Pete T

I'm planing on extending our 1970s timber-framed house and, prior to that, refurbishing the existing structure as there are a number of draughts, the UPVC windows have (as far as I understand) been fitted incorrectly, the VCL has been punctured in numerous places over the years etc... So with that context, I'm wondering how to approach the lack of "Tony trays" in the house. I had to replace some first-floor flooring a few years ago and when I lifted the floor (in the winter) the cold draught flowing between the floors was impressive. My concern with attempting to eliminate these draughts is that I will "upset the balance" so to speak, and start creating damp where there was none before. My initial thought was to perhaps stuff some rockwool or other breathable insulation between the joists, to the thickness of the internal walls (i.e. not separating the upstairs and downstairs by insulating the whole floor) as this could allow the floor void to "breathe", maybe? However, this post has had a couple of replies suggesting to either run VCL between the joists or use some spray foam to fill the gaps. Am I just overthinking it all?

I only just realised that I never followed up on this. Apologies that this response is 4 years late, but I thought I would update this just in case anybody in the future finds themselves in this very specific situation! We determined that the culvert is classed as a "main river", meaning that (as far as we can tell) we are the riparian owners as @ProDave pointed out earlier. The classification also means that a permit from the Environment Agency needs to be obtained (in England) before carrying out any work near the "river". We liaised with the Environment Agency (who were very helpful and pragmatic) to determine what could, and could not, be done. However, a change in circumstances led us to put our plans on pause.

Thank you all for your responses. You've given us some good pointers on where to start.

I probably didn't do it justice with my description. This culvert runs from the edge of town into the centre of town, where it meets with the local river. They basically enclosed a running stream. I presume this culvert has grown with the town as the town expanded further from the river.

Hello all, My wife and I live in an early '70s timber-framed house and we are mulling over a timber-frame extension. We live in a semi-detached house with our north wall connecting us to our neighbours. The house was built with a garage joined on to the south side of the property (it's on the right as you look at the front of the house). We'd like to extend over the top of the garage; however, the width of the garage alone would not give us a sensible sized bedroom upstairs. Because of this, we'd like to extend a little further south, but this is where it gets interesting... Between us and the neighbouring (mirrored) property to our south, is a culvert that was built to direct a stream that existed prior to the housing estate being built. It's not clear from any plans that I have seen, exactly where this culvert is, or how large it is. It is always drawn as a single line threading between houses and through gardens. It appears to be in my neighbours garden at the far rear of the properties, but soon crosses the boundary into our garden and will, I suspect, cause some planning issues. I'm hoping that somebody on this forum may be able to provide some advice on how to proceed? The plans seem to imply that the local water company are not responsible for the culvert, which leaves me wondering "who is?" Before we start throwing money at the wrong people, who do we need to take a look at this and assess the situation? An architect? A surveyor? Somebody else? Any advice on where to start would be gratefully received. Pete