Just a general DIY-type wondering...

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

I saw, in one of 'er magazines, a family who discovered a huge basement under their house that nobody knew existed. Apparently it was used as a water store or summat at one time.

That got me thinking - there must be loads of basements, or even whole rooms, blocked off yonks ago by manic DIYers. Anyone got any stories along these lines, or know of any 'Fack me, look what we found under our front room!' websites? I'd love to find one, me, as long as it had plenty of interesting stuff in it, of course.

Si

[Graham.]

My sister used to teach in a private girls' school in London. The story goes that there was some renovation being done to one of the classrooms and a small sealed-off room was found that no-one could remember. It had obviously been a store room for a lab and among the things found there was a kilogramme or so of a soft metallic substance not quite covered in oil. Fortunately someone there realised how dangerous the find was, and it was delt with accordingly.

Can you tell what it is yet?

[vince]

Yes, a small basement room sealed off with bricks because it was damp. The last two owners went along with this and as it was only a small room they left it alone. It had remains of a body in there.

[Lurch]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:09:27 +0100, "Graham." mused:

[Andrew Gabriel]

In a house I bought over 20 years ago, I was aware there was a space under the stairs which had no access. About a year later, I levered up a floorboard upstairs whilst tracing some piping, and found myself looking into a small room below, which even had a light installed, which you could no longer get into. It was quite a bit bigger than just the triangle under the stairs. It became part of the kitchen when I redid that.

[Adrian C]

Tagged: Tiscali Idiot

[Dave Plowman (News)]

All the houses in this street have cellars. Originally to store the coal etc in since they have no rear access - or baths. ;-)

One didn't though anymore. The 'builder' who bought it to do up put the remains of the bulging flank wall in his rather than pay for skips etc when he re-built it. Using non matching bricks, of course. Some time later after not being able to sell the house for what he wanted his lender foreclosed and he ripped out the central heating and bathroom suite etc he'd put in and left them in the garden before disappearing never to be seen again.

Since then the area has been gentrified and a subsequent owner had the flank wall taken down and rebuilt in the correct bricks. And cleared the cellar.

Thing is these days I'd guess the secondhand value of the original bricks would have make them worth saving - I'm told they can cost a quid each.

[ARWadsworth]

I wish I had seen your post before looking.

Adam

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

Ho yus. I remember chemistry at school!

Si

[Mungo "Two Sheds" Toadfoot]

That's the sort of thing - that would have driven me nuts and I'd have had to open it up!

Wot, no bodies?? :)

Si

[robgraham]

My father bought an old Scottish house in 1953 - I was 11. The original 1750's build had included an open area at the front as a form of dpc for the main living area. At some point in it's life someone had arched over this area to form a 'nice' paved area in front of the house. The water thought this was great and made the front of the house including the cellar very damp. When we bought the house (4 bedrooms, 3 common rooms, 3/4 acre of ground fro =A3750 !) there was an walled off room in the cellar - 1953 was th year that the mass murdered Christie was caught so it became 'Christie's Cupboard'. Sadly it was no more than a large larder that had become unusable due all the water getting into the front wall.

Rob

[Peter Ashby]

I did a lot of electron microscopy in my postgrad days and during that time they revamped the EM labs. Now in the middle of the space was a wooden island bench with a central set of open shelves. It wobbled very much. On the middle shelf was a glass bottle of picric acid. It had crystals in it.

In the end they got the fire brigade specialists in to safely remove and dispose of it. The number of times I bumped into those shelves doesn't bear thinking about.

Peter

[Peter Ashby]

Not a room, but the first house SWMBO and I bought in NZ was a wooden single story villa about 100years old. Now someone had demolished the chimneys (they become earthquake risks). In between the bedrooms the space was filled with a built in wardrobe and finished ok. However in the knocked through lounge/living/kitchen there was a space in the ceiling filled with a crude sheet of something. It was our first house.

Now we decided to put in a vege garden along the back wall screened by a border. I started digging to the left of the path and all was fine. Then I stuck my spade into the larger space to the right CLANG!!!! and a vibration ran up my arm. I had found the remains of the chimneys, the bastards had buried them, no sign of where the earth went either. Took forever to remove them and it was winter.... I cut my hand reaching into a water filled hole for a brick, they had included the bottles from the chimney knocking down party. My hand was so cold I didn't feel it.

Peter

[Arthur2]

My father bought an old Scottish house in 1953 - I was 11. The original 1750's build had included an open area at the front as a form of dpc for the main living area. At some point in it's life someone had arched over this area to form a 'nice' paved area in front of the house. The water thought this was great and made the front of the house including the cellar very damp. When we bought the house (4 bedrooms, 3 common rooms, 3/4 acre of ground fro £750 !) there was an walled off room in the cellar - 1953 was th year that the mass murdered Christie was caught so it became 'Christie's Cupboard'. Sadly it was no more than a large larder that had become unusable due all the water getting into the front wall.

Rob

COOOR!! How many people did yer dad murder? Was it hundreds an' hundreds?

Arthur

[Aidan Karley]

Lovely. Many years ago I was doing a summer job as a porter in a hospital. I was tasked with clearing out the attic of a minor building one day, with another of the minions. On the shelves ... 15mm metric micrometer (pocketed); dissected human larynx in formalin (put aside for later); dozens of boxes of records (move downstairs for the record office); Winchester bottle of yellow crystalline compound with a glass stopper ... turn it round to read the faded label ... manufactured 1948 ... DO NOT LET CONTENTS DRY OUT !! ... Picric acid. I sent the other student-porter down the ladder to get the lab manager, but not to re-enter the building himself. Some time later I passed the bomb to the lab manager and exited.

Exactly what I suggested.

The "clear-out" was stopped. It was still there (with the larynx, which I'd rather fancied for my mantleshelf) when I finished a month or so later. The building has since been demolished. Where's my kilo tin of aluminium powder and the weedkiller?