Builders Glossary Acoustical Tile: Special tile for walls and ceilings made of mineral, wood, vegetable fibers, cork, or metal. Its purpose is to control sound volume, while providing cover.   Air Duct: Pipes that carry warm air and cold air to rooms and back to furnace or air conditioning system.   Ampere: The rate of flow of electricity through electric wires.   Apron: A paved area, such as the juncture of a driveway with the street or with a garage entrance   Backfill: The gravel or earth replaced in the space around a building wall after foundations are in place.   Balusters: Upright supports of a balustrade rail.   Balustrade: A row of balusters topped by a rail, edging a balcony or a staircase.   Baseboard: A board along the floor against walls and partitions to hid gaps.   Batt: Insulation in the form of a blanket, rather than loose filling.   Batten: Small thin strips covering joints between wider boards on exterior building surfaces.   Beam: One of the principal horizontal wood or steel members of a building.   Bearing Wall: A wall that supports a floor or roof of a building.   Bib or Bibcock: A water faucet to which a hose may be attached, also called a hose bib or sill cock.   Bleeding: Seeping of resin or gum from lumber. This term is also used in referring to the process of drawing air from water pipes.   Brace: A piece of wood or other material used to form a triangle and stiffen some part of a structure.   Braced Framing: Construction technique using posts and cross-bracing for greater rigidity.   Brick Veneer: Brick used as the outer surface of a framed wall.   Bridging: Small wood or metal pieces placed diagonally between floor joists.   Building Paper: Heavy paper used in walls or roofs to dampproof.   Built-Up Roof: A roofing material applied in sealed, waterproof layers, where there is only a slight slope to the roof.   Butt Joint: Joining point of two pieces of wood or molding.   Bx Cable: Electricity cable wrapped in rubber with a flexible steel outer covering.   Cantilever: A projecting beam or joist, not supported at one end, used to support an extension of a structure.   Carriage: The member which supports the steps or treads of a stair.   Casement: A window sash that opens on hinges at the vertical edge.   Casing: Door and window framing.   Cavity Wall: A hollow wall formed by firmly linked masonry walls, providing an insulating air space between.   Chimney Cap: Concrete capping around the top of chimney bricks and around the floors to protect the masonry from the elements.   Chair Rail: Wooden molding on a wall around a room at the level of a chair back.   Chamfered Edge: Molding with pared-off corners.   Chase: A groove in a masonry wall or through a floor to accommodate pipes or ducts.   Chimney Breast: The horizontal projection-usually inside a building-of a chimney from the wall in which it is built.   Circuit Breaker: A safety device which opens (breaks) an electric circuit automatically when it becomes overloaded.   Cistern: A tank to catch and store rain water.   Clapboard: A long thin board, thicker on one edge, overlapped and nailed on for exterior siding.   Collar Beam: A horizontal beam fastened above the lower ends of rafters to add rigidity.   Coping: Tile or brick used to cap or cover the top of a masonry wall.   Corbel: A horizontal projection from a wall, forming a ledge or supporting a structure above it.   Corner Bead: A strip of wood or metal for protecting the external corners of plastered walls.   Cornice: Horizontal projection at the top of a wall or under the overhanging part of the roof.   Course: A horizontal row of bricks, cinder blocks or other masonry materials.   Cove Lighting: Concealed light sources behind a cornice or horizontal recess which direct the light upon a reflecting ceiling.   Crawl Space: A shallow, unfinished space beneath the first floor of a house which has no basement, used for visual inspection and access to pipes and ducts. Also, a shallow space in the attic, immediately under the roof.   Cripples: Cut-off framing members above and below windows.   Door Buck:  The rough frame of a door.   Dormer: The projecting frame of a recess in a sloping roof.   Double Glazing: An insulating window pane formed of two thicknesses of glass with a sealed air space between them.   Double Hung Windows: Windows with an upperand lower sash, each supported by cords and weights.   Downspout Leader: Downspout A spout or pipe to carry rain water down from a roof or gutters.   Cripples: A pipe for conducting rainwater from the roof to a cistern or to the ground by way of a downspout.   Downspout Strap: A piece of metal which secures the downspout to the eaves or wall of a building.   Drip: The projecting part of a cornice which sheds rain water.   Dry Wall: A wall surface of plasterboard or material other than plaster.   Eaves: The extension of roof beyond house walls.   Efflorescence: White powder that forms on the surface of brick.   Effluent: Treated sewage from a septic tank or sewage treatment plant.   Fascia: A flat horizontal member of a cornice placed in a vertical position.   Fill-Type Insulation: Loose insulating material which is applied by hand or blown into wall spaces mechanically.   Flashing: Noncorrosive metal used around angles or junctions in roofs and exterior walls to prevent leaks.   Floor Joists: Framing pieces which rest on outer foundation walls and interior beams or girders.   Flue: A passageway in a chimney for conveying smoke, gases or fumes to the outside air.   Footing: Concrete base on which a foundation sits.   Foundation: Lower parts of walls on which the structure is built. Foundation walls of masonry or concrete are mainly below ground level.   Framing: The rough lumber of a house-joists, studs, rafters, and beams.   Furring: Thin wood, or metal applied to a wall to level the surface for lathing, boarding, or plastering, to create an insulating air space, and to damp proof the wall.   Fuse: A short plug in an electric panel box which opens (breaks) an electrical circuit when it becomes overloaded.   Gable: The triangular part of a wall under the inverted "v" of the roof line.   Gambrel Roof: A roof with two pitches, designed to provide more space on upper floors. The roof is steeper on its lower slope and flatter toward the ridge.   Girder: A main member in a framed floor supporting the joists which carry the flooring boards. It carries the weight of a floor or partition.   Glazing: Fitting glass into windows or doors.   Grade Line: The point at which the ground rests against the foundation wall.   Green Lumber: Lumber which has been inadequately dried and which tends to warp or "bleed" resin.   Grounds: Pieces of wood embedded in plaster of walls to which skirtings are attached. Also wood pieces used to stop the plaster work around doors and windows.   Gusset: A brace or bracket used to strengthen a structure.   Gutter: A channel at the eaves for conveying away rain water.   Hardwood: The close-grained wood from broad-leaved trees such as oak or maple.   Headers: Double wood pieces supporting joists in a floor or double wood members placed on edge over windows and doors to transfer the roof and floor weight to the studs.   Heel: The end of a rafter that rests on the wall plate.   Hip Roof: A roof that slants upward on three or four sides.   Hip: The external angle formed by the juncture of two slopes of a roof.   Jalousies: Windows with movable, horizontal glass slats angled to admit-ventilation and keep out rain. This term is also used for outside shutters of wood constructed in this way.   Jamb: An upright surface that lines an opening for a door or window.   Joist: A small rectangular sectional member arranged parallel from wall to wall in a building, or resting on beams or girders. They support a floor or the laths or furring strips of a ceiling.   Kiln-Dried: Artificial drying of lumber, superior to most lumber that is air dried.   King-Post: The middle post of a truss. Large, heavy screws, used where great strength is required, as in heavy framing or when attaching ironwork to wood.   Lag-Screws or Coach-Screws: Large, heavy screws, used where great strength is required, as in heavy framing or when attaching ironwork to wood.   Lally Column: A steel tube sometimes filled with concrete, used to support girders or other floor beams.   Lath: One of a number of thin narrow strips of wood nailed to rafters, ceiling joists, wall studs, etc. to make a groundwork or key for slates, tiles, or plastering.   Leaching Bed: Tiles in the trenches carrying treated wastes from septic tanks.   Ledger: A piece of wood which is attached to a beam to support joists.   Lintel: The top piece over a door or window which supports walls above the opening.   Load-Bearing Wall: A strong wall capable of supporting weight.   Louver: An opening with horizontal slats to permit passage of air, but excluding rain, sunlight and view.   Masonry: Walls built by a mason, using brick, stone, tile or similar materials.   Molding: A strip of decorative material having a plane or curved narrow surface prepared for ornamental application. These strips are often used to hide gaps at wall junctures.   Moisture Barrier: Treated paper or metal that retards or bars water vapor, used to keep moisture from passing into walls or floors.   Mullion: Slender framing which divides the lights or panes of windows.   Newel: The upright post or the upright formed by the inner or smaller ends of steps about which steps of a circular staircase wind. In a straight flight staircase, the principal post at the foot or the secondary post at a landing.   Nosing: The rounded edge of a stair tread.   Parging: A rough coat of mortar applied over a masonry wall as protection or finish; may also serve as a base for an asphaltic waterproofing compound below grade.   Pilaster: A projection or the foundation wall used to support a floor girder or stiffen the wall.   Pitch: The angle of slope of a roof.   Plasterboard: Gypsum board, used instead of plaster.   Plates: Pieces of wood placed on wall surfaces as fastening devices. The bottom member of the wall is the sole plate and the top member is the rafter plate.   Plenum: A chamber which can serve as a distribution area for heating or cooling systems, generally between a false ceiling and the actual ceiling.   Pointing: Treatment of joints in masonry by filling with mortar to improve appearance or protect against weather.   Post-And-Beam Construction: Wall construction in which beams are supported by heavy posts rather than many smaller studs.   Prefabrication: Construction of components such as walls, trusses, or doors, before delivery to the building site.   Rabbet: A groove cut in a board to receive another board.   Radiant Heat: Coils of electricity, hot water or steam pipes embedded in floors, ceilings, or walls to heat rooms.   Rafter: One of a series of structural roof members spanning from an exterior wall to a center ridge beam or ridge board.   Reinforced Concrete: Concrete strengthened with wire or metal bars.   Ridge Pole: A thick longitudinal plank to which the ridge rafters of a roof are attached.   Riser: The upright piece of a stair step, from tread to tread.   Roof Sheathing: Sheets, usually of plywood, which are nailed to the top edges of trusses or rafters to tie the roof together and support the roofing material.   Sandwich Panel: A panel with plastic, paper, or other material enclosed between two layers of a different material.   Sash: The movable part of a window-the frame in which panes of glass are set in a window or door.   Scotia: A concave molding.   Scuttle Hole: A small opening either to the attic, to the crawl space or to the plumbing pipes.   Seepage Pit: A sewage disposal system composed of a septic tank and a connected cesspool.   Septic Tank: A sewage settling tank in which part of the sewage is converted into gas and sludge before the remaining waste is discharged by gravity into a leaching bed underground.   Shakes: Handcut wood shingles.   Sheathing: The first covering of boards or material on the outside wall or roof prior to installing the finished siding or roof covering.   Shim: Thin tapered piece of wood used for leveling or tightening a stair or other building element.   Shingles: Pieces of wood, asbestos or other material used as an overlapping outer covering on walls or roofs.   Shiplap: Siding Boards of special design nailed horizontally to vertical studs with or without intervening sheathing to form the exposed surface of outside walls of frame buildings.   Sill Plate: The lowest member of the house framing resting on top of the foundation wall. Also called the mud sill.   Skirtings: Narrow boards around the margin of a floor; baseboards.   Slab: Concrete floor placed directly on earth or a gravel base and usually about four inches thick.   Sleeper: Strip of wood laid over concrete floor to which the finished wood floor is nailed or glued.   Soffit: The visible underwide of structural members such as staircases, cornices, beams, a roof overhang or eave.   Softwood: Easily worked wood or wood from a conebearing tree.   Soil Stack: Vertical plumbing pipe for waste water.   Stringer: A long, horizontal member which connects uprights in a frame or supports a floor or the like. One of the enclosed sides of a stair supporting the treads and risers.   Studs: In wall framing, the vertical members to which horizontal pieces are nailed. Studs are spaced either 16 inches or 24 inches apart.   Subfloor: Usually, plywood sheets that are nailed directly to the floor joists and that receive the finish flooring.   Sump: A pit in the basement in which water collects to be pumped out with a sump pump.   Swale: A wide shallow depression in the ground to form a channel for storm water drainage.   Tie: A wood member which binds a pair of principal rafters at the bottom.   Tile Field: Open-joint drain tiles laid to distribute septic tank effluent over an absorption area or to provide subsoil drainage in wet areas.   Toenail: Driving nails at an angle into corners or other joints.   Tongue-And-Groove: Carpentry joint in which the jutting edge of one board fits into the grooved end of a similar board.   Trap: A bend in a water pipe to hold water so gases will not escape from the plumbing system into the house.   Tread: The horizontal part of a stair step.   Truss: A combination of structural members usually arranged in triangular units to form a rigid framework for spanning between load-bearing walls.   Valley: The depression at the meeting point of two roof slopes.   Vapor Barrier: Material such as paper, metal or paint which is used to prevent vapor from passing from rooms into the outside walls.   Venetian Window: A window with one large fixed central pane and smaller panes at each side.   Vent Pipe: A pipe which allows gas to escape from plumbing systems.   Verge: The edge of tiles, slates or shingles, projecting over the gable of a roof.   Wainscoting: The lower three or four feet of an interior wall when lined with paneling, tile or other material different from the rest of the wall.   Wall Sheathing: Sheets of plywood, gypsum board, or other material nailed to the outside face of studs as a base for exterior siding.   Weather Stripping: Metal, wood, plastic or other material installed around door and window openings to prevent air infiltration.   Weep Hole: A small hole in a wall which permits water to drain off.