Mystery Hole in the Floor....

[TimWW]

As part of a reflooring excerise, I've found an unexpected hole in the floor of my ground floor flat.

pictures

Its cut into the concrete floor, there are metal walls that have warped a bit, and a wooden frame at the top, which was capped with a piece of 3mm ply, padded with odd bits of lino, and then covered with vinyl tiles.

It looks like it drops down to a conduit of some sort under the floor, but I can't see any trace of cables or pipes. Is it for ventilation?

We're putting down solid wood floors, I guess we either seal it up and floor over, or fix a grill over the top?

 

[JohnD]

was there a gas fire in the room?

you could hide your money down there

 

[TimWW]

The first suggestion was that it was a floor safe, but it seems to go somewhere. (I'm not brave enough to stick my hands down it either)

Its in the hallway, by the wall opposite the foot of the stairs, so probably no gas fire

 

[JohnD]

poke your camera down and take some pics. Or webcam and torch.

I would not have been surprised to see pipes and cables under there.

is it a clean concrete oversite below, or dirt and rubble?

does the concrete look sawn out, or cast-in?

have your neighbours got anything similar?

is there anything directly above it?

It's the wrong shape for a floor safe (usually square often have a round hatch)

 

[masona]

Is it on a external wall, is there an air-vent near it?

Hot air heating duct system(?)

 

[breezer]

i bet its hot air ducting too

 

[kevindgas]

i would go with the warm air heating duct if it is in each room or an air duct if only in 1 room

 

[ModernMaterials]

Entrance to crypt for family of voles.

 

[TimWW]

Entrance to crypt for family of voles.

Will go well with the ferret we're trying to adopt

Have finally stopped being a wimp, and stuck my hand down the hole and taken some pics with my camera...

a glimpse into the unknown

no cables or pipes... it goes only one way... under the wall in the first pic, and turns right under the living room (through the doorframe in the top of picture 6....

From the pictures, I can't get a feel for how far it goes, but there are definitely no vents or airbricks on the external walls of that side of the building.

There do appear to be two 'interesting' plastering "attempts" on the walls in the livingroom, low down, fairly square, and possibly the work of a family of dead voles.

So the question remains, fill the hole, or make a feature of it and find a nice grill for the top.

Urgency of the answer slightly decreased, as the guy doing the flooring just 'sacked' himself. But thats another story for another section.

 

[JohnD]

It looks like the flat my Uncle Fred used to live in, with Auntie Rosemary, until they moved to Gloucester and we lost touch. He was almost making alterations and doing little building jobs.

I wonder what they've been up to since?

 

[Aqua]

It looks like the flat my Uncle Fred used to live in, with Auntie Rosemary, until they moved to Gloucester and we lost touch. He was almost making alterations and doing little building jobs.

I wonder what they've been up to since?

Naughty !!!!

 

[TimWW]

It looks like the flat my Uncle Fred used to live in, with Auntie Rosemary, until they moved to Gloucester and we lost touch. He was almost making alterations and doing little building jobs.

I wonder what they've been up to since?

So you're saying "fill it in with cement, and hope no-one comes looking for missing persons"???

 

[Thermo]

is it an ex-council flat?

it does look like the old warm systems they used to putin down our way