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Glossary of Building Terms

Find out more

Summary of Building Terms

Here you can find a comprehensive list of Building terms and phrases.

Airbricks

Perforated ventilation brick, often made with cast iron.

Architrave

Joinery moulding around door or window frame.

Bargeboard

Board secured to the gable end of a roof to cover and protect the roof timbers.

Cill (or sill)

Horizontal item at the base of a door or window frame, shaped to deflect water away from the building.

Collar tie

Horizontal timber near the top of roof that creates A shape and stops roof spread

Corbel

Projection of stone, brick, timber or metal to support a load.

Dado

Lower section of wall, often timber lined.

Dado rail

Horizontal timber moulding secured to the wall about one metre above the floor.

DPC

Damp Proof Course.

DPM

Damp Proof Membrane.

Dry Rot

(Serpula lacrymans)  wood-rotting fungus which attacks mostly softwoods. Able to grow over inert surfaces, spread extensively behind plaster and through wall surfaces. Killed by removing the source of moisture it feeds on.

Drip throat

Groove in the bottom of a window or door cill to encourage water to drip free of the wall.

Fasciaboard

Horizontal board directly beneath the bottom of the roof covering to cover and protect the roof timbers.

Flashing

Usually of lead used to seal roof to masonry junction.

Foulwater

waste water from a toilet.

Gable

Vertical part of the end wall of a building contained within the roof slope, usually triangular.

Greywater

waste water from a washing machine, bath, shower or sink.

Gully

An opening into a drain at ground or basement level.

Header

End face of a brick.

Infill panel

Formerly wattle and daub, often replaced with brick – side of a timber-framed building.

Jamb

Side part of a window or doorframe.

Joist

Wooden (usually) floor component to which floorboards are secured.

Keystone

Large, often decorative stone at the centre of an arch.

Lime-hydrated

Builders lime, not traditional, should never be used in traditional building

Lime-hydraulic

Traditional lime, with small amount of pozzolan to give setting characteristics for ease of use.

Lime-hot, haired

Full traditional lime putty traditionally used for mortars and plasters in breathable homes.

Lintel

Structural stone, concrete or metal item above door or window to support load above.

Mullion

Vertical member dividing the lights of a window.

Parapet

Continuation of a wall above another structure such as a roof.

Plinth

Decorative base of a column or wall, stonework under timber frame sill beam keeping it off the ground.

Post

Vertical upright member of a timber framed building.

Purlin

Horizontal timber that supports the roof rafters.

Rafter

Sloping roof timber.

Rainwater goods

Gutters, downpipes etc.

RH

Relative humidity, varies with temperature and total moisture content of air, Measured as %

Ridge board

Timber at the apex of a pitched roof.

Rising Damp

Ground moisture rising from the ground by capillary action, discredited as interstitial condensation.

Sill beam

Large timber beam forming the base of a timber framed building.

Skirting

Joinery moulding used at floor/wall junction. Deep skirtings often made of several pieces of timber joined.

Sleeper walls

Low walls that support a timber-suspended ground floor.

Spandrel

Triangular shaped infill to side of staircase.

Stretcher

Side face of a brick.

String

Sides of a staircase that support the treads.

String course

Horizontal band within a wall usually raised and often decorative.

Soffit

Underside or cladding to the underside of a staircase or overhanging roof.

Stretcher

Side face of a brick.

Transom

Horizontal item of stone or wood that separates a window from another window below or a fanlight from a door opening.

Tread

Horizontal stair or step.

Valley

Area where two angles of a roof meet, usually lead lined which cracks and leaks

Wallplate

Horizontal timber to which joists and end of rafters are secured.

Windbrace

Angled ‘raking’ timber connecting truss to purlin in timber framed roof – a diagonal brace

Woodworm

Generic term for the larvae of all wood-boring beetles.

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