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Cold room flooring help (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/diy@lemmy.world
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Hey, I've got a cold room in my place that is concrete on all sides, I'm going to be framing it in and insulating and I don't really need any help there unless there's anything cold room specific I should know, however.

As you can see I have a floor that appears to be a stepped concrete pit, filled with quite a lot of dirt, and what I believe is probably a tie in to the sewage drain.

Can I just get rid of the dirt? The whole room spells like petrichor because of it.

Assuming the pit continues to step down, can I just build the floor over it regardless, and do I need to support the pipe in some way if the dirt is removed?

Or, if I'm completely off base please let me know what I should be doing.

Thanks

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[–] 4 points 1 year ago* (2 children)

the house is on a septic system that we know not to be located anywhere near this cold room as well if that means anything.

Do you not have a well anywhere?

If there's no well and OG owners had to have septic...

They had to get water somewhere too, and that's a cistern. And it would be away from septic deliberately

It can't all be rotted wood, but a cistern filled with dirt would make the room "cold" and the high moisture content would make the wood rot.

I guess one thing to do is just see how deep it goes? Like, there is absolutely no way that's just raw earth and you can dig a tunnel to the surface. Check if downspouts have a weird tunnel/pipe thing by them, or ask neighbors with similar age homes if they have one.

But in my uneducated opinion, you got a giant concrete waterproof room down there filled with dirt.

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