Water Seepage & Steel Pier

[Geno]

We are looking at buying a house and have examined the building report. The report is generally good but there are two items that I would welcome comment and advice on.

The building report states;

"There is subterranean water seepage into a couple of areas around the chimney area, front and western side of the house. This seepage has resulted in pooling around the chimney area and beneath the 2nd bedroom. The drainage requires improvement to help track the water away from these areas. This type of seepage is found with sloping land on the side of hills such as the case with this block of land. The seepage appears to be slightly undermining the footings of the chimney, however this does not appear to have caused any structural damage to the building.

There are a couple of steel posts and it is recommended that these posts be replaced with a properly engineered column. An engineer's detail would be required for these columns to ensure the load of the floor is supported correctly."

See photos for a bit of detail.

Are this big ticket items to fix?
Are they serious problems?

[OBBob]

Hi Geno

I think its a little hard to tell from the info you have provided and the cost probably relies fairly heavily on how 'handy' you are yourself?

The drainage may be as easy digging a trench along the high side of the property and putting some ag pipe in. But this could be a real pain depending on the layout of the block.

As for the steel posts ... it looks like there is quite a bit of room there, which is an advantage. An engineer could tell you hat to replace these with fairly easily? I imagine it would be a case of larger steel column on a concrete pad.