What is this oddity in basement

[jetrep]

I checked out a house for sale last night. Mostly because it has a nice 3-car attached and big 2-car detached garage. This sort of property is quite tough to find around here. I've been looking nearly a year.

Anyway, the house was built in the early 1970s. Full basement with no walk out (accessible only by stairway inside the house).

It has this "feature" in the basement on the front side of the house. Any idea what it could be? Nobody has had even a guess yet.

The center section is not flat...it slopes downward toward the side with the blind round hole. It is maybe 10" deep but the bottom is concrete. The house already has two sump pits (one on each end of the basement)

Anybody have any idea what it is?

 

[bullnerd]

Obviously its for dissolving human bodies, could come in handy, did you make an offer?

 

[Kevin54]

My guess would be for something like to wash the dog

 

[homebuilt burner]

First I thought a cistern, but the house having poured walls would be to new for one. Also, it doesn't look like it was water tight.

I am watching so I know ,too.

 

[CitadelBlue]

what about the beginnings of a finished "club" basement with bar. The sloped area would be covered with some type of grate covering. The brick wall would be thefront of th ebar. Missing of course is the "custom" bar top .......

 

[soapii]

what about the beginnings of a finished "club" basement with bar. The sloped area would be covered with some type of grate covering. The brick wall would be thefront of th ebar. Missing of course is the "custom" bar top .......

That is what I was thinking. Looks like a bar area.

--Joe

 

[iahawk]

yeah, 'bar' was my first thought...?

 

[woodrail]

************* safe zone

 

[ronjon1190]

i think it is for an oil tank. my house has something similar, but the rest of my basement is a crawl space. there is two concrete "wells" dug deeper. one has my boiler in it, and the other looks just like this, but was empty. My assumption was they made the well to put the oil tank in, then framed the deck of the house, and forgot to put it in, but by that time it was too late, so they went with a buried tank that i have since removed and gone to an exterior rated tank.

or it could be something more sinister...

 

[icenfire01]

Obviously its for dissolving human bodies, could come in handy, did you make an offer?

^^^ wins the internets for the day, congrats and thanks for making me spew soda all over my keyboard!

 

[jetrep]

Haha I actually heard the body disolving receptacle twice here at work this morning.

Bar was the first thing that came to my mind but I don't think that's it.

I asked an old HVAC guy that used to deal a lot with oil fired boilers and has torn many out of homes over the years to convert to boilers or furnaces. He didn't seem to think it was related. The home is heated with a NAG furnace

here's one more picture

 

[ambenz]

Definitely a drain pit for a mechanical or tank sort of equipment.
I'd be curious were the drain went? ...to the sump?
If so, I would rule out oil tanks...It may have a french drain and then I would bet it did hold oil tanks...no much else in the basement that needs a containment area like that besides what was mentioned...

 

[dawg69]

Baptismal pool?

 

[jask]

it rubs the lotion on it's skin, or it gets the hose again.......

I vote washdown bar for a seriously sloppy bartender.

 

[premierplayer]

Baptismal pool?

first thing that came to me too, don't think that's it though

 

[Steevo]

************* safe zone

I have to go with this answer.

 

[3baygarage]

Semi-concealed prohibition era craps table, minus the fake shower.

Feds raid the place and everybody hides behind the wall, dice get covered over in the hole with a drain cover. One little old lady stands back there screaming with a scrub brush in her hand. The old fake shower trick.

 

[Bluedodge]

Bang his wife.

 

[jd_1138]

That was a bar area where Mike Brady would entertain his architectural clients with. That's what I'd turn it back into.

 

[Hephaestus29]

Looks like a place for a sump pump.

 

[Streetbu]

Drain pit for heating oil tanks. Might have natural gas now, but when built the house had fuel oil.

 

[WanderingSol07]

Place to grow Mary Jane...

 

[turbowoodworker]

I been watching a lot of forensic TV. Spray some luminal, add black light and check for blood and DNA.
If you can close by Halloween you've got a built in feature right there. You could make a great impression on the neighbor kids.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I wouldn't think it would be a drain pit for any oil tank, not with a big drain like that. Any loss of oil needs to be contained, not let down the drain.

 

[tractordude]

Drain pit for heating oil tanks. Might have natural gas now, but when built the house fuel oil.

Huh??

 

[bczygan]

A spot for Dracula's coffin?

 

[tractordude]

Place to grow Mary Jane...

This^^^ or a giant fish tank

 

[bullnerd]

The more I look at it the more creeped out I get!

I know old timers that used to pour used motor oil into a pipe in the yard or spread it on the driveway to control dust. But this being from the 70s, would they allow that then? I doubt it, but don't know.

Plus theres no mechanicals in the room with it? Wouldn't the oil tank be nearby the furnace?

Fishtank is not sounding too bad? Just drain into the sewer line?

 

[Tim The Tool Man]

Might be a butcher's dressing pit or maybe something related to taxidermy? Did the previous owner hunt deer maybe?

 

[the gypsy]

Could this be a pit that the owner would sweep all the snow and slush from his car into. And when this snow or slush melts it would be pumped out.

 

[k-os]

Could this be a pit that the owner would sweep all the snow and slush from his car into. And when this snow or slush melts it would be pumped out.

How would the snow get from the garage to the basement?

 

[Muttly]

.

Plus theres no mechanicals in the room with it? Wouldn't the oil tank be nearby the furnace?

if the furnace / boiler was in the middle of the house, the tank would be on an outside wall where the fuel oil truck could easily get the hose to the outside fill location.

but I've never seen one like that

any water supply lines near or above this area?

 

[bullnerd]

"if the furnace / boiler was in the middle of the house, the tank would be on an outside wall where the fuel oil truck could easily get the hose to the outside fill location."

Good call!

 

[woodrail]

OK, after some serious though, I'm putting my money on a habitat for a turtle or other reptile.

 

[rburke65]

Hello and welcome from Ohio!Absolutely NO idea.

 

[CNGsaves]

OK, after some serious though, I'm putting my money on a habitat for a turtle or other reptile.

^ ^ This. Maybe a baby crocodile or alligator.

Or maybe the guy from movie Jeepers Creepers . . . needed catch pool for blood . .
. . . . .
. . . . . . . when he cuts your EYES out !!!

 

[NUTTSGT]

It kinda looks like a ******* I saw in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

 

[sha]

DIY embalming

Of all the replies, my vote goes to reptile habitat.

 

[KDXSR5]

Did you think about maybe asking the current owner? Or are they serving life w/o parole and no visitation rights?

 

[bargainhuntingking]

Creepy! Don't buy it!