Building Construction Terminology

Roofing and Framing

• Pantile: a roofing tile with an "S" shape, laid on its side.
• Ballon framing: a system of framing a building where the studs are continuous to the roof, supporting second-floor joints.

Masonry and Construction

• Control joints: joints used to reduce restraint by accommodating movement of masonry walls.
• Foundation wall: the part of the building foundation that forms the permanent retaining wall of the structure below grade.
• Grade beam: the part of a foundation system that supports the exterior walls of a superstructure and bears directly on the column footing.
• Post-tensioning: a structural method of construction that allows for wider intervals of columns, commonly used in large shopping centers.
• Post-tensioning: the stressing of unbounded tendons after concrete has cured.

Materials and Finishes

• Casein: a protein, the chief nitrogenous ingredient in milk.
• Alloy: a composition of two or more metals fused together to obtain a desired property.
• Wrought-iron: a commercially pure iron of fibrous nature, valued for its corrosion resistance and ductility.
• Tryolean finish: a rough plaster finish obtained by flinging plaster on a wall with a hand-operated machine.
• Glossy surfaced asphalt saturated paper: a material used to remedy vapor flow.

Stairs and Measurements

• Stair tread-riser proportion formula: RT = 75, where R is the riser and T is the tread.
• Calculation: given a riser of 6 ¼", there are 13 risers between two floors with a floor-to-floor distance of 7.8125 feet.

Woodworking and Flooring

• Gluing/pasting: a modern method of installing wood parquet flooring on wooden boards sub-flooring.
• Pabalagbag: the Filipino term for horizontal stud.
• Takip-silipan: the Filipino term for riser.
• Sinturon: the Filipino term for collar plate.
• Poleva: the Filipino term for temper (metal work).
• Hulog: the Filipino term for plumb line.
• Cantilever: a beam that projects beyond one or both its supports.
• Shear: a wall (bearing or non-bearing) designed to resist lateral forces parallel to the wall.

Ceiling and Insulation

• 24" x 48" x ½": the dimension of commercial acoustic boards for aluminum T-runners used for dropped ceilings in offices.
• 0.90M: the standard height of window sills for office rooms in upper floors.

Miscellaneous

• Backset: the horizontal distance from the face of a lock or latch to the center of the knob or lock cylinder.
• Lath and plaster: a method used to finish dry walls, which do not require appreciable amounts of moisture.
• Furring: a method of applying wallboards or plywood over studs or CHB masonry walls using a strip of wood.
• Batten: a narrow strip of wood applied to cover a joint along the edges of two parallel boards in the same plane.
• Beam blocking: the boxing in of covering a joist, beam, or girder to give the appearance of a larger beam.