Couple Renovate Hot Tub—Find Secret Room With Bolted Door Hidden 20ft Below

A Michigan couple have discovered a mysterious hidden room some 20 feet below their house.

When Trevor and Hayley bought their house back in 2020 they knew it was what those in the real estate game might call a “fixer-upper.”

Hayley told Newsweek: “The decor was all 1970s style.” Arguably the most notable retro feature of all was a hot tub which sat in the living room and was in a dire state of repair.

“The jacuzzi in the middle of the living room didn’t work and was way too much to fix,” Hayley said. Getting rid of the hot tub was a no-brainer for the new owners but taking it out ended up opening a whole new can of worms.

That’s because, in removing the hot tub, the couple ended up uncovering what Hayley describes as a mysteriously “manhole like thing” underneath that went against everything they knew about the design of the property. “Our house has about three feet of concrete between each floor,” she said.

On closer inspection, they discovered the manhole led down into a large body of water and a space that amounted to a whole new extra room. After testing confirmed that the water occupying the room was fresh and therefore safe to go into, they decided to explore further.

The couple posted a video of the discovery on TikTok where it has racked up more than 9 million views so far.

Hayley said that the first trip down there was an understandably unsettling one. “I think anyone finding a man hole under their house in pitch darkness is going to find it spooky,” she said. “But it’s super clear water and nothing crazy has been found in the water.”

There had been some concerns that the room was little more than a septic tank, but Hayley said further investigations revealed the truth about the mysterious space.

“We live on Lake Huron and found that the room is connected to the lake through a six foot pipe we found in the lake,” she said. Hayley said the house used to serve as an old pumping station back in the day.

However, the discovery has sparked a number of significantly wilder theories as to what the house and this unique space were once used for. “We were told by people in the area that our house used to load brine onto freighters during the Second World War but not sure how accurate that is,” Hayley said. “The wildest theory we’ve heard is that it was used in the prohibition days to smuggle alcohol over from Canada since it’s so close. Although we do find many prohibition era bottles in our area.”

The discovery of a hidden room can certainly add value to a property. Rochelle Atlas Maize, a luxury realtor based in Beverly Hills, told The Wall Street Journal in 2022: “There’s a James Bond feel to them, and they’re always a conversation piece when it comes to the resale of the property.”

Yet one of the biggest talking points of this new discovery may be yet to come. When exploring down in the mysterious room, Hayley and her husband came across a wooden boarded up door. They have yet to remove the boards to see what lies behind it but right now the happy couple are dreaming about what to do with the extra space.

“We are going to keep exploring it and if possible we will drain it and maybe create a game room or bowling alley lane down there,” Hayley said. Who knows? They might even be tempted to install another hot tub. Things worked out pretty well with the first one.