Does anyone know what the hell this is?

[Bain]

The house was about sixty years old. There were clay tiles--now separated--that ran from the front foundation wall to this pit in the crawlspace. The pit was about four-feet deep, approximately ten-feet by ten-feet in size, and it had concrete-block walls.

My first thought was that it had to be a cistern, but clearly not much water could be collected, so probably not. Any clues?

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[AHI in AR]

It's a substitute habitat for endangered blind cave salamanders.

Seriously, though, I think you are right with the cistern guess. Given the age of the home it might have been some goofball attempt at a survival water source in the event of nuclear war.

[Marc]

Aren't cisterns usually enclosed...with a lid?

Marc

[Bain]

Kevin, I've missed you (no homo).

[John Kogel]

I think it was a big sump pit.

Then he electrocuted himself trying to plug the pump in. Never got to see the results of his labours.

[Erby]

Cistern.

[AHI in AR]

Kevin, I've missed you (no homo).

Missed me? Wouldn't that imply that one of us went away? If that was you, I didn't notice it. But come to think of it, if I went away I didn't notice it either.

I hate it when that happens. Damned meds...[]

[Jim Baird]

I think it was a pit dug to contain prior heating equipment that was replaced. I saw a similar pit in a hundred + yr old crawl. Usually these pits technically under mine the soil support for columns, but i have not seen such undercuts fail yet.

[Rob Amaral]

simple crawl with a little 'cellar' area for that old furnace that is now on it's side... The drain.. who knows..

So, it's a crawl space for structure, with a little pit for the old furnace and has a drain entering it.. maybe the drain was to let water 'out' of the pit to a lower location?

[John Kogel]

The drains tiles are laid around the foundation with a line leading from there to the pit. Could be the pit was there originally for a furnace, now a handy pit to dump excess water?

So - No, we don't know what the hell it is, but it is a screw up, we know that. []