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Glossary of Building Terms:
A
Air-dried lumber. Lumber that has been piled in yards or sheds for any length of time.
Airway. A space between roof insulation and roof boards for movement of air.
Alligatoring. Coarse checking pattern characterized by a slipping of the new paint coating over the old coating to the extent that the old coating can be seen through the fissures.
Anchor bolts. Bolts to secure a wooden sill plate to concrete , or masonry floor or wall.
Apron. The flat member of the inside trim of a window placed against the wall immediately beneath the stool.
Areaway. An open subsurface space adjacent to a building used to admit light or air or as a means of access to a basement.
Asphalt. Most native asphalt is a residue from evaporated petroleum. It is insoluble in water but soluble in gave. line when heated. Used widely in building for waterproofing roof coverings of many types, exterior wall coverings, flooring tile, and the like.
Astragal. A molding, attached to one of a pair of swinging doors, against which the other door strikes.
Attic ventilators. In houses, screened opening) provided to ventilate an attic space. They are located in the soffit area as inlet ventilators and in the gable end or along the ridge as outlet ventilators. They can also consist of power-driven fans used as an exhaust system. (See also Louver.)
B
Backhand. A simple molding sometimes used around the outer edge of plain rectangular casing as a decorative feature.
Backfill. The replacement of excavated earth into a trench around and against a basement foundation.
Balusters. Usually small vertical members in a railing used between a top rail and the stair treads or a bottom rail.
Balustrade. A railing made up of balusters, top rail, and sometimes bottom rail, used on the edge of stairs, teal conies, and porches.
Barge board. A decorative board covering the projecting rafter (fly rafter) of the gable end. At the cornice, this member is a facie board.
Base or baseboard. A board placed against the wall around a room next to the floor to finish properly between floor and plaster.
Base molding. Molding used to trim the upper edge of interior baseboard.
Base shoe. Molding used next to the floor on interior base board. Sometimes called a carpet strip.
Batten. Narrow strips of wood used to cover joints or as decorative vertical members over plywood or wide boards.
Batter board. One of a pair of horizontal boards nailed to posts set at the corners of an excavation, used to indicate the desired level, also as a fastening for stretched strings to indicate outlines of foundation walls.
Bay window. Any window space projecting outward from the walls of a building, either square or polygonal in plan.
Beam. A structural member transversely supporting a load.
Bearing partition. A partition that supports any vertical load in addition to its own weight.
Bearing wall. A wall that supports any vertical load in addition to its own weight.
Bed molding. A molding in an angle, as between the over hanging cornice, or eaves, of a building and the side walls.
Blind-nailing. Nailing in such a way that the nail heads are not visible on the face of the work—usually at the tongue of matched boards.
Blind stop. A rectangular molding, usually ¾ by 1-3/8 inches or more in width, used in the assembly of a window frame. Serves as a stop for storm and screen or combination windows and to resist air infiltration.
Blue stain. A bluish or grayish discoloration of the sapwood caused the growth of certain mold like fungi on the surface and in the interior of a piece, made possible by the same conditions that favor the growth of other fungi.
Bodied linseed oil. Linseed oil that has been thickened in viscosity by suitable processing with heat or chemicals. Bodied oils are obtainable in a great range in viscosity from a little greater than that of raw oil to just short of a jellied condition.
Boiled linseed oil. Linseed oil in which enough lead, manganese or cobalt salts have been incorporated to make the oil harden more rapidly when spread in thin coatings.
Bolster. A short horizontal timber or steel beam on top of a column to support and decrease the span of beams or girders.
Boston ridge. A method of applying asphalt or wood shingles at the ridge or at the hips of a roof as a finish.
Brace. An inclined piece of framing lumber applied to wall or floor to stifled the structure. Often used on walls as temporary bracing until framing has been completed.
Brick veneer. A facing of brick laid against and fastened to sheathing of a frame wall or tile wall construction.
Bridging. Small wood or metal members that are inserted in a diagonal position between the floor joists at mid-span to act both as tension and compression members for the purpose of bracing the joists a spreading the action of loads.
Buck. Often used in reference to rough frame opening members. Door bucks used in reference to metal door frame.
Built-up roof. A roofing composed of three to five layers of asphalt felt laminated with coal tar, pitch, or asphalt. The top is finished with crushed slag or gravel. Generally used on flat or low-pitched roofs.
Butt joint. The junction where the ends of two timbers or other members meet in a square-cut joint.
C
Cant strip. A triangular shaped piece of lumber used at the junction of a flat deck and a wall to prevent cracking of the roofing which is applied over it.
Cap. The upper member of a column, pilaster, door cornice, molding, and the like.
Casement frames and sash. Frames of wood or metal enclosing part or all of the sash, which may be opened by means of hinges affixed to the vertical edges.
Casing. Molding of various widths and thicknesses used to trim door and window openings at the jambs.
Cement, Keene’s. A white finish plaster that produces an extremely durable wall. Because of its density, it excels for use in bathrooms and kitchens and is also used extensively for the finish coat in auditoriums, public buildings, and other places where walls may be subjected to unusually hard wear or abuse.
Checking. Fissures that appear with age in many exterior paint coatings, at first superficial, but which in time may penetrate entirely through the coating.
Checkrails. Meeting rails sufficiently thicker than a window to fill the opening between the top and bottom sash made by the parting stop in the frame of double-hung windows. They are usually beveled.
Collar beam. Nominal 1- or 2-inch-thick members connecting opposite roof rafters. They serve to stiffen the roof structure.
Column. In architecture: A perpendicular supporting member, circular or rectangular in section, usually consisting of a base, shaft, and capital. In engineering: A vertical structural compression member which supports loads acting in the direction of its longitudinal axis.
Combination doors or windows. Combination doors or windows used over regular openings. They provide winter insulation and summer protection and often have self storing or removable glass and screen inserts. This eliminates the need for handling a different unit each season.
Concrete plain. Concrete either without reinforcement, or reinforced only for shrinkage or temperature changes.
Condensation. In a building: Beads or drops of water (and frequently frost in extremely cold weather) that accumulate on the inside of the exterior covering of a building when warm, moisture-laden air from the interior reaches a point where the temperature no longer permits the air to sustain the moisture it holds. Use of louvers or attic ventilators will reduce moisture condensation in attics. A vapor barrier under the gypsum lath or dry wall on exposed walls will reduce condensation in them.
Conduit, electrical. A pipe, usually metal, in which wire is installed.
Construction, dry-wall. A type of construction in which the interior wall finish is applied in a dry condition, generally in the form of sheet materials or wood paneling as contrasted to plaster.
Construction, frame. A type of construction in which the structural parts are wood or depend upon a wood frame for support. In codes, if masonry veneer is applied to the exterior walls, the classification of this type of construction is usually unchanged.
Coped joint. See Scribing.
Corbel out. To build out one or more courses of brick or stone from the face of a wall, to form a support for timbers.
Corner bead. A strip of formed sheet metal, sometimes combined with a strip of metal lath, placed on corners before plastering to reinforce them. Also, a strip of wood finish three-quarters-round or angular placed over a plastered corner for protection.
Corner boards. Used as trim for the external corners of a house or other frame structure against which the ends of the siding are finished.
Corner braces. Diagonal braces at the corners of frame structure to stiffen and strengthen the wall.
Let-in brace. Nominal 1 inch-thick boards applied into notched studs diagonally.
Cut-in brace. Nominal 2-inch-thick members, usually 2 by 4’s, cut in between each stud diagonally.
Cornerite. Metal-mesh lath cut into strips and bent to a right angle. Used in interior corners of walls and ceilings on lath to prevent cracks in plastering.
Cornice. Overhang of a pitched roof at the cave line, usually consisting of a facie board, a soffit for a closed cornice, and appropriate moldings.
Cornice return. That portion of the cornice that returns on the gable end of a house.
Counter-flashing. A flashing usually used on chimneys at the roofline to cover shingle flashing and to prevent moisture entry.
Cove molding. A molding with a concave face used as trim or to finish interior corners.
Crawl space. A shallow space below the living quarters of a basement-less house, normally enclosed by the foundation wall.
Cricket. A small drainage-diverting roof structure of single or double slope placed at the junction of larger surfaces that meet at an angle, such as above a chimney.
Cross-bridging. Diagonal bracing between adjacent floor joists, placed near the center of the joist span to prevent joists from twisting.
Crown molding. A molding used on cornice or wherever an interior angle is to be covered.
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