Resident pulls up bathroom tiles and makes wild discovery

A man has appealed for help after discovering a “secret room” whilst carrying out renovation work at his home.

Taking to Reddit, he shared a series of snaps of the “box sized” room after accidentally stumbling upon it whilst working in the bathroom on the middle floor of the property. Now, the man has sought advice from the DIYUK subreddit community in identifying the original purpose of the room.

“I’ve just bought a house on a hill (facing uphill) where you enter from the middle floor and you can go downstairs to the living room or upstairs to the the bedrooms,” he explained. “The back of the house is facing downhill. I’m renovating the whole house, as I was working on the middle floor bathroom floor, I saw a box sized room empty underneath.”

He went on to explain: “The room aligns perfectly to the living room so I could potentially add a door and use that as another room. The wall is a load bearing wall so I would need to put a beam there if i did go ahead with it.

“My question is: does anyone know what the purpose of this room is and if I could make this part of the house? Do I need planning permission?”

Sitting directly below bathroom tiles, images showed a small, well-insulated space, largely reduced to rubble on the inside – but with potential to transform into something useful. One Reddit user revealed in response: “Not sure of the purpose, but I have seen similar on other houses – in particular a ‘bungalow’ that had three levels down a slope and there were these where each level joined (but with access from outside and used as storage). So I assume it’s something to do with moisture management from the hill?”

A second person shared a similar scenario, having found a 4m x 6m space behind their kitchen wall shortly after moving into a basement flat. “We spoke to various architects and converting it to a room would have been quite a bit of hassle, and wouldn’t have added much value given there was no window, and there could never be one as it was into the hill,” they said.

Usefully they added: “To convert to a ‘dry store’ was a simple building warrant, not planning permission. We ended up just chucking pallets down and using it as storage in the end, didn’t get anything done around concrete flooring or similar.”

A third person, also living on a hill, explained what others had used their rooms for, meanwhile. “I have a space like this below my lounge as I’m on quite a steep gradient,” they shared. “Mine has been blocked up after the previous owner left rubbish in there.

“The other terraces have used them as store rooms (cheapest option) but the one on the end has properly done it out into a little extension of the kitchen. Could be pricy especially if damp proofing is needed but could be a nice little addition!”

Whilst a fourth Reddit user warned the homeowner to act with caution before diving into any major restoration project. “Be very careful and get an engineer,” they instructed. “It is very likely that the garage floor is concrete on back fill and the wall to the right of the door you outlined is a retaining wall. The outside wall to the stairs is also probably a retaining wall.”

They continued: “The wall you are hoping to put a hole in is very likely to be a buttressing wall transferring significant horizontal loads. Creating this opening while only considering the vertical loads may lead to significant structural movement/failure.”