ok so now that I have 98% of my house gutted and rebuilt, there was a section of flooring (actually a raised concrete slab for part of the basement). for years I just lived with it and never really gave it any thought about removing it or lowering it. But now I decided to dwell into it. I figured I would remove 4 ft of it to make a room 12 ft long without the step up. So I start busting up the slab, I see it is only about 3.5-4" thick and then dirt. I figured I would remove the concrete and remove dirt, dig down a few more inches below other floor level and fill it up with concrete. well to my surprise there is another concrete floor about the same level as rest give or take a bit. What gives? I know the house was built in the 1800's and I'm sure a lot of changes were made but wonder why they would raise that area? I know its been there since before 1966 as that is when my parents bought the house.....anyone have any ideas
Double floor?....
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Bomb shelter, root cellar, storm shelter, treasure vault, family burial vault, underground railroad safe haven, torture chamber, UFO hideout, Jimmy Hoffa. Or possibly someone could read the future and did it just to drive you nuts. I can come up with more if you want.
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Maybe they built up that section for a wood-burning stove...? Any signs of a hole for a chimney around...? I can see where they may have made a form, fill with dirt (save money) and then the upper layer of concrete...?
Are there any cracks in the bottom layer of concrete...? Does the bottom layer of concrete match up with the surrounding concrete...?
Maybe it was a platform for steps coming down from a storm door...?
Are there any cracks in the bottom layer of concrete...? Does the bottom layer of concrete match up with the surrounding concrete...?
Maybe it was a platform for steps coming down from a storm door...?
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Odd but the older a house is the more likely there are weird things like that. My basement has an interior wall with actual windows in it - glass and all. We think maybe the grade around the house was raised a good 6 feet in the 60s.
One possibility is water leaks and that was to create a barrier. Awfully strange to have that thin a layer of dirt. Seems like it would have been easier and cheaper to simply make a wood platform. Hope you don't find a body under there.
One possibility is water leaks and that was to create a barrier. Awfully strange to have that thin a layer of dirt. Seems like it would have been easier and cheaper to simply make a wood platform. Hope you don't find a body under there.
well some of the mystery is solved, I contacted an older brother and he said there used to be a huge oil burning furnace that took up almost all of that area when we were kids. I don't recall that at all but it might give reason for the raised part. back in the late 60's early 70's some time it was removed to give way for the tiny natural gas furnace. on the other side of the basement. hell the new one I just installed las year isn't much bigger than a good sized cooler....I know from gutting 3 floors of the house it never had rads anywhere so it must have been just a furnace and not a boiler
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I remain suspicious...
This calls for a ground scanning radar.
I'm gonna start a petition to have a "LMAO" button...:grin::lol::grin:
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I wonder what you'd find if you drilled a small hole and poked a camera down there. Maybe you have something interesting down there. Remember that refrigerators were first introduced in the '20s, and in some rural areas, they still had cellars. In the neighborhood as a kid, there was at least one house with a crude cellar, and down the block was a bomb shelter deep underground. You got my curiosity going.
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Maybe had extra concrete available after a job and didn't know what else to do with it. Much better than dumping it down the drain.
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Judging by those shoes, she died from embarrassment....
those things died a long time before she did...
Been there done that. Geez there’s some big heavy chunks there . Too big for this old man :surprise:
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About a year ago I was looking to buy a used bandsaw. I found a craigslist ad around Texarkana Texas for a Grizzly. When I got there the bandsaw was a basket case. But there was other equipment in the shop and I asked and they wanted to sell a Grizzly Shaper. It was in good shape but I asked about the shaper bits. This was a mans shop that was sick and living with other relatives. There was an old refrigerator in the shop with a chain around it keeping the side by side freezer and refig closed. They found a hack saw and started cutting the lock off to see if the shaper bits were inside. I told them if there was any body parts in there I was out of there. Luckily there was no body parts but we did find the shaper bits. Sometimes people do strange things. There was a large shop full of equipment but for some reason the owner thought a few router bits and shaper bits were so valuable he had to lock them up.
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You are a brave soul. Keep us posted. I sold cabinetry and lighting for a bit over two years. I once asked a contractor/customer if he did remodeling. He emphatically said no. Said he got tired of correcting other people's mistakes. Remodeling some in our home and I have to agree with him. "Why did they do that?"
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