What kind of thing is this?

[Shygal]

Ive been watching a new construction of a house, and theyve done something Ive never seen before. They dug out the cellar hole, and dug out a pit in the cellar hole. They lined the pit with crushed limestone, and the bottom of the cellar hole with the same thing, ran green pvc pipes from the pit, all over the place....then they poured the concrete basement floor over everything. There are pipes sticking up out of the slab , like drain pipes and toilet pipes.

Is this just a septic tank? Why would they put it UNDER their basement floor, if it is? Is this some kind of new septic system? Ive been real curious because Ive never seen anything like it before.

[Westwood]

Sounds like it might be the heat sink for a solar collector and the pipes may distribute the heat to the concrete slab.

[BrahmaMama]

Sounds like radiate hot water heating to me. (?) I've seen that, but the tubes are really thin.
Were the tubes really thin???

Or, some kind of weeping tile / drainage thing? Is this place being built on wet land??

[susieM]

It doesn't sound like a wine cellar.

[Ross]

Sounds like a kind of drainage and sump system. Catch the water under the basement slab direct it to the sump.drywell under the floor and have a line out (hopefully) to pump it out if there's too much water, but that is just a guess, it's not how they do it here!

[Big Dave]

Limestone is a purifiyer. There is such a pit I have had to clean out at a clinic that has a dyalisis machine.

[BaronsMom]

Originally Posted by Shygal

Ive been watching a new construction of a house, and theyve done something Ive never seen before. They dug out the cellar hole, and dug out a pit in the cellar hole. They lined the pit with crushed limestone, and the bottom of the cellar hole with the same thing, ran green pvc pipes from the pit, all over the place....then they poured the concrete basement floor over everything. There are pipes sticking up out of the slab , like drain pipes and toilet pipes.

Is this just a septic tank? Why would they put it UNDER their basement floor, if it is? Is this some kind of new septic system? Ive been real curious because Ive never seen anything like it before.

I'd go up and ask the contractors