Renovating, remodeling, or building a house can be an incredibly stressful experience. There’s the cost, of course, and the disruption to your life and schedule. But there’s also the lack of control: Once you sign the papers and cut the checks, contractors invade your private space and take over.
What makes this experience worse is that you’re often disadvantaged by their expertise. Yes, that’s why you hired them, but contractors can intimidate (sometimes on purpose) by pummeling you with a lot of jargon and terms that you don’t understand, leveraging their experience and knowledge to push you to agree to their suggestions or to forestall any interference. The best way to defend against this kind of confusion is to know some of the lingo being thrown around. Having these definitions in your head won’t make you an expert, but at least you’ll know what your contractors are talking about.
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Aprons and stools. An “apron” is the trim piece under a window. The “stool” is the flat piece that sits on top, forming the small ledge inside the window.
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Backfill. If your contractor has to dig holes or excavate areas of the property (to install plumbing or other infrastructure), they will backfill the holes with material when they’re done. This is usually dirt or gravel.
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Bearing point. A bearing point is where the load from above (the weight of the house) is transferred to the foundation. Typically, you’ll find a column at bearing points.
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Bearing wall. A load-bearing wall supports the floor above. These walls can’t be easily removed or moved because you must first reinforce the floor above, then install a permanent solution for supporting it (typically a large beam).
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Bib. If you have a garden hose in your backyard, it’s likely connected to a bib, which looks like a faucet.
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Bleeding. Bleeding is the process of letting air escape from pipes. It’s a pretty simple process, but skipping it can result in air pockets that make your plumbing knock and sputter.
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Board foot. This is a calculation of lumber volume, not length. A board foot is a piece of lumber that is 1 inch thick and 12 inches square, for 144 cubic inches. It’s mainly used to estimate the amount of lumber needed for a project and is rarely used in a residential project—but if it is, now you know what it means.
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Bullnose. Any rounded edge on a finished part of the house. Most typically you’ll hear this in reference to countertops or tile.
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Cantilever. A cantilever is a beam or joist that extends out beyond the wall in order to support an extension. This is often a balcony or bump-out that has no foundation of its own.
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Casing, trim, molding. While there are technical differences between casing, trim, and molding, in general these terms all refer to the decorative pieces used to cover gaps around windows and doors and between walls and floors or ceilings. Contractors sometimes use these terms interchangeably.
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Chase. A chase is a groove cut into a masonry wall intended to act as a channel for pipes or wires. Usually these channels are intended to be covered over, and cutting them into the wall allows for the covering to rest flush.
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Cladding. This is a layer of material attached to the exterior of the house that isn’t load-bearing. Its essential functions are decorative and protective, shielding the home’s structure from the elements. Stucco is an example of cladding on a home.
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Clean-out. A clean-out is an access point in a pipe. It’s usually a cap with a square top, and they’re designed to give you easier access to the pipe in case it’s blocked, making it easier to clean out the clog.
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Control/expansion joint. When you have a poured concrete floor, heat and other factors can cause it to shift, expand, contract, or crack. An expansion joint is put in place to separate slabs, allowing them to shift independently instead of stressing adjacent slabs. A control joint is cut into the pour and helps prevent cracking.
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Coping. Coping is a material used to cap off a masonry wall. Its primary functions are decorative as well as water resistance—the coping prevents rain from entering the wall while giving it a finished look.
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Corner bead. This is the metal, plastic, or vinyl piece that’s fitted over drywall corners prior to mudding and taping. It reinforces the drywall and gives it a clean, precise finish.
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Door leaf. The door “leaf” is what most of us think of as the door itself—the big panel that swings on the hinges. Most doors are single-leaf doors. Double doors are technically double-leaf doors, and if only one leaf has a latch it’s known as the “active leaf.” Folding doors can have multiple leaves.
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Drip cap. This is a piece of flashing that’s installed over windows and doors to direct rainwater to either side so it literally doesn’t drip on you. It should always be installed.
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Envelope. Your home’s “envelope” is a combination of materials and structures that seal it off from the outside. It includes walls, windows, doors, and the roof, among other elements. Anything that compromises the envelope should be avoided unless there’s a solid plan for re-establishing it.
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Fascia and soffit. These terms are part of the roof system on your house. The fascia is a broad-faced board that runs along the bottom of the roof and helps repel water while providing an attachment point for your gutters. The soffit is the flat structure underneath the fascia, and also helps keep water out of the ho
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Fishing wire. When an electrician has to install wiring behind an existing wall, they call the process of getting it from one point to the other “fishing” the wire because it resembles reeling in a fish.
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Flashing. Flashing is any material used to prevent water intrusion into a home. Some flashing is installed under other materials, like window flashing. Some flashing, like drip caps, are installed on the exterior of the home.
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Floor area ratio. This is a calculation used in zoning that defines how much floor space can be constructed on a lot. For example, if the floor area ratio of your property is 2.0 and the lot is 1,000 square feet, you can build a structure (or multiple structures) with a total square footage (not counting unoccupied areas like unfinished basements) of 2,000 square feet.
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Joists and rafters. Rafters are the beams that form the structure of your roof. Sometimes these are exposed in an attic, sometimes they’re hidden behind drywall (typically in flat roof systems). Joists are the horizontal beams that support the floors in your home.
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Millwork. Millwork typically refers to trim and casing pieces that come pre-worked and ready to install.
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Plate, header, studs. These are the three main terms to know about wall framing. When framing a wood wall, a bottom plate is the board (typically a 2×4) placed on top of the floor, a top plate runs along the ceiling, and the studs form the “guts” of the wall (a “king stud” is a pair of 2x4s). A header is the horizontal framing at the top of windows and doors, designed to support the load from above.
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Punch list. A final list of minor fixes and changes that must be completed before the project is considered completed. Punch list items should not be major repairs. This becomes more important as you approach the end of the work, as the punch list is often your last chance to get things corrected before your contractor takes final payment and moves on.
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Return. The return vent pulls air from your home and brings it back to the furnace or air conditioner to be heated or cooled and then recirculated.
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Ripping boards. If your contractor starts talking about ripping boards, they don’t mean vandalism. They mean cutting it lengthwise to lessen its width.
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Rough-in. Plumbing and electrical rough-ins are the fundamental pipes and wiring running through the house, without final connections or fixtures. Sometimes rough-ins are left for future upgrades; this often happens in unfinished basements, where plumbing rough-ins for future bathrooms can sometimes be found.
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Setback. This is the minimum distance between a structure and a property line, another building, or a road. It’s common for municipalities to require a certain amount of open space between the rear of your house and the property line, for example. This can limit the size of additions or other changes to the property.
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Takeoff. A takeoff is a detailed list of the materials needed for your project, how much of each is needed, and the specifications for each. It’s crucial that what’s used in your project matches the takeoff.