It’s a large rectangle, about 2 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 1 foot. Hard to tell what it’s made of - I think it’s just extremely old concrete? But there might be some mortared stones in there. It’s capped with a slab of newer looking concrete. It’s in the corner, about a foot away from each corner wall. House was built ~1940s although in an area of Atlantic Canada that would have been rural at the time so construction may be older. It is right next to the well - the round cement structure on the left there. The well is maybe 10 or 15 feet deep, lined with those round cement pieces until the last couple feet. Let me know if there’s any other information that would be useful - we unfortunately don’t have much info on the house tho. Thanks!
Base for a water heater or perhaps for a furnace.
I’m not ruling this out, but I’m also not really sure. It’s definitely not where the furnace was, as that was in the centre of the basement so it could easily vent out the chimney. A water heater base is more possible, but I’m confused about why it would be there. (I’d be interested in your reasoning!) As I mentioned in another comment, if it wasn’t originally open, then the top being such a different material is the strangest part. They would have had to have had something on there, then refinish the top of it, and then decide to move whatever it was later anyway? The current water heater is in roughly the opposite corner of the basement. Although it is a bit odd that the water sewer etc hookups are on that side as the road is on the other side (with the well and mystery structure). There’s a small chance they moved the utility lines at some point then? Although that does sound pretty unlikely. Not sure if the house started with running water. Will see if I can date any of the plumbing. Now that I’ve gone down that rabbit hole, what would be the point of putting one of those on a plinth? It’s not a particularly wet basement, and I don’t think the foundation’s been retrofitted to make it more watertight. Anyway, thanks!
Check out your region's code requirements for installation of various types of water heaters in specific locations on a house.
It might've been a pump or combination of pump and water heater to supply the house from the well and it got ripped out completely, when city supplies were laid .
Next to well would usually be a booster pump and pressure tank.
There is a non-original but deliberate hole in the well casing on that side, but I know previous owners ran dehumidifier drains etc into it so it may be from that. Do you mean that the pressure tank would have sat on top of it? If so, then I’m uncertain as the base and the top seem to be very different materials? Although it’s possible someone basically just refinished the top at some point. If you mean that something would have been inside it at some point, then I would be interested in more details as all I’m finding for “well pressure tank” seems to be more modern things Thanks!
So I had a turn of the century house and there was a giant steel tank in the basement that is how the house maintained water pressure. A booster pump would pump water into the vessel and there was a layer of air at the top of the tank that provided a steady supply of pressure.
It is definitely a thing to place a pump on a separate foundation just to isolate any noise it might transmit into the rest of the house. I‘m a noise and vibration engineer and it‘s not uncommon. But then it would have needed at least a separating layer of tar / cork / rubber underneath.
It could also be that the basement would occasionally get flooded and they wanted the pump off the floor (or whatever was on there).
I know them as "housekeeping pads," a platform for some type of equipment like a boiler, or possibly a water pump in your case.
This is the pad for either a jet pump or a pressure tank (or both). It’s elevated to keep it out of the water that is inevitably going to leak a bit (In areas with high water tables, you see these all the time because sometimes sump pumps stop pumping and you get an inch or two of water down there. Usually in the spring thaw). Wet pumps don’t pump, and wet pressure tanks rust.
The well casing is elevated to keep that water from pouring back down into your drinking water without getting filtered.
The different material on the top is likely just a more recent repair - the blocks tend to get knocked around and chipped up, and eventually round out on top after enough years. Easy fix though - knock together a frame out of dimensional lumber, prep well, pour in some quikset and bob’s your uncle. Add some mesh and anchor to the old pad if you’re pouring more than an inch or two.
Had a Victorian farmhouse with the same next to the cistern, and where the (shallow) well pipe entered the basement.
You’ve definitely made it into the solidly possible column, thank you for the thorough explanation! Do you know anything about the history/timeline of jet pumps or pressure tanks being introduced? I’ll need to see if I can find information on when the city first put water lines out this way, but I’m trying to figure out when such a thing might have actually been in use.
Electric well pumps have existed for just about as long as electricity has been common in houses. Definitely around in the 40s.
Along with the piping I recognized on adderalpowered’s diagram I think this is enough for me to mark this as Solved! Thanks for the help :)
My title describes the thing , I think I have most of the rest of the description in the post body. I’ve done some searching but “rectangular structure in old basement” doesn’t really yield much lol. It’s not a sump due to the above the foundation portion, and seems pretty small for a cistern. A built over obstruction is also unlikely as the house next door also has one of these in the basement. I think it’s possible it’s an older well? But I’m not sure how to test that hypothesis. It is not beneath a window or anything else that could have been a chute.
Any chance there was a chimney to the right at one point? I’ve seen houses with wood burning heaters on raised slabs like this.
No, original chimney and associated things are in the centre of the basement. Thanks for the suggestion though!
Its where the pump and tank sat.
Thanks for the reply! I’m uncertain due to the top layer looking so much newer, but if you have information/knowledge on older well systems like this I’d love to read it!
My guess is maybe an oil burning furnace or boiler for steam heat.
A covered cistern?
Where the old boiler furnace once set
Probably used to hold a Fuel oil tank.
Fuel tanks are usually surrounded by a raised lip, to contain leaks.
A system like this https://i.sstatic.net/mOAel.png
Here's a video: The pump and tank could be arranged many ways there was usually at least one raised section though https://share.google/fGpeQNMWx3q9gsMRs
Oh, thanks for the diagram! There’s some random piping just sitting on the floor on the other side of the basement that looks like that, so I guess that answers two mysteries in one :)
Base for the pump
In my home we had 2 pumps with pressure tanks. One was for well water for the kitchen and the other was for water from the cistern. The cistern water was used for laundry and bathing. The cistern was fed by downspouts from the roof. The electric motors used flex couplings to connect to the pumps. Previous versions used motors with belt to drive the pumps. There wasn’t any sump pump in our basement (cellar) so keeping electric devices up off the floor was important.
Base for the well tank and pump
That's where I'd be making my wine.
I’m guessing there was a toilet there at one time, it looks like the slabs I’ve seen in a lot of midwestern basements
Maybe? But putting the toilet right next to the well seems like a very bad choice, especially to make twice (us and the neighbours)
I guess I hadn’t considered that lol