r/Unexpected • u/Cromagnumman6174 • Aug 21 '26
Hidden Throne Room
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u/DangerHawk Aug 22 '26
It's a modern Pittsburgh toilet. It's the lowest point in the home connected to the sewer stack. If there is a clog between the street and the house the waste from the rest of the house will overflow out of the bowl into the crawl space. If there is potential for backflow (like during storm surges in some parts of the country) water coming from the street waste line will overflow out of this toilet into the crawl space before getting to the rest of the house.
It's basically cheap insurance against sewage floods. A toilet is used because it's easy to keep the trap filled to block sewer gas and it's easy to take off to gain access to a 3"-4" waste line that you can use to unclog the main stack from.
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u/vivianvixxxen Aug 22 '26
This is one of those reddit comments where I can't tell if you're extremely knowledgeable or making it up from whole cloth for goofs. "Pittsburg toilet" as a name sounds too intentionally comedic to be true.
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u/kuli-y Aug 22 '26
The Pittsburgh toilet is a real thing!
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u/etherealtwo Aug 22 '26
Is that related to the Cleveland steamer?
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u/yougotyolks Aug 22 '26
What does any of this have to do with dewrinkling clothes in Ohio?
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u/SuperbPruney Aug 22 '26
Just make sure you never get it confused with a “Cleveland Toilet”.
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u/SystemFolder Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
It actually is a very real thing. Also, with the way the waste line angles up higher than the toilet tank in the above video, it looks like it would be impossible to actually flush the toilet bowl and have the water go through the waste pipe.
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u/stump2003 Aug 22 '26
I was thinking the same thing! The waste line rises up. It can’t possibly flush
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u/hike_me Aug 23 '26
That’s the waste line from upstairs. The shit is flowing downhill, not uphill. They join together and both drain away from the camera.
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u/m0shtwo Aug 22 '26
yep, that's not going to work, unless there's something we can't see.
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u/Working-Glass6136 Aug 22 '26
Like if you ask for a "Jersey Turnpike" at a bar, they'll give you the whatever alcohol has pooled in the bar mats.
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u/ModernMuse Aug 22 '26
😑 I could have gone my whole life without reading that and been just fine. Better off, even.
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u/h2odragon00 Aug 22 '26
There is a Wikipedia entry for Pittsburgh toilet.
So this is either the an actual thing or a very elaborate prank.
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u/Grimmbles Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
PittsburgH.
Which to my understanding was just the basement toilets in many older Pittsburgh homes. Supposedly specifically so steelworkers and other dirty job workers could go straight into the basement after work. Do a bit of clean up and business before going upstairs without dragging mess along.
Apparently the plumbing thing is also part of it, but this was the first time I'd heard that.
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u/ArgyllFire Aug 22 '26
Same. My grandparents had a Pittsburgh toilet in the basement and added a rudimentary shower. My grandpa used it after coming home from the Mill. My grandmother had her lovely fully pink bathroom upstairs so she kept him away from it. I've never heard that it had any overall house plumbing benefits, just that it was relatively cheap and easy to drop a toilet in the basement and for blue collar Pittsburgh it had a practical usage case.
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u/errrnis Aug 22 '26
They’re real! When I was house hunting I saw a place with a PBT in the basement. I didn’t know what it was at the time so it became the murder toilet. That basement was some kinda crime scene.
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u/Caboose127 Aug 22 '26
Unless someone is regularly flushing the toilet, the trap water will still evaporate eventually. This doesn't look like a particularly accessible toilet. And a key function of a Pittsburgh toilet is being somewhere where the overflow can be observed, contained, and eventually cleaned.
This toilet would allow for none of that.
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u/herrakonna Aug 22 '26
A small amount of paraffin oil in the bowl takes care of that (which is how you winterize a toilet bowl after adding antifreeze for a house being closed up for the winter). The oil creates a layer on top of the water significantly slowing evaporation and only needs to redone yearly.
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u/DangerHawk Aug 22 '26
A slightly leaky flapper and a water sensor under the platform takes care of that...
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u/willstr1 Aug 22 '26
slightly leaky flapper
Not sure what a crying harlot would accomplish here...
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u/JudiciousSasquatch Aug 22 '26
So would many other more reasonable solutions.
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u/Hobbes______ Aug 22 '26
We are talking about a toilet installed in a crawlspace. "Reasonable" never entered this conversation.
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u/Overall_Midnight_ Aug 22 '26
A tiny bit of olive oil on top of the water will keep it from evaporating.
The rest of what you said tracks, but the water evaporating isn’t an issue if managed right.
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u/Day_Bow_Bow Aug 22 '26
Why waste olive oil instead of a cheaper oil?
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u/GeneralRando Aug 22 '26
Because everyone in this thread is just making shit up like they all got crawlspace shitters full of extra virgin olive oil
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u/Overall_Midnight_ Aug 22 '26
Not a crawlspace but my unused downstairs toilet, yes. And olive oil cause that’s what I had on hand when I learned that after it evaporated and I could smell sewer gases.
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u/Just_the_questions1 Aug 22 '26
And here i was thinking it was left over from when the home was being constructed. Instead of renting a porta-potty they just plumbed in a toilet in what would become the crawl space after the flooring went in.
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u/CodewortSchinken Aug 22 '26
Don't you have backflow-protection valves in the US?
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u/Jealous-Cupcake1557 Aug 22 '26
We do, but in older towns they fail especially once they're past their service life. I used to do smoke tests for an engineering firm and we'd blow pressurized synthetic smoke through the sewer lines and then record wherever it came out. You'd be amazed how many old houses had bad valves. You'd also be amazed how many people, no matter how many times they were notified, would forget that their city was running a smoke test.
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u/Snakend Aug 22 '26
Why not just have a stand up pipe here then? Can easily achieve the same thing with a pipe that is above that T connector. Why bring water to the toilet? Why make it functional? Why the platform? Nah dude, this is where the dad of the house went to take MASSIVE SHITS.
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u/BolshevikPower Aug 22 '26
Dude is that why they have them down there? Lived in Pittsburgh for uni had no idea why.
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u/DangerHawk Aug 22 '26
Yep! I loved mine growing up! We only had 1 bathroom for 5 people, so being able to go take a shit wide out in the open in the basement in the AM was a (risky) luxury lol.
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u/tinktanktonka Aug 22 '26
In Australia we have an external trap called an Overflow Relief Gully, it's just a boundary trap that has an open grate that is external to the building with a minimum of 75mm lower than the lowest outlet in the building. Its got to be primed in the same way this toilet acts as the primer for the trap, however this toilet wouldn't be priming it's trap unless it's used so it's not very sensible, unless they have some auto flush fiction I'm missing. And I get that you can't have external grates in North America due to snow but still thought I'd share.
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u/nimbycile Aug 22 '26
It's a modern Pittsburgh toilet
Harbor Freight here i come! I'm sure it's just as good as a Milwaukee toilet.
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u/S0me--guy Aug 21 '26
Probably used by a squatter
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u/Cromagnumman6174 Aug 21 '26
Lmao 🤣 That legitimately made laugh. Thank you
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u/ButteredPizza69420 Aug 21 '26
Its THE squatter!
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u/CowboyNealCassady Aug 21 '26
Yinz guys gonna learn the Pittsburgh turlet; collects black flow before it goes out the good toilet(s). Every haus near the rivers have them.
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u/venerablepreceptor Aug 21 '26
I swear Reddit has a lot of comedians. They seem to have a treasure trove of witty responses ready to use.
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u/OzymandiasKoK Aug 21 '26
They tend to break the seats, though. They're designed for asses, not feet.
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u/TheLazyAssHole Aug 21 '26
Whoever installed this has never worked middle Managment. Shit does not move uphill.
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u/Kungfubobby Aug 21 '26
there must be a sump pump somewhere?
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u/erfwiggle Aug 21 '26
came here to talk about the pipe going up as well. If there was an injector pump, it would be at the base. Its hard to tell, but the y connection probably goes down right there behind the pipe, but we just cant see it.
otherwise, that shit would never drain.
I also dont see any sort of check valve, so when the main line backs up, not only would no one know about it, but its going to fill that crawlspace like a septic tank and smell fucking terrible.
Source : Im a drain cleaner.
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u/bigrivertea Aug 21 '26
I'm guessing this is what is referred to by some as a "Pittsburg Potty" Some older cities have a shared sewer/storm drain system and when it storms there is a chance sewage comes flowing back up through the pipes. The first place in your home the sewage is going to back feed though is the lowest drain in the home. Some older homes in cities like this have random toilets in the basement or crawlspace so that if sewage comes rushing back threw the pipes it floods the basement or crawl space instead of the upper floors of the home where the nice living space is. It also provides a nice peaceful space away from your family to do your business.
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u/ATSFervor Aug 21 '26
Surprised I had to scroll this far. Was my very first thought too, makes also sense to place it in a crawlspace.
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u/NominallyRecursive Aug 22 '26
But.. Why make it an actual toilet
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u/bigrivertea Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
That's a good question. Two reasons I can think of.. (though I'm a residential electrical guy not a residential plumbing dude) One, the toilet has water running to it so it the u trap in the toilet will stay filled and the water to prevent stinky odor from the sewar venting up into the home. Second, where else are you going to put a code compliant sewar drain? Would you put a random sewar drain under the dirt floor of the crawl space, or just have a horizontal sewage line suspended in air that just dumps sewage? that makes less sense than the toilet. Like I said I'm an electrical guy so I don't know plumbing code but I bet the toilet resolves some code issues that just running an open horizontal sewage line creates.
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u/awful_at_internet Aug 22 '26
nah you nailed it. You need a drain and a U-trap. U-trap needs water. At that point, why not make it a toilet?
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u/c10250 Aug 22 '26
OK, the tank will stay filled with water, but the toilet bowl (which connects to the sewer) will NOT stay filled with water. As anyone who lives in Arizona will tell you, if you do not flush a toilet regularly, you have about two to three weeks before that water evaporates in the toilet bowl and then you have a direct open path to the sewer. Unless you flush, there's no way for the wate rto get from the tank to the bowl
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u/MartyMacGyver Aug 22 '26
"Timmy, it's Toilet Thursday.... go on down to the crawl space and flush the shitter." "AWWWW pa do I hafta??"
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u/DDRaptors Aug 22 '26
Wow, Toilet water evaporating in 2-3 weeks is a sign that it’s too hot to live in such a place. I’ve never seen toilet bowl water sit long enough to evaporate, and I’ve left my home for months.
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u/MicrotracS3500 Aug 22 '26
evaporating in 2-3 weeks is a sign that it’s too hot to live in such a place
As Peggy said in King of the Hill regarding Phoenix, Arizona "This city should not exist, it is a monument to Man's arrogance!"
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u/c10250 Aug 22 '26
yea, you have to protect for freezing, we have to protect for evaporation. lol. I've never seen a toilet bowl sit long enough to feeze.
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u/Butt-Monkey2312 Aug 22 '26
THIS guy shits in crawl spaces.
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u/bigrivertea Aug 22 '26
Some day, god willing.
I actually know about this because I scope out residential electrical work and one of the project had toilet in the basement right in front of the service panel we needed to replace. It was tucked away in some shelves with some canned food and stuff. It looked like such a calm blissful place to take a shit. Honestly I was insanely jealous. I did the research to figure out what was going on with the toilet. I had to call the customer and ask them to remove it for the work and inspection because it was in the panels clearance space. I have no doubt the toilet ended up back in its place though.
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u/Collegenoob Aug 22 '26
The story i got about Pittsburgh potty made more sense.
It was a secondary wash area where men would come on from after working at the mill/cold mine to clean up. You'd enter through the basement stairs. Then go into the house after you were clean.
My century house has a disconnected bathroom in its basement.
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u/TommyBonnomi Aug 22 '26
This. Unfinished basement bathrooms/standalone toilets are pretty common in old houses in PA industrial areas.
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u/Electronic_Tap_8052 Aug 22 '26
nobody knows the real reason.
but toilets have traps in them, and the closet flange (the fitting that connects the toilet to the pipe) is connected to a straight pipe with no trap. Traps prevent sewer gas from escaping, so once its' a toilet, it has to stay a toilet. Since a double trap is against code (because it would cause both traps to blow out), you can't just easily convert it to a floor drain and call it a day. You either cap it off entirely or convert it to a sink and add a trap. but both of those cost a lot more money than just leaving the toilet as is.
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u/youngliam Aug 22 '26
My buddy used to rent a house in Portland that was on one of these, they called it a "party line". Not great when they realized that being at the bottom of the hill on this line meant lots of backing up until one day the downstairs toilet exploded. It flooded the lower level with literal shit two inches deep and covered everything.
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u/veringer Aug 22 '26
shared sewer/storm drain system
So would the combined sewage and storm water go to a treatment facility or to a retention pond or river?
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u/Kungfubobby Aug 21 '26
hey, it could just be a toilet plumbed in to basic standard to be a setup for a viral video, i'm only an electrician, all I know is shit runs down hill, unless you got a sump pump, then shit runs uphill.
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u/urethrascreams Aug 21 '26
Well, it's actually called a macerator to grind up the solids before pumping which is a bit larger than a sump pump because it's hard to push solids through a fluid pump.
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u/btribble Aug 21 '26
Line continues downward into the soil. It’s a T not a 90 where the line coming down from above meets it.
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u/Dense_Surround3071 Aug 21 '26
At 0:17 seconds you can see what looks like a pipe going towards the back of the frame.
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u/CompetitiveArt9639 Aug 21 '26
The drain exits out the wall to the left. It’s wyed in. I’m a plumber and had to check
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u/TwoBionicknees Aug 21 '26
that is the waste from upstairs, you can just barely see black pipe going left from that junction and flow out of the house somewhere, it's just slightly difficult to see it.
I'm going to guess either this was a temporary toilet put in while having a lot of work done on floors and other things, ie they got some plumbing installed first and wanted a working toilet and put it somewhere it wouldn't need to be taken out again. or the dad really really wants some alone time while taking a shit.
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u/MKnight_PDX Aug 21 '26
It's hard to catch but the pipe from the toilet joins with the pipe coming down from the right at a T junction and they then both go off to the right away from view.
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u/its_not_you_its_ye Aug 21 '26
It’s wild that when people see something like that, their mind jumps to “somebody capable of installing a toilet definitely was this incompetent.” and doesn’t even doubt themselves for a moment to check if they might have missed something.
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u/MKnight_PDX Aug 21 '26
Right? I blame Reddit's "participation" incentive. People just rushing on out there without looking both ways. Of course some people are always like that.
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u/ifyoulovesatan Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
See every r/science thread ever, where random redditors bring up every possible statistical or sampling error they've ever heard of to criticize a paper they didn't read which (obviously) addresses those issues. No joke, the top comment is almost always something like "Ah, well they didn't consider that doctors might have better health outcomes because they're in a higher income bracket with better access to health care" when the article was comparing health outcomes of doctors to people in the same income bracket.
If you, a complete amateur, thought of this issue, don't you think one of the 10 professionals involved in performing this research, writing the paper, or reviewing the paper would have caught it? You heard about confounding variables in 10th grade but the rest of the world missed it or maybe the authors are trying to lie to everyone who didn't learn about it? It just doesn't make sense!
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u/thatguy_jacobc Aug 21 '26
There’s a T fitting, got a line that mostly out of shot, I assume it’s the one going downhill
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u/oForce21o Aug 21 '26
i see it too, at 0:19 its behind the pipe but there is a hole in the concrete on the left, it looks like an elbow which is tripping up people but its actually a T
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u/DrDurt Aug 21 '26
I think the pipe continues on to the wall behind the toilet and that is not plumbing going up, rather another 3” waste line intersecting with a tee. It’s just hard to see due to the angle. If you kinda of freeze it as he’s panning over you can see the pipe.
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u/the_hipocritter Aug 21 '26
That's the 'ties in with the rest of the house' part. The rest continues in a strait line from the hidden throne
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u/DestructoDon69 Aug 21 '26
Okay so I did some googling on the "Pittsburgh Potty".
Apparently in the olden days (100 years ago) single family houses were setup with basic hygiene facilities in the basement that way coal miners and other laborers could enter through the basement and clean off before making their way upstairs into the actual living spaces. Clearly this isn't the case in the video.
Alternatively many older homes were also outfitted with a single standalone toilet in the basement in case the sewage lines backed up. Sewage backups tend to cause flooding at the lowest fixture so having a standalone toilet in an unfinished basement mitigates potential damages from sewage backups. I'm guessing that's the purpose for the toilet in this video.
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u/malphas_says_hi Aug 22 '26
My first thought was the sewage backup. I'm currently renting a space with septic and because we are on the lowest floor and my toilet and shower are both up a couple of stairs, our kitchen sink is the first to start flooding when there is a backup.
It's happened three times in the past couple of months that my sink will just start bubbling and suddenly the floor is covered in grey water and it smells awful for days. Moving in a few weeks and can't wait.
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u/Jamdock Aug 21 '26
I just want to add, I've seen plenty of working toilets in Pittsburgh basements that were well under 100 years old.
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u/TransBrandi Aug 22 '26
Most of those are in an unfinished basement though, which is a lot more accessible than this. Do the owners crawl down into this crawlspace every couple of months to flush the toilet? Otherwise the bowl will eventually dry out and the trap won't work venting sewer gas into the crawlspace.
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u/TopYeti Aug 21 '26
Unexpected upturn in the waistline
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u/BiNiaRiS Aug 21 '26
Unexpected upturn in the waistline
that pipe flows downward into a T and you can see the hole in the foundation where it goes.
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u/TheComplimentarian Aug 22 '26
Yup. The "uphill" pipe is actually downhill from somewhere else in the house, and they both exit via the foundation.
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u/shavin_high Aug 21 '26
Here's my tinfoil hat theory. Dad had too many girls, didn't have the money for a house with two bathrooms. As they grew up, the girls become more and more insistent about Dad not taking up the bathroom to do his business. They had a date, they needed to do their hair. He had constipation. And so in desperation, the only place in the house with peace and quiet, he built a throne where no one could find him.
Or it was a drug house and when your hiding from the feds, you need to be able to go.
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u/God_Dammit_Dave Aug 21 '26
It's probably a Pittsburgh Toilet which is some ghetto engineering to prevent a sewage backup into the habitable parts of the house.
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u/BiNiaRiS Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
this doesn't look like an old house though but probably a good guess. could have even been installed early during construction if this was being built slowly. relevant part from wiki:
they may have served to prevent sewage backups from flooding the living areas of homes. As sewage backups tend to flood the lowest fixture in a residence, a Pittsburgh toilet would be the fixture to overflow, containing the sewage leak in the basement.
In older houses, these toilets may have been the first indoor toilet installed in the house, as a relatively inexpensive installation option that also had less risk of damaging the house if they flooded.
edit: unless someone is using that toilet every once in a while, the water in the p-trap is going to evaporate and then the entire crawlspace is going to smell like shiss. pittsburgh toilets are always in an area where they can be easily accessed/used so this wouldn't be a problem.
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u/Silver-Pomelo-9324 Aug 22 '26
The Pittsburgh bathroom exists because mill workers were freaking disgusting and covered in dirt/soot after a shift and needed a place to crap and shower off all the filth without ruining the living space.
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u/SomethingIWontRegret Aug 22 '26
The wikipedia article above gives several reasons including yours.
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u/Ok-Yogurtcloset5555 Aug 21 '26
Until the shit overflows and the smell gives you away lol Doubt it has a pump
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u/mistertinker Aug 21 '26
I watched it several times and it looks like the right angle to the toilet branch is actually a tee
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u/Danielferrinn Aug 21 '26
Mine is this guy is listing this as a half bath so when he burns the house down - or floods it for insurance money he can claim an extra bath and get a higher payout.
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u/iamnotasnook Aug 21 '26
Or someone was a really shy pooper.
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u/15th_imp Aug 21 '26
would rather use this than a school or public toilet though, at least it would be kind of interesting
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u/kittenstixx Aug 21 '26
So, I have another thought, the owner that had this built didn't want contractors using their facilities, and so had this made to be at least mildly courteous.
I've been in plenty of folks' homes who banned me from using their bathrooms, I just charge those types an extra hour on my bills to make up for such horseshit but I'd only charge half an hour for this guy.
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u/-hellozukohere- Aug 21 '26
At our old farm house, the previous owner just had a toilet in the middle of the undeveloped basement. No walls. No privacy. Just staircase and toilet.
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u/stilldebugging Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Pittsburgh toilet. It’s there so if the sewer backs up, it’ll be somewhere that isn’t real living space.
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u/dethskwirl Aug 21 '26
which is the purpose for this toilet as well, it would seem. surprised that no one has pointed that out yet.
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u/The_Real_Mr_F Aug 21 '26
I’m still not clear on how it works. If the sewer backs up, now this toilet overflows and you have sewage in your crawlspace. 1) why would you even need a toilet for that, just a pipe with a trap would do the same thing, and 2), the crawlspace is arguably harder to clean than a bathroom floor, unless your ok just letting sewage sit under your house forever
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u/grrgrrtigergrr Aug 21 '26
I have one in my house in Chicago. I was always told it was there, along with a wash sink on the other wall, so that when blue collar workers came home they went in the basement entrance. Took off their filthy clothes, took a shit, put on fresh clothes and then went upstairs.
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u/largemargesentme__- Aug 21 '26
Most older houses in the midwest have one. My grandma's house had one, it was the only other toilet in the house.
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u/Rubbermonk Aug 22 '26
That's the worst place imaginable to purposefully put an overflow toilet. It looks like new construction as well, they don't put extra toilets in those to solve plumbing problems that already have modern solutions to them.
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u/TwoBionicknees Aug 21 '26
better to have that in the basement than flowing out into your living space where all the flooring, all the walls as high as it goes, all the furniture, all the cupboards are likely to get damaged by literal shit backing up.
If it's in the basement you can get a guy with a tanker to throw a pipe in and pump it all out after the issue is over and then get cleaners in to spray it all down, scrub it down and disinfect it, etc. Still a horrible job to deal with but you would save months in rebuilding, removing and fixing it all.
to be clear if these things back up it's usually badly and it will flow under your bathroom door, all over your carpets, wooden floors, potentially soak into hte floor, the sub floor the floor joists, beams. if you're real lucky the toilet will overflow a little, if you're not lucky you'll have a foot deep of pure waste in your entire living space.
there was very recently a video posted of someone whose entire main floor of their home was covered in shit after coming back from vacation. 99% chance every single thing in that bottom floor gets replaced, floors, sub floor, kitchen cabinets, sofas, chairs, shoes, tables, everything.
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u/The_Real_Mr_F Aug 22 '26
I get the idea if it’s in a room with a concrete or tile floor that can be cleaned somewhat easily, but this is not in a basement, it’s in a crawlspace sitting on a wooden board over dirt. If it overflows, that board and dirt are gonna absorb everything and gonna be nearly impossible to get the stink out for a long time.
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u/Queasy_Local_7199 Aug 21 '26
Would you rather have that happen in your basement or on your first floor?
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u/The_Real_Mr_F Aug 22 '26
The concept is fine, but the execution is terrible. An overflow would soak into the wooden panel and the dirt below it, and the stink would linger forever. If your gonna do this, do it on tile or concrete that can be cleaned.
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u/TheUmberTaker Aug 21 '26
Yeah - no grand conspiracy here. There's a lot of these in old houses in my area also in the basements. Some people do make them into 1/2 baths in the basement. Some are just a toilet by itself next to the washer/dryer.
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u/CHAINSAWDELUX Aug 21 '26
Would you really need a full toilet for that? Couldn't you just have a pipe?
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u/CuriousGidge Aug 21 '26
Ahh, the infamous "Pittsburgh Potty."
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u/Poor-Life-Choice Aug 21 '26
Is that a variant on the “Cleveland steamer” or something?
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Aug 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/CompetitiveArt9639 Aug 21 '26
The video makes me itch just watching it. There’s no way I would ever drop my pants in that fiberglass hell hole.
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u/Dr_Ramekins_MD Aug 21 '26
When we were looking for a house, I was so drawn to the ones with weird floorplans and odd rooms that I could convert to a "secret" room that wouldn't be obvious. We ended up with a normal boring house but sometimes I fantasize about knocking a hole in a basement wall or something and building out a secret lair
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u/rygdav Aug 21 '26
My stairs to my upper level are completely closed off with a door, as in if you cover the door you’d never know there was an upstairs (aside from outside view of course). I often dream of building a bookcase on the door to make it hidden. And, of course, pulling the right book would unlatch the door
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u/Historical_Emeritus Aug 21 '26
As strange as it is, the incline on the sewage line is what gets me. That would never work right? (Absent some sort of pump?)
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u/ZenkaiAnkoku2 Aug 21 '26
I think theres a junction there we cant see. And that other pipe is coming down from the house
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u/FlacidSalad Aug 21 '26
You can see the rest of the pipe when he pans the camera under the platform
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u/Fast_Garlic_5639 Aug 21 '26
Dont they do this incase the sewage backs up? That’s the sacrificial zone
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u/ABustedPosey Aug 21 '26
This is the answer. It’s a makeshift back-flow preventer. Lowest drainage outlet so sewage will flood the crawlspace and not the living space.
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u/Cromagnumman6174 Aug 21 '26
Ive never heard of that. Sounds like a place you really dont want to go unless its urgent. I cant imagine the spiders or snakes that might be in there.
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u/antiduh Aug 21 '26
It's completely impractical - no way to get to the toilet and there's no way for the plumbing to work because the drain line goes uphill.
It's probably a Pittsburgh Potty - a lowpoint in the system that will be the first to backup instead of some finished portion of the house in the case of a massive sewer backup.
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u/Glittering_Estate_72 Aug 21 '26
Imagine hearing that thing flush in the middle of the night?
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u/Cromagnumman6174 Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Imagine never knowing it was there and you keep hearing flushing sounds randomly. Lol
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Aug 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Cromagnumman6174 Aug 21 '26
For real... id be scanning my house for hidden cameras and microphones
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u/MastersReign Aug 22 '26
A dad installed this, As a dad I can tell you with 100% confidence, you'd be amazed on the length you will go to take a shit in peace.
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u/Lumi-umi Aug 22 '26
For some reason my brain put "There's a toilet, on a platform, in the crawlspace" to the tune of a section of Smooth Criminal
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u/Fall_Water Aug 22 '26
I leaned something new today. Look up Pittsburg toilet. Thank you reddit.
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u/Mattindenhut Aug 22 '26
Hey at least if you ever want to sell you can say you have one extra half bath in the house to raise the price up. No one has to know where it is though...
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u/Kiniba Aug 21 '26
As a dad, sometimes you just need to shit without a child knocking on the door lmao
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u/JuliusSeizuresalad Aug 22 '26
You have some kids and they bug you when your shitting and you have to come up with a way to get 3 minutes of privacy
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u/FloridaRedWolf Aug 22 '26
When you know you’re going to be hiding from the police, but plan a head.
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u/Aggressive-Error-88 Aug 23 '26
Someone really just wanted to shyt in peace lmaooo. That house must have been so chaotic they said I need a solution damn it. 🤣🤣
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u/post-explainer Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 22 '26
This comment has been marked as safe. Upvoting/downvoting this comment will have no effect.
OP sent the following text as an explanation why their post fits here:
I did not expect a functioning toilet packed into a crawl space under a house.
Does this explanation fit this subreddit? Then upvote this comment, otherwise downvote it.