Non-standard construction
A Dennis Wild house is described as steel with a brick skin and the steel was not uncovered. What is the brick not proving?
The brick is not proving the condition of the Dennis Wild steel it covers. The house is described as a steel frame with a brick skin, and that steel was not uncovered. Brick you can see is the outer leaf. It can look ordinary, cracked, or recently repointed, and none of those faces is the frame. The survey has recorded the construction and the fact that the steel stayed hidden. It has not decided that the brick shows the steel to be sound, and it has not decided that the brick shows the steel to be failing.
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?
On a Dennis Wild house the brick is a skin over the steel, not a substitute for it. The frame is the structure. The brick keeps weather off and gives the house its face. A fair face can hide a rusting stanchion, and a stained face can be a skin problem that never reached the steel. Because the steel was not uncovered, the survey cannot choose between those storeys. What the brick proves is the condition of the brick that was seen. It does not prove the metal behind it.
When you describe the house to a lender or a solicitor, use the survey's words: steel frame, brick skin, steel not uncovered. Ask the solicitor whether any repair specification or guarantee for the Dennis Wild frame is with the deeds. A specialist inspection would be a new instruction if someone needs the steel itself described. Do not let a repointed elevation stand in for that instruction. The brick note and the frame note are not the same finding.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did you uncover any of the Dennis Wild steel, or only see the brick skin?
- What condition of the brick did you record, as distinct from the frame?
- Have you left the steel behind that skin unproved either way?
What are the typical next steps?
- Treat the brick as the skin that was seen, not as the steel.
- Tell the lender the frame was not uncovered.
- Ask the solicitor for any Dennis Wild repair papers.
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 brick is newly pointed, has the steel been repaired?
Not on this evidence. New pointing is work to the brick skin. The Dennis Wild steel was not uncovered, so the survey cannot say a repair to the frame happened, or that it did not. Pointing and steel repair are different jobs. The brick does not prove either of them.
Does cracked brick mean the frame has moved?
Not by itself. Cracked brick is a note about the skin that was seen. The steel was not uncovered, so the survey has not traced those cracks into the frame and has not cleared the frame of them. Movement in a skin can have causes that stop at the brick. The frame remains unseen.