Mysterious Concrete Slab
August 21, 2013 2:17 PM   Subscribe

I'm the new owner of a 1950-built home in Whitefish Bay, WI. While doing some landscape regrading around an addition put on sometime after the initial construction (which we think included an expansion of the basement), we discovered this mysterious concrete slab buried underneath some bushes, next to one of the basement windows. Why is it there? And is it doing something important?

There was a rusted dog chain buried with the slab, which made us concerned that it can only be the final resting place of some monstrous were-dog. It seems possible that there was once a patio in this part of the backyard, but there's no evidence of it now; the whole thing is grass and bushes. Any theories?
posted by gerryblog to Home & Garden (22 answers total)
 
I'd bet that there used to be a door in that spot.
posted by gjc at 2:20 PM on August 21, 2013 [2 favorites]


I also vote door.
posted by aramaic at 2:22 PM on August 21, 2013


Door.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:25 PM on August 21, 2013


Would there have been a coal furnace, and the slab a place to put bags of coal before pouring into a bin?

Could it be a seekrit entrance into a seekrit bomb shelter? Not uncommon in the 50s.

The slab looks unfinished on the bottom, so it's unlikely to be a door, and I don't see where a door would fit into the house.
posted by theora55 at 2:27 PM on August 21, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'm thinking something like a cellar door, that was later replaced with a window.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 2:29 PM on August 21, 2013 [1 favorite]


I dont think doghouses would need a slab, but maybe? would explain the chain nearby
posted by TheAdamist at 2:29 PM on August 21, 2013


If you dig by your other basement windows do they have them too? It could just be a landing of some sort for the window.
posted by majortom1981 at 2:35 PM on August 21, 2013


How far down into the ground does the slab go?
posted by Thorzdad at 2:38 PM on August 21, 2013


Although that type of slab would just about only work for an exterior door stoop, I have a hard time seeing a door there, for these reasons:

1. the slab is kind of small, but not small enough to totally preclude a door. Looks to be about 2'6" wide. I'd also like a step into my house to be deeper than that, but it might not have been a concern for them.

2. The slab is quite a ways below the main floor level, if that's a high basement window in the picture. So, an entry to the ground floor would require stairs of some sort at that point, and that slab is in no way large enough to accommodate a staircase leading to the main level. Additionally, the blockwork around the window all looks about the same age and there don't appear to be any areas that have been filled in or anything.

3. A cellar door isn't really likely because to install the window they would have filled up the pit for the door access, and once you do that, there's really no reason to go and pour a concrete slab on top of the fill. #2 would also be relevant here.

So, it certainly looks like a doorstep, but without further information, I'd have a hard time believing there was ever a door there.

The slab looks unfinished on the bottom,

Well, that'll be true for any concrete slab poured on grade. The ruffled edge on the bottom is where the concrete leaked out from under the formwork.
posted by LionIndex at 2:40 PM on August 21, 2013 [1 favorite]


I agree with LionIndex about it being doubtful it was ever for a door or cellar door. Doghouse is an interesting guess, but that would be an awfully small doghouse to go to the trouble of making a cement slab for the bottom of it. The chain lends some support for that idea though. Was there ever some type of central air or air conditioning unit there? (in other words, is there one for the house now in a different location?) Maybe it was a slab for something like that...?
posted by Eicats at 2:51 PM on August 21, 2013


Response by poster: It's maybe six inches deep. I've dug enough of a tunnel underneath it that I feel reasonably confident it isn't covering over the entrance to something totally awesome.

A door anchor seems like a reasonable guess, though there's no evidence on either side there was ever a door here...
posted by gerryblog at 2:54 PM on August 21, 2013


My bet is that it was put there to act as a protector for the window, to make it easier to keep dirt and vegetation from growing against the wood and accelerating its deterioration (or just to keep the view clear/allow light in without obstruction). Over the years it has been neglected, and not kept clear, and you can see the results around the bottom of the window.

In any event you need to do something to lower the ground level around that window, as wood in dirt will rot sooner rather than later ...
posted by GeeEmm at 2:55 PM on August 21, 2013 [3 favorites]


My bet is that it was put there to act as a protector for the window, to make it easier to keep dirt and vegetation from growing against the wood and accelerating its deterioration (or just to keep the view clear/allow light in without obstruction). Over the years it has been neglected, and not kept clear, and you can see the results around the bottom of the window.

This might be it. The slab has a bit of a slope to it, which would serve for drainage. That could also be caused by the ground settling, but that window isn't new.
posted by LionIndex at 2:58 PM on August 21, 2013


Rest for a window air conditioner? Any signs the room behind that window was used for something other than storage?
posted by sbutler at 2:59 PM on August 21, 2013


Response by poster: That was the plan, GeeEmm!

It looks small to me to be an AC base.
posted by gerryblog at 2:59 PM on August 21, 2013


I've got a couple of those slabs around my place. I had left over concrete/stucco from home improvement projects and rather than just waste it (and have to get rid of the hardened pieces) I screwed together some 2x4s and poured a slab. Said slabs have been moved around several times whenever I needed a step or small pad and currently one is in front of the door of my shed and the other is under my wheelly style garbage bin.

It's possible they poured that slab there simply to stop vegetation from growing or as a requirement to make the window an egress from a bedroom (I've seen lots of crazy insurance requirements like that).

Or maybe the owner had a bird feeder or some other feature set up outside the window that they wanted a hard surface for.

It's really unlikely to be hiding something nefarious.
posted by Mitheral at 3:11 PM on August 21, 2013


Response by poster: You know, the room behind that window is actually really strange -- it seems to be set up as a cold storage room, with heavy insulation both on the door and around the room's only heat duct. We just assumed it was something weird the people we bought it from did, but maybe *they* inherited it from whoever put the slab in. That would suggest its purpose was as a rest for a window AC unit.

The vegetation theory makes sense to me too.

Here's the slab in its current state. Alas, dear slab...
posted by gerryblog at 3:33 PM on August 21, 2013


It wouldn't necessarily have to be a window AC unit, or the standard outside part of a system that looks like a big cube. There are smaller ones that look more like box fans with some extra heft on the side that could fit on the slab. It would be really odd to put a condenser in front of a window, so I don't think that's what this is, but the slab size is adequate for something like that.
posted by LionIndex at 4:44 PM on August 21, 2013


If the room was set up as cold storage, it was probably a root cellar. The window was the convenient load-in point for garden produce. The slab was a handy, mud-free place to set trugs/bags/baskets of produce.
posted by bricoleur at 5:16 PM on August 21, 2013 [1 favorite]


Since you say the window is part of a later expansion, I doubt it's got anything to do with a bomb shelter --- those were mostly built in the 1950s, not so much past the early 1960s; and they were mostly away from the house: they might have a connecting tunnel, but were rarely part of the main building or its basement.

Is the window identical to other basement windows --- same size and shape, same frame materials? the slab could be left after a 'bulkhead'-style cellar entrance was removed.

The problem with it being a stable pad for an AC unit or something like a heating-oil tank is that those wouldn't be placed in front of a window: they'd be to one side, against solid wall.

Even if it was installed tilted away from the house, and that tilt didn't come gradually as the ground settled under it, I doubt it had to do with drainage: it's not very wide (so it wouldn't get water far enough to make a difference) plus the flat sides --- no raised ridges on those sides --- wouldn't keep the water on there long enough to even get to the far edge.

Any way you can check with the local government? Try the zoning department, whichever office hands out building permits, or even the tax office.
posted by easily confused at 5:32 PM on August 21, 2013


I have the same thing! Except, no basement. Our entire house is a slab foundation, but this one's not part of that, it's separate. There's a chain embedded into the slab of concrete. No door was ever there, but it is right outside a first floor window. My husband's grandparents built the prefab house in the late 60s, so I have some kind of basis for what would've and wouldn't have been the reason for the slab, but no real concrete answers (har.) Thanks for asking the question, even if I couldn't answer it.
posted by kpht at 6:14 PM on August 21, 2013


You know, the room behind that window is actually really strange -- it seems to be set up as a cold storage room, with heavy insulation both on the door and around the room's only heat duct...

Your winters are cold enough to generate a lot of lake ice, aren't they?

Maybe that pad was a staging area to slide blocks of ice through that window into the cold storage room.
posted by jamjam at 6:14 PM on August 21, 2013


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