Space under water heater/hvac closet
 

Has anyone opened up the space under the platform that holds your water tank and air conditioner? We have a begonia style home and it looks like there could be a decent amount of storage area under there. Hate to cut the wallboard and find out that there’s pipes and studs that would preclude putting plastic tubs under there. The person I spoke to at the warranty office said there wasn’t much under there but didn’t think there was room for plastic storage containers. Please advise if you’ve actually opened this area up.

Interesting idea. Wonder why they even put these things on a platform now that I am thinking about it.

:ho: Code

For about 20 dollars on Amazon, you can buy a flexible, usb endoscope. Drill a small hole in the platform, and you can inspect the entire area under the platform. I suspect that you will find it to be pretty much empty space, except for some trash and maybe beer cans.

It is the return air area for your a/c. Pull out your filter and you can look down in the area. Ours is fully insulated with insulation. Not sure about yours but just take out the filter and see if the bottom is open. Do not think in this case it would be wise to open up and use for storage.

Due to a clog in the line we recently had occasion to open it up and found a nice pool of water had collected down there.

That is correct for the HVAC system. But, you may have empty space under the water heater. In my house, there is a drain line under the water heater to drain the leakage pan under the water heater, so no usable space.

Pipes from my HVAC go into it. There is also a pan under the water heater with a drain pipe that goes into that space. It also seems like a good idea to keep people from accidentally bumping into their utilities with a vehicle. Another thought is it probably keeps people from storing stuff too close to the furnace and water heater so we don't have to pay overtime to firefighters.

Interesting idea. But, as they would say in Georgia,

"That dog won't hunt".

When it's time replace your water tank with a on demand system and you will have lots of room in that closet.

While I haven't used mine for this purpose a side benefit of that device is you can check yourself for polyps for free. :D

Under ours is the tubing that goes down and into and under the slab to the condenser and also the drain. No water heater stuff under there, that all electric and piped on top, just A/C. Ours is in the garage.

EDIT: Good point. That is also the A/C return so opening it wouldn't be a good idea.

Our furnace is in the laundry room. We bought the home new, I didnt like it being exposed. I had the furnace moved further back onto its platform where it was sitting then installed louver doors over them to allow the for air flow. I confirmed with the people who installed the furnace that this would be ok, and as long as the doors were louver it was ok. I also had the contractor cut out the dead space underneath that area, it was empty. He built me a drawer that slides in and out and I use it for storage.....it works great and looks great.

Storage Unit below water heater area.
 

We had this done at the time of construction of our house in Fenney. The result was a floor to ceiling opening providing room for large storage bins of our Christmas decorations. We only lost about six inches in the back where they enclosed the pipes that ran along the back wall. Well worth it.

leave it alone....

Had to open ours because the condensate pipe on the A/C backed up and soaked the wood in that area. Nothing there to use for storage...it just runs under the house and would be damp all the time even without the overflow incident we had. How do I know this? A couple of years after we fixed the overflow issue the box around the A/C heater separated and we had to have that redone so they opened the space up to do that work. Still damp underneath. Anyone who has ever had a house with a crawl space will likely affirm what I am saying. Skip this as a storage option is my opinion.