I've been lurking in this forum off and on, really great content, thanks to all who contribute. I sold our starter house and two years ago we moved into our "forever home". It is a well built, loaded with character 1955 2,200 sq ft. brick rancher. The builder was local and well known in our area for quality. He built many brick homes and structures in the area including schools, post office, etc. We are the second owners of the home.

We've done a lot of upgrades but kind of turned our back on this root cellar. Why they did not concrete this part of the basement (it's under our master bedroom) I have no idea. It was not for lack of funds, the owners were well off. I suppose root cellars were a thing. Well the two oil tanks are in this room. I have a slight leak in the oil tank supply lines coming out of the tank, it can be fixed, but the tank is old and who knows how long they will last. In addition, the copper supply line going to the furnace is underground which is not ideal and will most likely be a problem one day. So I plan on installing a new (one) tank closer to the furnace with new supply line and taking these tanks out.

Now my question is- what do you do with this space when the tanks are out?

1 - Do you dry lock the walls? Many of my other basement walls are dry locked.

- This is the only part of the basement that has some moisture on the block, as you can see. Not sure how it would work to dry lock over moist block?

2 - Lay a moisture barrier plastic down and cover with 1B stone, call it good?

3 - Dig it out a big, lay stone, and try to concrete it? There is a window that would allow for a chute.

4 - Leave it alone because.... well, it was put there for a reason, focus on other projects?

I don't need the storage space, plenty of basement otherwise.