Non-standard construction
The report mentions a breeze pier next to a widened opening. Has a lintel the pier is not been tested, or only named?
The lintel was not tested. A breeze pier beside a widened opening is a block pier. It is not a lintel, and it has not been tested as one. Widening an opening moves load to whatever spans the gap and to the piers at the sides. The survey saw the pier. It did not prove that a lintel exists, what it is made of, or whether it bears properly. The pier was recorded. The beam across the opening stays untested.
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?
Breeze and clinker piers are built of block, and they can crush, crack or pull away at the opening if the bearing is poor. They still do not span the head of the opening. A lintel might be concrete, steel, timber or missing, with the wall above corbelled, and none of those alternatives is settled by measuring the pier. This visit did not open the head and did not load-test a beam. The widened opening and the pier are what were seen.
Ask the solicitor for building-regulation papers or a builder's specification for the widening. If there are none, the lintel question stays open with the solicitor as a paperwork gap, not as a survey clearance. A structural engineer or a builder used to openings can expose the head if you need the beam identified. Tell a lender the pier was seen and the lintel was not tested. Do not let the pier's presence imply a proper span.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Was the breeze pier seen, rather than a lintel tested?
- Did the visit open the head of the widened opening?
- Is the spanning member still unidentified?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the pier as a side support, not as the lintel.
- Ask the solicitor for any papers for the widening.
- Get the head exposed by a specialist if the beam must be identified.
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
Can a thick breeze pier carry a widened opening with no lintel?
Sometimes walls above small openings spread load without a conventional beam, and sometimes they cannot. This survey did not test either case. It saw a breeze pier and did not test a lintel. Whether this opening is corbelled, beamed or overstressed stays undecided. Do not turn the pier into a calculation.
Does cracking at the pier prove the lintel has failed?
No. Cracks at a pier can be shrinkage, bearing stress, old movement or a lintel problem, and this visit did not open the head to see which. The pier was noted. The lintel was not tested. A crack is a prompt for a closer look at the span, not a finished diagnosis of the beam.