Glossary Of Terms
Barge Flashing - Pieces of metal, usually lead, copper or zinc which run between a flat roof and a sloping slated roof, to prevent water penetrating junctions.
Blocking Course - plain course, usually stone, forming a low parapet superimposed on a cornice usually concealing a gutter.
Brattishing - in roofs, the ornamental cresting of cast or wrought iron crowning a roof, but sometimes also found applied to cornices and other ornamental features.
Cant/Edge bedding - occurs where the layers of the stone are vertical and run at 90 degrees to the plane of the wall. Projections such as cornices and pediments should be edge bedded.
Cement Mortar - mortar, introduced in mid-nineteenth century, in which the binding agent, hydraulic Portland cement, is mixed with fine aggregate.
Copes - The covering course of a wall, designed to throw water off it, also called capping.
Crow Step - steps on a gable upstanding from the plane of a roof.
Cupola - small domed roof structure over stair, typically, glazed to let light in.
Damp Proof Course - A course of impermeable material to prevent damp rising from the earth and penetrating a wall.
Dormer - A window placed on the inclined plane of a roof, the frame being placed vertically on the rafters.
Downpipes - Pipes which run down the outside of a building for carrying away rainwater and waste water etc.
Dry dashed - A rough textured finish in which clean small pebbles or crushed rock chippings of a suitable size are thrown onto a freshly applied coat of mortar and left exposed.
Eaves - overhanging edge of a roof.
Entry Phone System - A security system normally attached to the main entrance to allow you to contact the properties within the building.
Fanlight - glazed area above a door, if rectangular rather than semi-circular, semi-elliptical or segmental, more correctly an over-door light.
Flashing - usually lead, copper or zinc forming an upstand at a wall/roof junction to prevent water ingress.
Gas cowl - Lets ventilation into the chimney stack without allowing water etc into the chimney.
Harl - Scottish form of roughcast in which the mixture of the aggregate (small even-sized pebbles) and binding material (in traditional harl sand and lime) is dashed on to a masonry wall; in traditional harls the aggregate is in the mix (wet dash) in non-traditional 20th century harls the aggregate is dashed separately (dry dash).
Hip - the external angle formed by the sides of a roof when the ends slope backwards instead of terminating in a gable.
Lime Mortar - traditional mortar for buildings; a mixture of slaked lime and aggregates, sometimes with the addition of hair.
Lime Washed - Is the traditional treatment for all internal and external plastered walls. It is applied to walls to improve the surface of cracks and joints in buildings.
Linoston - A repair done by cutting off defected stone and applying a cement render then a resign coating with stone dust applied to it.
Lintel - A horizontal piece of stone or wood over an opening.
Margins - framing an opening or emphasising the angle of a building; most are raised (usually adopted when the building was to be harled but sometimes used decoratively.
Ogee - The shape of a pointed arch the sides of which are each formed of a double curve, one convex and the other concave.
Oriel-Window - polygonal window, built out from a wall, usually supported on brackets or corbels.
Parapet - a low wall to protect any place where there is a drop. It may be battlemented, plain pierced, or ornamented.
Pediments - In Renaissance architecture, gables and openings are adorned with triangular or segmental pediments.
Pinnings finish - Small stones use for filling up the crevices in masonry walls.
Plastic Repair - A repair to the stonework using a polymer mixture applied to renew the finished surface of a render.
Pointing - the treatment of exposed mortar joints in masonry or brickwork.
Raggle - To cut groove in stone to meet another stone or similar.
Rendering - The plastering of a surface with stucco, plaster or some other finish.
Rhone - a half-round gutter.
Ridges - The upper angle of a roof.
Rooflight - A window which is built into the roof to allow light into the building, it can be flat or on a sloping roof.
Sash and Case - a form of window in which the glazing slides in two parallel frames within the case, the upper sliding outward of the lower.
Skew - sloping tabling, sometimes coped, finishing a gable which is upstanding from the plane of a roof.
Sub-floor Vent - small ventilator installed in external walls between a suspended timber ground floor and ground level to ventilate the space.
T-pren joins - A gutter expansion joint used in valley and parapet up stands where traditional methods would not be suitable.
Turret - A small tower or a large pinnacle.
Upstand - Step, vertical section adjacent to and rising above a horizontal area.
Valley - the internal meeting of two slopes of a roof.
Verge - projecting edge of a roof overhanging gable of building.