The house Milwaukee invented.
A Polish flat is a small worker’s cottage that was jacked up so a second unit could be built underneath. They’re all over the South Side, and their plumbing tells the story of how they were built.
How they were built
Around the turn of the last century, families on the South Side who owned a small frame cottage often raised it up and built a half-sunken apartment underneath, rented it out or moved relatives in, and paid off the house faster. The result is the Polish flat: a cottage on a tall foundation, with a garden-level unit below.
What that means for the plumbing
- Two kitchens on one stack. The upstairs kitchen was there first. The downstairs one was tied in later, often onto the same drain.
- Drains sized for one household. Original drains often carry the waste of two families now, and they show it.
- A basement bath added later. Frequently below the level of the sewer lateral, which means it relies on an ejector pump or a very shallow fall.
- Low ceilings. Not a plumbing problem until we have to run a new line along one.
What to check if you own one
Where the lower unit’s bathroom drains to, whether there’s a backwater valve on the main, and whether the upstairs kitchen’s drain is vented. Those three cover most of the calls we get from Polish flats.
Own a Polish flat? We’ve been in hundreds.
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