In many older homes floor drains are part of the basement design built in to prevent water damage to the house and its contents.
My 1920s house has a door in the basement floor.
My current house from the mid 1920 s has 2 1 4 quarter sawn white oak floors throughout the house.
Old floor drains work passively their design based on principles of physics.
Here s a peek inside.
Well different houses used different flooring materials but i ve lived in two houses from that era.
Homes had an area in the pantry or kitchen dedicated to the icebox.
The holes are about 1 1 25 and are spaced apart about 3 4 within 6 of the walls.
Here s why old homes have a tiny iron door leading to the basement.
I wish i had the money to fix.
Located in greenwich a suburb of london england the 1900 house from the popular british television series is a late victorian terraced townhouse.
I have yet to come across a solid wood floor that couldn t be repaired.
She wants tile down here and there are holes drilled in the concrete floor around the perimeter.
I live in a 1913 row house.
They have of course been refinished a few times over the years so i don t know what their original finish would have been.
She had a milk door there also plus a coal chute so that must have been the service side of the house.
The drain has a sewer odor coming from it.
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Image courtesy of thirteen wnet.
There is a second set of holes about 2 toward the middle exactly the same.
As america moved into the 1900s notable change began happening on the home construction and architectural scenes.
The same is almost never true for tile laminate vinyl or even engineered wood floors.
Well i live in a 1920 house in buffalo ny and the kitchen floor is on the downward slope going all the way down.
Floor drains are an effective way to remove excess water from a home.
The basement has a floor drain in it.
The largest room in the 1900 house is more for looking than living.
There was no place in the tiny kitchen for a refrigerator so it was kept on an enclosed porch outside the side door.
I have an old house and there is water coming up in my basement from a box that has a trap door in the floor that answered by a verified plumber.
The floor is rotting and the foundation has to be repaired which could cost in these homes about 150 000 or so give or take.
This is an access door the ice delivery man used to use.
A construction crew from 1900 would barely recognize one working on a home in 1999 as the 20th century saw huge changes in the styles of houses and construction methods and regulations.
Thank you for your article.
Probably one of my favorite jobs restoring a floor was this 1920s heart pine i came across.
My sister lived in a 1920 s house that was just full of surprises.
Doing a job where there is a cement floor in the basement of a 1920 s home.
The landlord is a slumlord who wont fix anything.