Covington sits directly across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, and its 19 distinct neighborhoods include some of the oldest housing stock in Northern Kentucky. Many homes in the Licking Riverside, Westside, and Botany Hills areas were built in the mid-to-late 1800s, with concrete slabs added or poured decades after original construction. The city's historic districts mean a high concentration of properties where the garage or basement floor is the one space owners can genuinely transform without touching the exterior. Older slabs in Covington frequently show efflorescence, surface scaling, and moisture intrusion from the proximity to both the Ohio and Licking rivers.