Hive Mind - Basement wall question

Y'all know everything, right? I live in a 100-year-old house, with a poured concrete foundation. At one point, there was a storm cellar exit, which was filled in, and a mudroom built over top. Unfortunately, instead of bricking up the opening to the basement - they merely boarded it up. I've basically ignored it over the years, since an old house usually has endlessly more pressing problems to deal with... but it's annoying dealing with the amount of dust and dirt that seeps through the cracks and gets tracked all over the house by the cats. I tacked a plastic sheet over it, but it's not a perfect solution.

Should I have it sealed up with cinder blocks? What is the best way to deal with it?

So... they actually filled in the old stair well with dirt and then walled it with studs? If so, then yeah... I'd probably brick it up, depending on what the transition sill looks like. Since it wouldn't be weight-bearing, it wouldn't be a bad little DIY project to learn how to play with mortar.

I'm trying to picture this- your mudroom was built overtop, so if you pulled the boards off, there would still be a staircase and concrete walls going up to the floor of the mudroom? And is that the foundation for the mudroom, or was something poured to give a larger fottprint?

If the room was built over the staircase, I'd pull the boards down and have a nice. oddly shaped storage closet with concrete shelves.

Wait 'til there's a body to dispose of. Then brick it in - don't forget the quicklime! - and parge the whole wall on the inside to hide the bricked-in area.

Yah, filled in the stairs with dirt, then built a mudroom on top. The bitch of it was... that left a very skinny little staircase leading up to the kitchen, and I bought the house with three defunct laundry appliances in the basement. I quickly figured out why they were still there... Put in a decent sized staircase to the basement, and had some of the other lovely problems down there fixed (such as a trap that was crooked and regularly belched up its foul contents) and tree roots growing through the sewer...

Haahaa... yah, I could be Margie's backup! No, it's filled with dirt and stuff. The mudroom was right on the ground, I had it raised and put on cement pilings.

Bricking it would probably be best, but sealing it against water is another issue. That is done best from the outside, and you don't really have access. I suppose if theres no water coming through the boards you have now, block construction would work fine. I'm not sure what you do with the dirt behind the boards...if its hard and stable, I guess you just leave it and build the wall quickly. If it crumbles down when you pull the boards, thats a lot of pails of dirt heaved upstairs.

I'd recommission the storm cellar, what with global warming and the coming zombie apocalypse and all that.

Was it a Bilco door type set up that was shoveled in?

If so, resurrect it. How else would you get your engine project into a warm place to work on in the winter?

Yah, but there's a building over top of it now. And I did put my engine in that mudroom one year.

Note the door, which we used as a ramp and subsequently became doused in an oil spew:

shop by Leadfoot Lesley, on Flickr

Cinder blocks will allow a lot of moisture through.

It goes to a mud room? I would be cutting a hole in that floor for a trap door myself. Even without the hole and access to the stairs I would take down the wall and get the dirt out. Call it a funny closest or the perfect spot for a built in safe.

A funny closet? I like the sound of that.

oldopelguy wrote: It goes to a mud room? I would be cutting a hole in that floor for a trap door myself. Even without the hole and access to the stairs I would take down the wall and get the dirt out. Call it a funny closest or the perfect spot for a built in safe.

I concur, it would make for an interesting archaeological adventure and you would get a root cellar to boot!

motomoron wrote: Wait 'til there's a body to dispose of. Then brick it in - don't forget the quicklime!

You're assuming that is not what the previous owner did. Who knows who could be in that space!

Oh berkeley...

Al Capones secret vault.

You could use take offs from a Challenge donor to fill the hole.

Jimmy Hoffa.

Lesley wrote: ... but it's annoying dealing with the amount of dust and dirt that seeps through the cracks and gets tracked all over the house by the cats. I tacked a plastic sheet over it, but it's not a perfect solution.

Linoleum sheet flooring? Would create a solid surface to act as a barrier of anything coming up/through.
Thin plywood sheets laid over the floor should achieve the same. The plywood would likely be necessary to create the smooth surface the linoleum needs.

On the basement floor? Oh lord, that thing is lumpier than a Cavalier made of bondo.

TRoglodyte wrote: Al Capones secret vault.

I'm not sitting through that again. berkeley Geraldo 2 hours of my childhood I'll never get back

Lesley wrote: A funny closet? I like the sound of that.

Have you ever considered building a dungeon?