Age and type of house
A cement-sheet garage stands beside a brick post-war house. Does the garage sheet rewrite the house construction?
No. A cement-sheet garage beside a brick post-war house is a separate outbuilding. Its sheets do not rewrite the house walls. Describe the garage for cracked sheets, rotten timber and a poor junction with the ground. Do not call those sheets asbestos from the look of cement, and do not call the house non-standard because a garage stands next to it. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector. The house is whatever the house walls themselves showed.
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?
Post-war plots often have a lightweight garage of profiled sheets on a timber or thin steel frame, built years after the house. The sheet is a garage finding. It does not change brick, block or a named system in the dwelling. The survey can see broken sheets, daylight through the roof, rotten posts and whether the garage leans. It does not sample the sheet. Calling it asbestos because it is old and grey goes beyond looking, and the surveyor is not an asbestos inspector. Do not drill, sand or break the sheet to find out.
Keep two construction lines in anything you send to a lender: the house, as identified, and the garage, as a cement-sheet outbuilding. A rating 3 on a collapsing garage is not a rating 3 on the bedrooms. If you want the sheet identified properly, that is a specialist asbestos survey, not a sentence you add yourself. Until then the honest words are cement sheet, condition as seen, material not sampled. The house construction stays the house construction.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Are you describing the garage sheets separately from the brick house walls?
- Did you sample the sheet, or only look at it?
- Does any defect in the garage change the construction name of the house?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the garage and the house apart when you speak to the lender.
- Do not label the cement sheets as asbestos.
- Do not drill or break the sheets to see what they are.
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 garage leans, is the house non-standard?
No. A leaning outbuilding is an outbuilding. The house walls need their own description.
Can the surveyor clear the sheets of asbestos by eye?
No. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector. Looking is not a sample, and you should not break the sheet.