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On 9/3/19 10:05 AM, wrote:
On Tue, 3 Sep 2019 09:40:28 -0400, 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.

My 1990 home had one from the second story bathroom closet
floor with a hinged "door" covering the hole
- down to the basement ceiling beside the laundry room.
We did not find it useful in any way so we had it floored-over
when the bathroom flooring was re-done ; and closed off
when the basement was re-done.
As someone else said - it's a one-way convenience -
so not much benefit.
John T.

That was most likely meant as a laundry chute. We had one in a cookie
cutter tri-level where the bath was over the laundry room.

It had a door in the wall of the bath. Could be a fire code issue but
then so was the stairway ;-)