Home Building Terminology

Baseboard: A moulding which goes around the perimeter of a room at the base of the walls.
Base Cabinet: A cabinet that generally rests on the floor with a toekick and countertop.
Batten: A small rectangular piece of wood positioned vertically to cover the seam of adjoining siding boards.
Bay Window: A window generally consisting of thre wall segments. Two side wall segments attached to the main wall plane of the home project at some angle and adjoin a wall section parallell to the home's main wall surface. Each wall section contains a window (or windows).
Beam: A framing member usually sigificantly larger than other framing members that carries roof or floor loads over a certain span.
Bearing Wall: Any wall that carries a structural load.
Bifold Door: Usually used for interior closet doors, a bifold door is made of two hinged panels that fold to one side of the opening.
Birdsmouth: A notch that is cut out of a rafter where it rests on a bearing wall.
Bow Window: A window consisting of many wall segments that create an overall arch or curve out from the main wall surface. Each wall segment generally has it's own window.
Box Window: Similar to a bay window the box window is constructed of three separate panels. Each panel contains a window. The side panels are perpendicular to the main wall surface (rather than at any angle) and the middle section is paralell to the main wall surface.
Bridging - A short horizontal framing member that joins to studs in a wall (often called blocking or fire: blocking).
Casing: Pieces of wood trim surrounding a window or door.
Casement Window: A window that pivots on a side hinge much like a door with a handle to crank the window open.
Cathederal Ceiling: A ceiling which follows the underside of the roof or rafters creating a sloped surface.
Chair Rail: Traditionally used to protect the walls from chair backs, chair rail is a molding that tipically goes around the perimeter of the room at the chair back height.
Coffered Ceiling: A coffered ceiling generally follows the underside of the roof planes up to a specific height where the ceiling is then flattened.
Crown Molding: A decorative molding placed at the joint of a ceiling and wall surface.
Dormer: A projection of vertical walls through the sloped roof plane with a window and it's own roof that ties into the main roof of the home. Dormers allow the natural light to enter into upper floors or attic spaces.
Dropped Ceiling: A dropped ceiling is created by constructing a a ceiling plane lower than the actual ceiling height. A dropped ceiling is sometimes used to cover mechanical systems or just to provide a different ceiling treatment.
Dutch Gable Roof: A roof with gables axtending past the normal righe of a hipped roof with the hipped roof planes on the lower section. Also called a half hipped roof since part is hipped and part gabled.
Eaves: The lower part of a roof plane that extends outward from the stucture at the same slope as the roof and is generally finished with a fascia board. Sometimes refered to as the roof overhang. The eave on a gable end is sometimes referred to as the gable overhang.
Edge Flashing: The metal trim that is placed on the edge of the roof covering the seam between the roof plan on the eave and the fascia board. Sometimes refered to as drip edge.
Egress: Building codes regulate egress windows by establishing a minimum size requirement that can be adequately used as a fire escape.
Elevation: A view of an architectural model taken horizontally, looking at a vertical surface in a design.
Fascia: A horizontal board positioned on edge and attached to the ends of the rafters or truss ends where gutters are typically supported. This is called a eave facia. Facia placed on the on the end of a gable roof end is called gable fascia.
Fixtures: Any electrical, HVAC or plumbing appliance or article that is attached to the structure. (e.g. sink, tub, water heater, furnace, etc.)
Footing: A footing supports foundation or bearing walls carrying the wieght of upper floors, roof structures etc. A footing is generally wider than the foundation or bearing wall and constructed on undisturbed soil to achieve the maximum stability possible. Footings run continuously under all bearing and foundation walls.
Frieze: A trim member placed at the top of an exterior wall where the soffit of an eave and the wall surface meet.
Gable: When a roof pitch end terminates at an exterior wall a triangular shape is created within the roof planes. This tiangular wall section is called a gable.
Gable Roof: A pitched roof terminating in a gable at one or both ends.
Gambrel Roof: A gable roof where two roof pitches are used on either side of the triangular shape. The upper section toward the ridge is genarally not as steep as the lower section of each side.
Girder Truss: A truss that supports other trusses that are perpendicular to it.
Gull Wing Roof: A Gull wing roof is the opposite of a gambrel roof where each side of the gable is divided into two sections. On a gull wing roof the upper section is steeper than the lower.
Gutters: A channel attached to the fascia board designed to carry away water that runs off the roof surface.
Half Hip: A half hip roof has two gabled ends. Near the peak of the gable there is a small hipped section that extends to the ridge.
Hearth: A platform at floor level that extends in front of a fireplace. This surface can be raised but is then generally refered to as a raised hearth.
Hip Roof: A home with a hip roof has a roof place sloped upward and toward the middle of the home. A hipped roof maintains all the eaves level all the way around the home.
HVAC: Heating, air conditioning and ventilation equipment.
Joist: A horizontal framing member usually spaced at a regular interval and used to support a floor or ceiling.
Knee Wall: A short wall on an upper floor that is not regular height because a roof plane extends theough its surface at a lower point. A knee wall is usually parallell to exterior walls but set in several feet from the outer surface.
Landing: A level platform that is between two sections of stairs.
Lites: Seperated glass areas in a window, usually seperated by some sort of grid pattern.
Mansard Roof: A mansard roof is a hipped roof with two seperat roof pitches within the same plane. It is often refered to as a hipped gabrel roof.
Monolithic Slab: A single slab foundation for a house that incorporates footings at its edge without any joints.
Newel: A support post placed vetically, generally joining sections with railing and balisters.
Pier Foundation: piers are created by filled drilled holes in the ground with concrete reinforced with steel.
Pillar: a post or newel that extends to the ceiling height.
Plinth Block: A decorative block of wood often used at the bottom of door casings where the baseboard meets the door.
Pocket Door: A space saving door style that slides into the wall rather than swinging open into a room or hallway.
Pony Wall - A framed wall that extends a shorter foundation wall to full height. These are commonly used on split entry homes where the foundation walls are 3: 4 feet in height or when a homes foundation is stepped because of lot conditions.
Quoin: Large square stones or stucco trim used as decorative accents on exterior corners of buildings.
Rafter: An inclined roof framing member extending from the eave to the ridge of the home. The rafters support the exterior roof surface and snow loads.
Rebar: Reinforcing bar that is used to strengthen concrete structures.
Ridge: The highest part of a roof where the sloped roof planes meet. Sometimes refered to as the peak.
Rim Joist: A joist at the outer edge of a floor platform to which the floor joist ends meet.
Stair Riser: The vertical face of a step in a flight of stairs.
Saltbox Roof: A saltbox toof is a type of gable roof where the ridge (or peak) is off center because the pitch of the roof is different on each of the two roof sections.
Sheathing: The outer cover of a framed wall or roof section.
Shed Roof: A single sloped roof section which covers and entire area. Structures are often covered by several shed roofs sloping in various directions. Dormers are also often covered with shed roof sections.
Slab Foundation: A foundation in which a concrete slab foundation floor creates the first floor of a home. A slab foundation can be built with a stem wall and footings around it's edge or as a monolithic slab having no stem wall or footings created at it's edges.
Slider Door: A door composed of two sections. One section is active sliding over the other section when opened.
Soffit: A boxed area usually built above cabinets to fill the gap between the cabinet top and the ceiling.
Split Level: A house in which various sections of the floor plan have different floor and ceilings heights.
Stem Wall: A foundation wall section generally made of concrete below the framed section and above the footing.
Stepped Foundation: A foundation wall or stem wall that may have various heights creating a stepped look. Stepped foundation walls are often used where the slope of the lot will change the height in foundation wall needed.
Stile: A vertical face frame member of a cabinet between two doors.
Stringer: The angled member of a stair section that support the risers and treads.
Stud: A vertical framing member usually used to create walls.
Termite Flashing: Sheet metal placed where the wood framing memebrs are attached to the concrete foundation used to prevent insects from getting into the wood framed structure.
Top Plate: A horizaontal framing member placed at the top of the wall studs to carry the ceiling joists or rafters.
Transom Window: A window that is placed above a doorway.
Trimmer: A vertical framing member that supports a window or door header on its ends.
Truss: An engineered framing member used for bridging spans and supporting loads like a roof or floor. Trusses are generally trianglular in shape with cross members or webbing on the inside.
Truss Chord: The horizontal bottom member of a truss that creates the ceiling on the interior of a structure.
Valley Flashing: Sheet metal flashing that is shaped to contour the valley of a roof where two roof sections meet.
Wall Cabinet: A wall cabinet is sometimes called an ovehead cabinet. Wall cabinets are typically hung on the wall above a base cabinet and does not have a toekick or countertop.
Webbing Truss: webbing is made up of several truss members that connect the top and bottom chords filling the truss structure.
Window Sill: The bottom horizontal trim member at the base of a window projecting outward.