Non-standard construction
Paint covers a concrete corner that might be an Airey column. What should you not tell the lender until the construction is properly named?
Do not tell the lender it is an Airey house. Paint over a concrete corner that might be an Airey column is not an identification. Those columns have a particular profile, usually read where the corner is bare, not where paint hides the shape. A painted corner is not an identification. The survey should say the construction is unconfirmed until it can be seen. Do not copy the Airey name from a brochure or from the decade of the street.
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 is a specific house form, often recognised from exposed concrete columns of a known shape with panels between them. Paint, render and a later covering remove that shape from view. A 1950s date and a concrete-looking corner are then only a suspicion. The survey can say 'possible concrete corner, profile not seen'. It should not say Airey as a fact, and it should not invent a repair-certificate rule from the paint. No certificate is proved by a coated corner, and this visit did not audit any archive. Hidden concrete is not shown to be sound or corroded by the topcoat.
When a lender asks for construction, repeat the survey's careful words. If you write Airey early, you may be asked for papers that belong to a named system you have not actually identified. If you write ordinary brick, you may be hiding a concrete corner the surveyor flagged. Unconfirmed is the accurate middle. A later inspection that exposes the corner, with permission, is what would allow a name. Until then the brochure, the estate gossip and the year on the particulars stay out of the form. The surveyor is not an asbestos inspector either, so a textured coat is not a sample.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- What shape, if any, could you see under the paint at this corner?
- Are you willing to put 'unconfirmed' rather than Airey on the construction line?
- Did any document on site name the system, or is the name only a possibility?
What are the typical next steps?
- Do not write Airey on the lender form while the corner is only painted concrete.
- Ask the firm for the exact words they will stand by.
- Do not invent a certificate from the coat of paint.
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
Is every concrete corner an Airey column?
No. A painted corner is not an identification. Other concrete details exist, and the profile was hidden.
Does the decade of the house name the system?
No. A decade is not a system. The survey should name Airey only from features it could see, which paint may have covered.