What's hidden under your floor?

[Rose Pink]

In the course of some remodeling, DH removed part of a wall exposing (for the time being) a 2 inch high space where one can see beneath the floor boards. I noticed a brown paper sack under there. Curious as to what could be buried beneath the floor, I took some kitchen tongs and managed to pull it out. I was hoping for cash that some previous owner may have stashed there and forgotten. (maybe to make me feel better about my sinking 401k) With great anticipation I opened the bag only to find pornography-small magazines, slides, reel-to-reel film, cards and some "toys." Rather a let down for me.

One son suggested I turn it in to the police--"never know, it might solve an old crime."

Another suggested I sell it on e-bay.

DH says to just throw it away.

So, what's under your floor?

 

[DeniseM]

4-6 inches of cement (most CA home are built on cement slabs.)

 

[DaveNV]

My house was built over the site of an old, old, oooollllddd barn. I've collected all kinds of nameless things out in the yard, dug up by the dog and that I've run over with the lawnmower. So I'm pretty sure I don't WANT to know what's under my floorboards. LOL! :hysterical:

Dave

 

[Dave M]

Slab was all I expected to find, Denise, when I gutted my 30-year-old kitchen about seven years ago as part of a major remodeling project.

Oops!

The contractors found asbestos under the linoleum, requiring a nasty increase to the project cost for the removal of the asbestos by specialsts licensed to do it.

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

In the course of some remodeling, DH removed part of a wall exposing (for the time being) a 2 inch high space where one can see beneath the floor boards. I noticed a brown paper sack under there. Curious as to what could be buried beneath the floor, I took some kitchen tongs and managed to pull it out. I was hoping for cash that some previous owner may have stashed there and forgotten. (maybe to make me feel better about my sinking 401k) With great anticipation I opened the bag only to find pornography-small magazines, slides, reel-to-reel film, cards and some "toys." Rather a let down for me.

One son suggested I turn it in to the police--"never know, it might solve an old crime."

Another suggested I sell it on e-bay.

DH says to just throw it away.

So, what's under your floor?

In the first house we owned (in the SF Bay area) there was a daylight half basement that had been finished as a MIL apartment. The floor of the finished basement area was half concrete slab and half floor joists supported by a perimeter wall. There was no access to the area underneath the floor joists.

When we bought the house we didn't need the space, so we rented the apartment. When we were ready to take over that space when the last of our tenants moved out, I cut an access hatch into the floor of the closet in the apartment so that I could inspect the space under the joists.

I found:

• that there was only about six inches of clearance between the dirt and the floor joists under most of the joisted area
• about a dozen mud tubes built by subterranean termites to access the joists in that area
• the area underneath the bathroom had been excavated deeper when the basement was finished, to create room for the plumbing
• the plumbing was leaking, creating a shallow pool of foul water in that deepened area
• the combination of rot resulting from condensation from the open water area and termite damage had totally destroyed the subfloor underneath the toilet
• the entire weight of the toilet (and any person sitting on the toilet) was being carried by the soil drain from the toilet
• the only reason the floor next to the toilet hadn't collapsed was because it was a ceramic tile floor with chicken wire mesh embedded in the grout below the toil. The chicken wire reinforced grout was the entire support for the floor.

I looked at it and was amazed that the floor had never given way while we were renting the unit. For about two months I spent two to three hours per night lying on my side and back excavating dirt from under the joists using a bucket, a crowbar, and a small shovel, until we had about 18 inches of clearance under the joists. (Good thing I'm not a claustrophobic because it was just about enough clearance for me to slide through on my back.) I then demolished the bathroom and hired a contractor to fix the termite damaged areas and the leaking plumbing.

 

[BevL]

My downstairs neighbours -- my condo's on the fourth floor!!

 

[DaveNV]

So, what's under your floor?

In giving this some more thought, I'm reminded of an old house we moved into in 1965, when I was 12 years old. It was a 1900s-era home, not truly "Victorian" in style, but from that era. As kids will do, we were snooping around the place, checking into closets and such. In one closet there was a built-in ladder on one end wall, going up through a hatch into the attic. My brother and I went up there, and saw the entire space between the floor joists was full of blown-in fiber insulation several inches thick. In one section, the insulation had some weird bumps and humps that didn't look right. I investigated, and discovered it was covering up a broken Tiffany-style hanging oil lamp, some very elegant walking sticks, and some folded up papers that turned out to be theater programs from about 1910 or so.

My mother was quite the decorator, and the walking sticks were cleaned up and went into an entry hall antique umbrella stand, where they remained for the next 30 years. The theaters were long gone, but my mother remembered them from her childhood. She had the programs mounted into a frame that hung on a wall in the dining room. But best of all, she had the hanging lamp wired for electricity, and found (somewhere) a replica shade that fit it nicely, and the lamp hung over the dining room table for many, many years. It looked like it belonged there.

None of it had great monetary value, but my mother was thrilled at these attic discoveries. She's been gone now for a number of years, and my sister has the items in her home, as part of our family's heirlooms.

Kind of neat to think they became such a part of the family, and all because of some snoopy kids.

Dave

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

In giving this some more thought, I'm reminded of an old house we moved into in 1965, when I was 12 years old. It was a 1900s-era home, not truly "Victorian" in style, but from that era. As kids will do, we were snooping around the place, checking into closets and such. In one closet there was a built-in ladder on one end wall, going up through a hatch into the attic. My brother and I went up there, and saw the entire space between the floor joists was full of blown-in fiber insulation several inches thick. In one section, the insulation had some weird bumps and humps that didn't look right. I investigated, and discovered it was covering up a broken Tiffany-style hanging oil lamp, some very elegant walking sticks, and some folded up papers that turned out to be theater programs from about 1910 or so.

Dave - your story reminded me. Same house in California I wrote about earlier. About a year after we moved in, I was doing some work in a more accessible area under the house. A handyman and I were inspecting the mudsills, cripple wall, and floor joists, and he saw a couple of books tucked into a small opening. He pulled them out - they were grade school arithmetic books from about 1920.

We couldn't figure out why the books were there. The house was built about 1922, so the books probably were stuck there during construction or shortly after. The first owners of the house were childless. And why would someone stash a couple of arithmetic books?? They were obviously put there deliberately and specifically to hike them. Perhaps some kids took them from another child to get the child into trouble? Maybe some kid was using a lost book as an excuse for not getting schoolwork done?

 

[Flo]

In our house in NY-which was built in the late 60's, we had our bathroom gutted and re-done in the 90's.
Behind the walls, the contractor found several beer cans-including Reingold beer. The original builders must have stashed them there while building the house!
We decided to leave them there and seal them behind the new wall!

 

[naudette]

We remodeled our kitchen in 1997. The house was only 4 years old. When we took the double oven out of the wall, there was a McDonalds bag with fries still in it and a paper cup, top and straw.

 

[falmouth3]

A few years ago we lived in Falmouth, Maine (hence my name). We lived in an 1850's farmhouse. While putting new flooring in, we found that we needed to shore up the joists. After the original floorboards were removed, we found 1880's newspapers that were used as insulation or shims. I decided to make a contribution to a time capsule and put a Sunday paper, complete with ads, between the joists. Sometime in the future, when the complete floor is redone again, I'm hoping the people doing the work get a kick out of finding it and looking though the "old" ads and news of the day - providing the newspaper survived.

Sue

 

[T_R_Oglodyte]

Another item from that house in California. It was built before drywall, so the walls were lath and plaster. We had to remove walls in a couple of rooms to deal with some termite damage, as well as some other walls redone for general remodeling purposes.

After opening walls we often found additional strips of lathing tacked to the studs, behind the walls. We couldn't figure out why it was there. Then one time we hired a retired mason to do some brickwork for us, and I mentioned it to him.

He laughed and said in the old days lathers were paid by lineal foot of lath. The foreman tracked the amount of lath delivered to the job and the amount taken away, and paid the lathers based on the difference. So when the boss wasn't paying attention lathers would hide lath behind the studs so they would get paid a bit more for their work.

 

[Noni]

A lot of cement.

 

[swift]

We remodeled our kitchen in 1997. The house was only 4 years old. When we took the double oven out of the wall, there was a McDonalds bag with fries still in it and a paper cup, top and straw.

Makes you rethink eating those McDonald fries doesn't it.

http://shizzville.com/how-nasty-are-mcdonalds-fries?page=1

 

[DaveNV]

A handyman and I were inspecting the mudsills, cripple wall, and floor joists, and he saw a couple of books tucked into a small opening. He pulled them out - they were grade school arithmetic books from about 1920.

We couldn't figure out why the books were there.

Steve, how about this: The workman building the house had someone working for him who was in school. That person came to the job site after school to help out, set his schoolbooks down, and they got accidentally sealed up in the wall. ???

Dave

 

[Glynda]

We found...

Bones. Our house in downtown Charleston is a former kitchen house. It was added on to over the years and apparently over a pit where they buried the bones of some fairly large animals they ate. We wondered whether to call the coroner or not but our doctor neighbor identified them as animal.

We've also found an old glass medicine bottle, shards of pottery and china, and old nails.

 

[tlwmkw]

My cousin has a georgian town house in London which is part of a circle (or as they say "a circus") and so the house has irregularly shaped walls (narrow at the front and wide at the back). Over the years the house was divided up into apartments and the walls were "squared up" with false walls. In the process fireplaces and old moldings were covered up. When my cousin bought the house he had no idea that all these were covered up but in the restoration process he uncovered them. Old marble mantles were just walled up behind plywood. The most interesting thing was a cupboard in the dining room which contained old china and some spoons as well as a fruit cake in a tin. My cousin left the cake in the room and returned later to find that some of the Irish workmen had eaten the cake with their tea. None of them suffered any ill effects- apparently it had been soaked in alcohol and was well preserved. He thought the wall had been installed in approx the 1930's!!!

 

[Mydogs2big]

At one of our rental houses we found a bone that looked similar to a forearm bone, but what do I know? I'm sure it wasn't! I put it back and we poured concrete over the top of where it was. My bigger half is still haunted by this and some day I feel we may have to dig the whole thing up just to take that bone to someone to prove that it isn't human! If I had thought it was human at the time, I would have called someone right then.

Next time we find a bone, even a fish bone, I am getting a second opinion!

 

[deh333]

A grenade. A missle launch grenade actually. Live and unstable!!!


Under the floor, below the kitchen door of our old house was a small space. When I was cleaning out one day, I found a cylinder with some strange looking military piece of equipment inside of it. The neighbor; an ex-military, older gentleman, said it was nothing to be woried about - - joked about it's falic nature, and, in fact, he tossed it from hand to hand. Not entirely convinced that we should merely toss the thing into the trash, my husband and I took it to the firehouse. Yeah, but I took precautions, I held it in my left hand, so in case it went off, I would still be able to write! Well, you shoulda seen the look on the guys face behind the desk at the firehouse! The fire station was evacuated twice. The bomb squad came. Took the unstable grenade away and blew it up. The head guy at the fire station called me to tell me that it was a very unstable piece of WW II equipment that someone probably took as a souvenir, it had a 30 foot diameter kill radius, any sideways rotation could have set it off, would we like them to come and look around to see what else they could find, to never, ever do what we did again, and, while the local paper called to see what fool did what we did and lived to tell the tale, the would not divulge our name or address!!

So thats hat we found in our basement!
:rofl:

-Liz

 

[wackymother]

A grenade. A missle launch grenade actually. Live and unstable!!!


The head guy at the fire station called me to tell me that it was a very unstable piece of WW II equipment that someone probably took as a souvenir,
-Liz

This is a great thread! Who knew?

Regarding the grenade...there was a similar story in our local paper a couple of years back. The police and the fire department said that WWII soldiers often took live grenades as souvenirs, and now that the soldiers are getting into their 80s and passing away, more and more dangerous, old, unstable grenades and other ammo is turning up. Be careful out there!

 

[Wonka]

Money in register

People hide things in weird places. When my mother died, my brother found $20,000 hidden in a heat register. I think my Mom told him it was there just before she died. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been found.

 

[deh333]

tlwmkw,


The most interesting thing was a cupboard in the dining room which contained old china and some spoons as well as a fruit cake in a tin.


Maybe that's what I should do with that Christmas fruitcake!

 

[urban5]

Remodeling

When remodeling some of the rooms in a 1896 Victorian New England home I was always hoping to find some kind of treasure, but alas nothing was found.

Before enclosing the walls and finishing the floors I decided to create a time capsule that included a letter describing myself and family, along with a picture of us, several catalogs and flyers from local stores. A current issue of Time magazine, and several coins. All was sealed in a ziplock bag then enclosed in a set of square cake pans and sealed with duct tape. It was placed is an out of the way wall cavity and enclosed. I did leave several clues to its whereabouts under the floor boards, and it another wall cavity.

 

[geneticblend]

I recall when I was young, my mother and father were having some work done on their house. Under the stairway, they found an old post card of Pittsburgh which they estimated to be from around 1900. They put it back under the steps.

This is a good thread! Lots of great stories!

 

[DebBrown]

What an interesting thread. When we remodeled our home, we just found beer cans and cigarette wrappers. I assume the garbage from the previous remodel.

Deb