Non-standard construction
One corner column of a suspected Airey house is exposed where render has fallen. What does that single column not prove about every other column?
Not the other columns. One exposed corner column, where render has fallen on a suspected Airey house, does not prove the condition of every other column. You can talk about the column you can see. The columns that remain covered were not that column. Their concrete, their reinforcement, and their cracks were not in view. A single opening is not a sample you may multiply around the house. Say what the exposed corner showed. Do not write the same sentence against every column the render still hides.
Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.
What is the fuller explanation?
Airey construction is a named non-standard form, and a fallen patch of render can confirm you are looking at a column rather than a solid wall. Confirmation of type at one corner is already useful. It is not a condition survey of the whole frame of columns. Corrosion or cracking, if present in the exposed one, stays in that one until someone opens or tests the others. If the exposed column looked intact, that intact face is also only that face. Covered columns can differ.
Unusual concrete houses are a Level 3 conversation because the construction needs describing, not because one hole stands in for the building. Ask the surveyor to mark which column was exposed, what they saw, and which elevations are still rendered. A specialist look, if you need one, has to be aimed at the columns, not inferred from the corner. Do not let an agent say the house has been checked because a patch fell off. The patch checked the patch.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Which column was exposed, and what did that concrete show?
- Which other columns were still covered by render?
- Are you reporting the construction type, or the condition of every column?
What are the typical next steps?
- Limit the condition comment to the column that was exposed.
- Do not copy that comment onto columns still hidden by render.
- Describe the Airey suspicion separately from the condition of every column.
Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.
Also asked about this
If the exposed column is cracked, have all the columns failed?
No. That crack is in the column you can see. It does not prove the same thing in every covered column still hidden by render.
If the exposed column looks sound, are the others sound?
Not proved. One sound face does not inspect the columns the render still covers, so you cannot say the rest of the frame matches that corner.