Definition: A sheet material used as both a vapor retarder and an air barrier.

What it’s doing: Here it is serving as a barrier against weather elements while renovations are completed.

Air Barrier Paper

Attic VentilationGable Vent

Attics are ventilated to allow water vapor to escape, and to keep the house cooler during the summer by preventing the buildup of solar heat conducted through the roofing and roof sheathing. It is advantageous to have both low and high vents.

Roof Turbine

Soffit Vent

• Soffit vents are used for the required intake ventilation. • Gable vents are used to create a cross draft in a wind, and ridge vents are used to ventilate continuously along an entire roof. • The roof turbine is another form of high-ventilation.

BackhoeA backhoe is a piece of excavating equipment consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. Backhoes are used to pick up and move fill. The bucket of the one shown is 17” wide.

Batter Boards

Batter Boards are a temporary frame built just outside the corner of an excavation to carry marks that lie on the surface planes of the basement that will be built in the excavation. They are used to mark the outline of the house for excavation purposes.

The arch to the left and above is an elliptical arch.

Brick Arches

Centering- Temporary framework for an arch, dome, or vault.

‘Arch with a keystone’. The arch below is a Roman arch. Here is its keystone

Brick Bonds

Flemish Bond- Each course of brick consists of alternating headers and stretchers, with the headers centered over the stretchers in intervening courses.

Running Bond- All stretchers. This one is laid in ½ bond.

Soldier

Rowlock

Header

Sailor

Brick Sizes

The brick below is half the size of the modular brick and it is used for decoration purposes.

The Brick above is w x 2 ¼”. x 7 ½” This brick is a modular brick and the width should be between 3 ½” and 3 5/8”.

Bulldozer• A bulldozer is a crawler equipped with a substantial metal plate, used to push large quantities of soil, sand, rubble, etc. during construction work.

CladdingWood Boards

Stone

Brick

Wood Shingles

Wood shingles are thin, tapered slabs of wood sawn from short pieces of tree trunk.

Code Requirements

My window opens to approximately 22 ½” x 34 ¾” and 9 ½” AFF. The area of opening is almost 5 ½’ , which is well over the required 5’ of opening for bedrooms on the first floor. However, the minimum height opening in 24”, so my window does not meet IRC standards. The sill height is adequate, however, because IRC prescribes a 44” max AFF sill.

The IRC regulates that tread depth should be no less that 10”, and risers should be no more than 7 ¾”. The treads shown are 11 ½” and the risers are 7 ½” so they meet the building codes.

11 ½”

7 ½”

A control joint is an intentional, linear discontinuity in a structure or component, designed to form a plane of weakness where cracking can occur in response to various forces so as to minimize or eliminate cracking elsewhere in the structure.

CrackControl Joint

Concrete Joints

An isolation joint is an intentional discontinuity in a concrete component which separates it from another building component to prevent cracking around the component. Here the control joint is separating a concrete slab from a brick column.

Concrete Masonry UnitsConcrete Masonry Units, or CMUs, are blocks of hardened concrete, with or without hollow cores, designed to be laid in the same manner as brick or stone; a concrete block. Generally their dimensions are 8” x 8” x 16”

The CMU in the picture to the left is 8” x 4” x 6”

Decorative Concrete Masonry Units

Split Block

Painted CMU

Doors

Sidelight- A tall, narrow window alongside a door.

Transom-A small window directly above a door.

Panel Door:

Top Rail

Panel

Lock Rail

Stile

Bottom Rail

Flush Exterior Door

Electrical Components

Power Generator: A machine that converts mechanical energy into electricity to serve as a power source for other machines.

Circuit Breaker: A device for interrupting an electric circuit to prevent excessive current, as that caused by a short circuit, from damaging the apparatus in the circuit or from causing a fire.

Service Panel: A panel distributes the electricity from wires to receptacles throughout the house.

Electrical Outlet: Areceptacle providing a place in a wiring system where current can be taken to run electrical devices.

Framing Elements

1. Sheathing2. Subflooring3. Floor Joist4. Sill Plate5. Sole Plate6. Stud7. Top Plate8. Ceiling Joist9. Rafter10. Roof

Decking11. Anchor Bolt12. Stringer

1

2

3

4

11

Framing Elements (continued)

9

8

10

12

5

7

6

Front End LoaderA piece of excavating equipment with a large, broad scoop on the front. Primarily used to "load" material into or onto another type of machinery (dump truck, conveyor belt, feed-hooper, rail-car, etc.).

Gypsum Board

An interior facing panel consisting of a gypsum core sandwiched between paper faces; also called drywall, plasterboard.

Heat Pump

Advantage: Rapid Response time.Disadvantage: Relatively Noisy

Compressor: Contains the fan which moves air across coils which contain refrigerant to change the temperature of the refrigerant.

Insulation A material with a low thermal conductivity that is included in a building assembly for the purpose of reducing heat flow through the assembly. Helps keep energy efficiency.

Loose Fill

Foaming

Rigid Board

Batt/Blanket

Lintel

A beam that carries the load of a wall across a window or door.

MortarThe mortar joint below is beaded. It is a little under ½” thick and is tooled. It is found on the a column at a bank. The mortar type is most likely type S.

Oriented Strand Board (OSB)A nonveneered panel product composed of long shreds of wood fiber oriented in specific directions and bonded together under pressure.

The layers of OSB are laid so that the two outer layers have grains running in the same direction, and the inner layers run perpendicular. These layers are then dried, glued, and pressed together.

Manufacturing Process:

Plumbing Drop-in sink

Lavatory- A basin, or bowl used for washing. Typical piping size of 1 ½” diameter.

Water ClosetTypically a 3” diameter pipe

Plywood

Plywood is a wood panel composed of an odd number of layers of wood veneer bonded together under pressure. The wood is rotary sliced off the tree, then dried to remove moisture, cut to size, glued in layers, and the pressed into boards.

Veneer- A thin layer, sheet, or facing.

Radiant Barrier

Rebar½” diameter rebar. Referred to as #4 because it is 4 eigths of an inch. The Deformations on the surface of the rebar are to give it more surface space to adhere to concrete and grout, and to prevent slippage within the concrete.

Steep Roof DrainageGutter: A channel that collects rainwater and snow melt at the eave of a roof.

Downspout: A vertical pipe for conducting water from a roof to a lower level

Splashblock: A cement block located at the bottom of a downspout which prevents soil erosion at the opening.

Steep Roof Materials

Underlayment: A layer of waterproof material between roof sheathing and roofing. It protects from leakage and weather which may penetrate the roofing material.

Shingle: A small unit of water resistant material nailed in overlapping fashion with many other such units to render a wall or sloping roof watertight. The ones to the left are metal.

Metal Panel Roof: Typically made of enamel-coated galvanized steel, copper, lead-coated copper, stainless steel, terne, and terne-coated stainless steel.

Steep Roof Shapes

Hip Gable

Mansard Gambrel

Steep Roof Terms

FasciaRidge Eave

Soffit

Rake

Eave: Level, low edge of a roof.Rake: sloping edge of a roofRidge: The level intersection of roof planes at their highest point.Valley: The sloping intersection of two roof planes.Fascia: Board nailed to the lower ends of the raftersSoffit: Encloses rafter tails.

House without a fascia board ( same house as on framing terms page, I am in the picture there)

StoneCoursed Ashlar

Random Ashlar

Vapor RetarderA layer of material intended to obstruct the passage of water vapor through a building assembly. This one is attached to insulation. Generally, it is put on the warmer (warm in winter) side of the insulation.

Waterproofing

The waterproofing on this building is protecting it from penetration by water that may seep through the soil.

Liquid-applied membranes that cure in place are relatively easy to detail around penetrations and other transitions, since in liquid state, the membrane can easily form itself to any shape.

A small opening whose purpose is to permit drainage of water that accumulates inside a building component or assembly.

Weep Hole

Welded Wire Fabric

A group of steel rods welded together, used to reinforce concrete slabs.

Windows

The window to the right is a fixed window casement because it does not open.

The window above is a double hung window because it slides into an open position.

The pictures to the left and right are of the same window. It is an awning window because it is hinged at the top and opens at the bottom.