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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

Hi, We seem to be having trouble getting civil engineers to engage. We've had a couple of quotes but then the companies don't get back when we have questions.... So we can tender for the groundworks for our new build, we need someone to do the drainage and foul water design, to do a design for a culvert over a small dyke for access and to do the foundation design for the garage (the foundations for the house are being done by MBC). I'm wondering if the culvert is putting people off, or is it simply that there's so much work out there, they aren't worried by a small contract like ours? Anyone used civil engineers in the East Midlands/Nottingham area they could recommend? Simon