Went and looked at this house for possible investment today…
Saw this in the basement and couldn’t figure out what the heck the thing on the floor is (was). It has some leveling compound on it and the room was carpeted before. It is about 8″ wide (foundation size). There is no load above, and the joists run parallel to it. There is nothing exiting the house such as a drain where someone would’ve filled in a previously-made trench. The wall you see with a door in it is new (built right up to the trim without removing it thank-you-very-much).
I know this picture does not tell the whole story, but I thought I’d start here. I have tons of pictures of the house and can reference or post them as the guesses come in.
Thanks for any insight…
Edited 12/2/2008 9:04 pm ET by Jed42
Replies
Uhh - we call it a "door" - rhymes with "#$%@"
Forrest - can't say that
I see that outlet right there- maybe someone ran some conduit?
K
Yeah...maybe, but there are plenty of ways to have run wire to that recep. other than in the concrete. Here's a picture opposite the first one...No Coffee No Workee!
That's one wide trench for a 1/2" conduit run! Gotta love the wall tie-in to the base. Maybe that's to make sure the trim carp doesn't cheat and has to cope the joint when he completes the trim.
Did the floor leveler come up with the carpet?
I didn't pull the carpet, and I can't imagine why the bank (own the house) did when they cleaned it out. No water in this room, and no evidence of it. Carpet could've just been real bad trashy for them to pull it out. They built that wall on the carpet as well...I see that kinda stuff waaaay to often these days.
I believe this was a "workout" room as evidenced by the speed-bag frame in the corner.
I have a tendency to over-think things, and I am guessing I am doing that now. There is probably a really simple answer to it...
ThanksNo Coffee No Workee!
Is there a bathroom or kitchen above that space? It sure looks like a burried plumbing goodie--about the right width and runs to the jog in the wall. It makes me think the pipe was run just outside the old jog in the wall and the jog was firred out to cover the pipe.
Was a new electrical service run to the house? If so it could be burried electrical conduit running to the new pannel. In the past we've had to run conduit under a slab and filled a stud bay with mud to meet code and be able to mount the pannel away from an exterior wall.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
Thanks, Don.
The kitchen is above the room, but all the plumbing for it is visible in other areas.
The panel is on the other side of the house and always has been. However there is an a/c unit outside the back wall there. This is a picture of the unit. I see the lineset goes in low, but lord I hope they didn't bury that!
The wall the line goes into is paralell to the "trench" (or whatever it is).
You can almost tell what happened to the unit (see the bike?).No Coffee No Workee!
If new AC lines are to be run in a carpeted basement room I can see how it could be less invasive to pull the carpet, put the lines in the floor and have the carpet reinstalled.
Most people would rather patch sheetrock, but if it was a guy with a hot saw making the decisions he might have been more comfortable cutting the slab.
Hopefully they protected the lines.
Beer was created so carpenters wouldn't rule the world.
I'm not a contractor, but am a widow of an electrician and our elder son is an electrician. When I saw the wall with the outlet, the floor looked like it is sloping toward the door or the electrician didn't use a level.
Second picture of the air conditioner outside and the bike, is there a story there?
I just see the side of the conditioner smashed in at the bottom of a steep grade and the bike flipped over right next to it.
I'm not sure, but it does look a bit suspicious, eh?
This is just a house we put an offer in on today...lots of retaining walls, a couple furnaces and heat pumps, kitchen, 3 baths...yadda, yadda, yaddaNo Coffee No Workee!
"Couple of furnaces and heat pumps ...."
My first thought was "addition."
My second was "Drain tile," maybe for that hillside.
My third was "removed oil furnace and storage tank."
NOW, though .... I want you to go looking for some other stuff. Stuff like, say, small patches or blanked-off electrical boxes up high, near the ceiling of the upper levels. Abandoned, closed off, or removed ducts. Windows in strange places, and funny roof pitches.
IF you find some of these other things, you likely have a house that was designed to heat and cool itself by sollecting solar energy, and controlling ventilation. This all had to be dismantled, and conventional HVAC retro-fitted, in order to sell the home.
My 2 cents worth.
First reaction is a cut for a drain line from above. You got a section of wall framed out at the outside wall that starts about where a line would come down.
The second picture kind of confirms the drain line but now we got an outlet or at least a box on both ends and just above the floor cut. OK, it looks like a drywall ceiling so somebody might have decided not to go overhead and chose it cut the floor to run a conduit.
Now you throw in the A/C condenser and I getts a big HMMM. Is that corner in the second picture the wall to a utility room, as in is the furnace in there? Crazy to run AC lines under a slab but not unheard of (long as the lines are in a 4"PVC).
I be putting this one down on the list of curious-er and curious-er catagory. You gotta let us know what you find!!!
ciao, ted
Looks like someone put in an addition and that's where the old wall used to be. Poured the new floor to match the old but when they knocked down the wall had to fill in the missing section.
I think that Ralph W. Is on the right track. That thing is too square and parallel to not be a structural feature. I would expect to uncover concrete block without breaking much of a sweat.
That was my first thought, but all seems to be original. Talk about curious-er and curious-er...This is the weirdest house I have ever seen. I'll try to explain...
Walk in the house to the first floor. Stairs to small bed/bath @ entry (PIC #1). Master, Kitchen, Laundry, LR on this floor.
Down first set of stairs to the basement?? No, to another framed floor, but only on the back half of house. Furnace is built into a wall on this floor. Bedroom and another living room. Also down small set of stairs to what you see in pic#2. HUGE mechanical room. You can see the hung DWV lines in ceiling from kitchen and baths (PIC#3). This room is missing a furnace that was there before (PIC #4).
Round the corner to another set of stairs to the basement where the original picture was taken. The basement area is actually lower than the lowest part of the HUGE mechanical room (PIC#5).
I have never seen a house like this. I have been in thousands of homes inspecting, building, remodeling, flipping etc. Never seen one like this.
Enjoy the pics. Thanks for all the feed back.
My very first instinc was that this mystery thing was a grade beam, but I have only known them to be below the slab (??). And the fact that it is parallel to the floor joists kills that. It definitely looks like an old foundation.
I'm not sure I'll ever know. The auditors website has nothing noted about an addition, and as I said-everything really looks original. Maybe the builder made a mistake?
No Coffee No Workee!
Can't you post pictures as jpg files? I don't know how to open your application/octet things. As a rule I don't allow outside applications run on my computer unless I know the source.Thanks,BruceT
I can't even figure out what the file is -- it won't open for me.
It's a jpeg file. Sorry you can't open it. Anyone else have any trouble?No Coffee No Workee!
The problem is that it's not properly tagged, and doesn't have a recognized suffix.
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Oh. I'm not sure what else to do with it. I did it as bitmap, but it was really tiny. No Coffee No Workee!
No problems here. I'm using IE7, if that matters.
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Well, we bought this house. I will let ya know what this turned out to be.
We have included a rather large "fudge-factor" amount for this very strange house as a precaution.No Coffee No Workee!
Well hope the fudge was large!!
Just a shot in the dark, could it be two buildings moved on to a new (at the time) foundation. almost sounds like and old apartment or rooming house.
Keep us updated like to know what hidden PITA you find
Regards
BB
Look at this pic again. If this was all built at once, why did they put a return in the wall right where your questionable floor is?
Family.....They're always there when they need you.
Look at this pic again. If this was all built at once, why did they put a return in the wall right where your questionable floor is?
I was wondering the same thing. It is looking more and more like this is where they buried the line set.
I can't be 100% certain, but I am about 99% certain it was built all at the same time. Lines up with the garage, siding is the same and the same age, kitchen is above, and has always been there.
One thing I am really certain of is that it is not a missing bearing point. Nothing to bear above, floors run with it etc.
The furnace that IS still there is original to the house ('86), so burying the line set doesn't seem like the smartest way to go, but, I wasn't there, so...who knows?
Thanks for all the feed back. Keep it coming! We'll get this figured out.
BTW - Our fudge factor is 3% of the ARV. It will be enough, I am assuming. No Coffee No Workee!
One sure fire way to find out if it is conduit......look in the plug box and see what kind of connector is in it. If you can't tell the difference between a Romex,PVC, or EMT connector, go to Home Depot and see or look it up on the internet.
I wouldn't think it would be electrical, there are far too many easy ways to run cable than to cut a slab with a quickie-saw.