Age and type of house
The infill between posts of a converted barn is modern block and the posts themselves were not tested. What load is the block not carrying on its own?
The modern block is not carrying the roof load on its own. In this converted barn the posts are the frame, and the infill between them is block. The posts were not tested. Block can close the bays, hold a lining and keep the weather out, without being the member the roof was built to stand on. The survey has described the infill and untested posts. It has not calculated a load path, and it has not decided that the block has taken over from the frame. Approved Document A is structural guidance. It is not a certificate this visit has issued for the infill.
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?
A post-and-beam barn carries its roof on the posts and the beams, not on the infill between them. Modern block in those bays is a lining chosen when the barn became a house. It can touch the posts and still not be the roof support. The surveyor saw the block and the posts. Testing a post would mean probing, opening up, or a calculation. None of that was done. The block has not been shown to carry the roof by itself.
Ask a structural engineer, as a separate instruction, how the roof is carried and what the posts are doing, before anyone treats the block as the structure. Tell the solicitor the survey describes untested posts and modern infill, not an approval of the conversion. Approved Document A does not become a pass because the block looks neat. The survey has not produced a structural certificate. Keep any engineer's calculation apart from the sentence that only records what was seen.
What should you ask your surveyor?
- Did you test the posts, or only see them beside the modern block?
- What roof load have you left with the frame rather than the infill?
- Has any calculation been done to show the block carrying the roof alone?
What are the typical next steps?
- Keep the roof load with the untested posts, not the block infill.
- Ask an engineer how the barn frame is working.
- Do not read Approved Document A as a certificate for this infill.
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 block is built tight to the posts, is it sharing the roof?
Not shown. Tight block can touch a post without being the member that carries the roof. The posts were not tested, and the survey has not calculated a shared load. Contact is not a design. Approved Document A has not been applied as a certificate for that infill.
Could the posts be decorative now that the bays are filled?
The survey has not said so. The posts were not tested, and no calculation shows the block taking the roof on its own. Decorative is a conclusion this visit did not reach. Until an engineer says otherwise, do not retire the frame in your own reading of the note.