A couple discovered a hidden space while renovating their home and claimed it has added £70,000 to the house’s value.
Sophie Lane, 34, and her partner Matthew, 33, bought a house that had been converted into two flats in Sheffield in December 2025.
They paid £375,000 and planned to convert it back into a single house to live in.
But in February, while ripping up the downstairs hallway carpets, they found a hidden hatch in the floorboards which led to a large cellar.
They had to prise the hatch open with a crowbar, leading to the 23 square metre cellar which did not appear when the house was surveyed.
The couple now plan to have it made up as a movie room for their children – Sophie is even trying to convince her husband to build a slide hidden in a kitchen cupboard which leads down to the cellar.
Sopgie said it had added £70,000 to their home’s value and believes there could be more hidden space under the house.
The social media manager from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, said: ‘When we opened the hatch and saw a massive cellar, so many things were going through my mind.
Sophie Lane and her partner Matthew bought the Sheffield home and planned to convert the two flats inside into a full house for their family
While ripping up carpets from the downstairs hallway, they found a hatch in the floorboards
The hatch led to a cellar underneath the house which Sophie worked out could have added £70,000 to its value
‘We now have a whole other floor, our house could be worth £70,000 more now.
‘The survey didn’t pick up the cellar at all.
‘We thought we might have had to build an extension, but now we have the huge cellar we don’t have to do that, so it’s saved us a lot of money.
‘We’re going to use it as a utility room but also create a fun movie room.
‘I’m trying to convince my partner to let us have a slide that goes from a hidden cupboard in the kitchen down to the cellar.
‘I want it to be the house that all of my kids’ friends think of as the fun house.’
The house was converted into two flats around 20 years ago and had two kitchens, two bathrooms and walls to split the property.
Most houses on the Sheffield street were selling for £750,000 but the two flats were being sold for the combined total of £375,000.
‘I said to my partner, we need to try and get this house, because we will be living in the best location, that we never would have been able to afford otherwise,’ Sophie said.
The couple and their two children, aged four and ten months, are living in the ground floor flat while they renovate upstairs.
They then plan to switch and live upstairs while renovating the lower level.
So far they have stripped the entire upstairs back and have opened a door to connect the two flats.
While ripping up hallway carpets in February, the couple found a small wooden hatch in the floorboards, which they first assumed led to pipes underneath the house.
But Sophie had found a blocked window low down at the back of the house and decided to investigate.
‘I thought surely if there’s a window right at the bottom of the house, there must have been something there at some point,’ she said.
The couple opened the hatch with a crowbar and were amazed when they discovered a 23 square metre cellar with 2m high ceilings, one corridor and two rooms.
Sophie said she planned to use the space as a utility room and add a movie room and slide.
The couple think there may be even more hidden space in the cellar as the current rooms only cover half of the house’s floor plan.
To check this, they need to install a lintel to make the ceiling structurally sound and then knock the wall down to see if there is any extra space.
If there is, Sophie plans to use the extra space to create a DIY workshop.
