Mystery hole in basement wall

[Jon O.]

Anybody care to take a stab at what this might be for? House was built in 1910. White paint put on the wall in the mid 80s. Its just a mysterious hole in the wall. Not much else to say. Its right next to where a giant gravity furnace used to be. It had a bunch of t shirts stuffed in it, with a concrete patch on top.

 

[Wonderwagon]

a low pressure gas line that feed the furnace?

 

[Jon O.]

a low pressure gas line that feed the furnace?

That's plausible, it is almost right under the gas meter. Although I am unsure the furnace ever got converted from oil to gas.

 

[HWYCRZR]

Fuel oil tank probably buried in your backyard connected through there. Don’t dig on that side of the yard.

 

[Jon O.]

Fuel oil tank probably buried in your backyard connected through there. Don’t dig on that side of the yard.

The old fuel oil tank is still in the basement. It may be just a hole, but i'm intrigued.

 

[66Fury383]

For someone out of options, if you catch my drift

 

[Turboomni]

Attempted escape perhaps?

 

[Jon O.]

Attempted escape perhaps?

 

[Fury440]

We had a house in Ottawa that had a buried oil tank in the backyard. When it sprung a leak, we abandoned it and put a new tank in the basement. Our wall had a similar hole.

 

[jct]

Call a utility marking company like 811 if you do dig for whatever reason

 

[Zymurgy]

We had a house in Ottawa that had a buried oil tank in the backyard. When it sprung a leak, we abandoned it and put a new tank in the basement. Our wall had a similar hole.

This seems the most plausible. I had an old fuel oil tank buried which I removed when I put an addition of the house. It was 40 years old rusty and I was surprised it never rusted through.

Your house is over 100 years, I am sure it rusted through and they said screw this and put the next tank in the basement.

 

[FURYGT]

The old fuel oil tank is still in the basement. It may be just a hole, but i'm intrigued.

But there may still be a tank buried underground, which may or may not have leaked into the soil. If there is a buried tank, you would need to disclose that when you sell the house and most likely no one is going to buy the house if it's there for fear that there is contaminated soil.

 

[shooter65]

My 2 cents are that I would not call 811 or you may be looking at a large bill for tank removal and hazmat cleanup depending on your municipality. I would dig shallow holes in the vicinity of the hole in the wall. If it was from an underground tank, it's probably no more than 8' from the basement wall. If you find a tank, you should find a fill pipe and a vent pipe. Stick the fill pipe with at least an 8' rod and see what's in it. If you're lucky, it will be empty, then you can fill it with concrete to keep it from collapsing, cover it back up and call it a day. Filling with concrete won't be cheap but it will certainly be less expensive then tank removal and hazmat and far less expensive then if the tank collapses.

 

[mr. fix it]

We had a mystery water tap in our basement of our first home we rented.
The landlord always complained about how much water we used as a family of 4
Turned out that it fed the next door neighbours business that used to own the house we had rented.

Our water bills dropped drastically after we discovered the purpose of that tap.

 

[mr. fix it]

My 2 cents are that I would not call 811 or you may be looking at a large bill for tank removal and hazmat cleanup depending on your municipality. I would dig shallow holes in the vicinity of the hole in the wall. If it was from an underground tank, it's probably no more than 8' from the basement wall. If you find a tank, you should find a fill pipe and a vent pipe. Stick the fill pipe with at least an 8' rod and see what's in it. If you're lucky, it will be empty, then you can fill it with concrete to keep it from collapsing, cover it back up and call it a day. Filling with concrete won't be cheap but it will certainly be less expensive then tank removal and hazmat and far less expensive then if the tank collapses.

I would have filled it with gravel or dirt myself...

You would swear they were pouring gold onto our driveways around here with the cost of it being so high these days.

 

[jct]

All 811 does is spray paint your property where utilities run through

 

[Jon O.]

My 2 cents are that I would not call 811 or you may be looking at a large bill for tank removal and hazmat cleanup depending on your municipality. I would dig shallow holes in the vicinity of the hole in the wall. If it was from an underground tank, it's probably no more than 8' from the basement wall. If you find a tank, you should find a fill pipe and a vent pipe. Stick the fill pipe with at least an 8' rod and see what's in it. If you're lucky, it will be empty, then you can fill it with concrete to keep it from collapsing, cover it back up and call it a day. Filling with concrete won't be cheap but it will certainly be less expensive then tank removal and hazmat and far less expensive then if the tank collapses.

Ill do some looking around. The driveway is on that side, and concrete was poured all the way up to the edge of the foundation. The driveway I know is old as dirt. At least 50 or 60 years old if not more. The vent line and fill line for the tank in the basement comes out of the side of the foundation on that side.

 

[mr. fix it]

Ill do some looking around. The driveway is on that side, and concrete was poured all the way up to the edge of the foundation. The driveway I know is old as dirt. At least 50 or 60 years old if not more. The vent line and fill line for the tank in the basement comes out of the side of the foundation on that side.

time to fill it up and call it a day

 

[live4theking]

We had a mystery water tap in our basement of our first home we rented.
The landlord always complained about how much water we used as a family of 4
Turned out that it fed the next door neighbours business that used to own the house we had rented.

Our water bills dropped drastically after we discovered the purpose of that tap.

The house I grew up was previously the neighbors. When they built the new house the put a line from our water well to their house with about of valves. We could run both houses of either well. It seems theirs was the only one that had problems though.

All 811 does is spray paint your property where utilities run through

811 only knows about fairly modern things or things they were told about. If there is an in ground tank from the 70's or before I doubt they know about it.

 

[mrfury68]

811 or One Call will send out each utility company to mark the location of their own lines. Before any digging or excavating you will want to know where the gas, water, sewer, electric or telecommunications lines are buried. Failure to have them marked will leave you liable for any damage you do to a line. In the instance of a gas or electric line, the result could be fatal. Always call before you dig.