  spraying a rubberized coating and adding a protective sheathing to stop the flowing water.  This is more costly obviously.  

Feel free to message me if you have any questions.  I’ve gone through this on several homes including my own so I’m pretty familiar with it.  The repair needed really depends on what you have in mind for the basement’s usage.