Underfloor storage

[crazylarry]

Hi all. This is my first post, but I've been on here quite a while benefitting from all the expertise on offer!

I am currently in the process of taking up my floorboards to lay new ones. The room is a ground floor one, and the boards are on joists. It is 5.5ft to the ground below and there is nothing in this space. This depth is consistent around under the room.
My question is: has anyone come across the same amount of space and utilised it in some way (e.g. storage), and if not, would it be recommended to use it in some way?

Cheers

Matt

 

[JohnD]

at the very least, you can put a Floor Safe in. If concealed, it will be difficult to find, and difficult to break into

In fact, even if you don't buy a steel floorsafe with a fancy lock, an ordinary door lock and 18mm flooring ply will make a fairly stubborn safe storage, and if the burglars don't find it, so much the better.

Be aware that trapdoors are very likely to squeak unless you take care to get a good tight fit with no flexing.

It might be damp under there. I know someone who has his own business, and when he buys expensive articles for cash, the vendors often comment that his banknotes feel damp

One of my former neighbours used to put wine under the floor, and forgot about it for some years until he was doing some work in the house and found it again.

While you are down there, you can clean out all the builders rubble and lag all the underfloor pipes with BS grade Climaflex or similar

 

[Inky Pete]

The house I grew up in, an early 1900's semi, had a similar underfloor space - maybe 3' deep in our case. It also had a pantry under the stairs which had steps into it and a stone floor down at the real ground level. Lovely cool place for keeping stuff.

We took out the existing steps and built a set which would fold out of the way giving us access back into to the underfloor space. Used to keep lots of stuff under there in plastic storage boxes.

 

[xerxes]

With that depth, you could have the makings of a cellar; it sounds as if you have a great opportunity to investigate whether you could excavate a bit more to get enough headroom to stand up, depending on what is safe in terms of the house foundations.

With, say, a fixed ladder and a trapdoor, some lighting and shelving you would have some useful storage which would be maintained at an even temperature all year; though as John says, it could be damp.

It also makes it easy for you to insulate under your suspended floor.

 

[JohnD]

My uncle Fred did something similar, but he moved away to Gloucester with auntie Rose.

 

[crazylarry]

Cheers for the replies guys. I would like to excavate maybe a foot or two, but the foundations do worry me. It's a Victorian terraced house and the front of the house is a couple of foot higher than the back. As a guess, how far down do you reckon the foundations go?

 

[xerxes]

At a guess: if it's a Victorian house, not very far down at all. You would have to do a trial excavation to find out.

 

[crazylarry]

Sounds like a plan. Might get someone in to survey it.
Have been down there and in one corner the clay is pretty damp. This corner is at the external walls of the underfloor only. Is this from rain water getting down there or the water table?

 

[bernardgreen]

I have seen a sunken seating area about 7 foot square and 2 foot deep built into a similar area. Behind the seat backs were long horizontal storage areas. I was told by the owner it was hung from the floor after two larger joists had been fitted.