No not the TV programme.

Exploration of new house continues. Found a Trapdoor in the floorboards right behind the front door. About 3 foot by 1.5 screwed down with modern wood screws and painted over.

What is it? Floor inspection pit? Or door to a secret Kingdom? Screwdriver on charge though not sure I’ll get those screws out

1930s place if that helps

Coal chute to a cellar?

Sell the house and run away if there is any fingernail marks and/or bleach stains around the opening.

I reckon that if it is screwed shut it is Narnia business what is under there.

I’ll get my coat…

properly made trapdoor thats as old as the house? Access into the foundations for running plumbing etc perhaps. Simple cut out square of boards? Someone has opened up the floor to inspect for problems like rot??

Don’t you open that trapdoor. You’re a fool if you dare.

Just finding a trapdoor in a house you’ve just moved into is the PERFECT start to a horror film.

It looks properly made, edged with a lip for a crowbar to pop it open. Not sure if houses in this area had cellars I’ve not heard of any.

Money is on an inspection/access point. Seems odd that it is right behind the front door.

Did I mention this was a probate?

Sex dungeon – very common in the 1930s

On a similar note – I unblocked the fire place in the kitchen of our Victorian house.

It was just plasterboarded over so didn;t take long and virtually no mess.

Then I spotted the old register plate blocking the chimney. Decided to tap it with a hammer.

It collapsed, bringing down the 6 inches of soot that was sat on top of it. I looked like a Laurel and Hardy ‘after’ shot and the kitchen and hall weren’t in much better shape. Took me more than a day to clean everything up – soot gets everywhere.

In the OP’s case – wait until 8pm on Christmas eve in case there’s some unavoidable DIY catastrophe you’ll trigger. We’ll enjoy reading about your Christmas 😉

Will be a very dull 2ft high underfloor space. Or a nest of unimaginable zombie terror.

Please post video.

IT’S A TRAP!

when you do get the screws out, use them to fit the smoke alarm

Before you open it. Watch Rillington Place on catch up.

Sex dungeon – very common in the 1930s

That’s a very good point.

Lol I’m leaving it until the virgin engineer guy gets here so at least if it is zombies someone will be able to say what happened to me.

Similar story to above. Found a little metal flap on the wall in the old study which used to be locked. In the same room a key for a safe. Putting 2 and 2 together thought that must be the location. Opened it up with a hammer and screw driver got covered in debris and dust some long filled in chimney….

Another plus is the internal doors appear to be original just ply lined and drenched in thick gloss.

Lolz @newrobdob

Surely a virgin engineer is the perfect sacrifice…… Sorry i meant explorer to investigate

Behind the front door you say?

Surely you’re meant to pop the cover off, drag a rug across and you’ve got yourself a trap.

ask a neighour if they have one?

It’s safe to say us lot aren’t getting any work done until you open it up!

BERK!

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9dbAQJIu1o[/video]

Loved that cartoon.

I had one in a thirties house, it gave access to a crawl space under the floorboards. The younger but broader* of the two plumbers spent most of two days down there fitting central heating pipes.

*He was almost an interference fit through the opening.

Remove hatch, replace with a substantial rug. Invite riding chums over……just come in, the front door’s open. Remember to GoPro the whole thing.

I’ve got a 1900 house with something similar. It goes into a crawl space. So far so Un interesting.

When the plumbers were down there they said the under floor is immaculate. No dust, rubble spiders or anything.

The previous owner must have hoovered it all out.

But why? A question with no answer so far.

weve got some boards for the crawl space.

But a trap door thats another level,

Get under there for a look now!

Regardless of what’s in it now I’d be making damn sure I left something for future inhabitants…

Seems odd that it is right behind the front door.

Our neighbour’s house has the trapdoor actually under the recessed doormat. One day he was in the basement for some reason, and his wife came home…

Don’t you open that trapdoor. You’re a fool if you dare.

Run and hide in the woodshed – you’ll be safe there …

The house we bought to demolish/rebuild a few years ago had one of these. It partially burnt down due to the weed farm getting a bit warm. I believe it was for the cash stash!

A trapdoor just inside the front door isn’t so uncommon in old houses. We had a Victorian house in Newcastle that had this; if I ever forgot my keys I could burgle the house by entering the boiler room in the basement, crawling through holes in the wall bottoms in the under floor space and coming up under the front door mat, then finding a set of alarm keys to turn off the alarm. That lovely old house got demolished and turned into flats.

In our old place, if you went down through the trapdoor in the floor you fell out of the hatch in the loft. It was a converted science lab of some sort…

The house I grew up in had a trapdoor in the end bedroom. The house was built by a capitain of the merchant navy who had his maid and cabin boy live in the house. The trapdoor was so that they didn’t go through the main part of the house.

When you come to sell it in future, please leave a plastic skeleton down there…

air raid shelter?

When you come to sell it in future, please leave a plastic skeleton down there…

Write

“I WILL KILL AGAIN”

in red paint on the underside of the trapdoor.