On Tuesday, September 3, 2019 at 9:40:33 AM UTC-4, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 9/3/2019 4:38 AM, micky wrote:
My townhouse has a shaft about 3' square from the basement ceiling to
the attic "floor". IIRC part of it is filled with a laundry chute. I
can't remember what else.

What is this shaft called? Do all recent houses of specific
configurations in the USA have them?

How long have houses had these things? Our houses from the 30's and
from the 50's didn't have one, but the 50's house had only a crawlspace,
no basement.

Could be a utility chase. Sounds like it would be good to have if there
was a fire in the basement. It would be able to get flames to the attic
faster to engulf the entire building. Not sure it would meet code today.

I haven't seen anything like it here in NJ, can't imagine why you want
a big shaft like that. I've said that it would be a good idea with new
construction to run an empty conduit or two like that, for possible
future wire pulls, but they don't even do that.