So you’ve started along your journey to building your own home. You’re rolling up your sleeves and getting ready to dig in and learn about how it all works. But before long you’re wondering why you have a ‘Frog’ in your walls, and a ‘Hip’ on your roof? And will it cause a ‘Muck’ and ‘Spoil’ your ‘Pickled floor’? Or will the ‘Jamb’ ‘Trap’ it? Lucky for you, you’ve got a ‘Fixed Price’ contract and it’s part of the ‘Inclusions’, so you can relax.
You could quickly become overwhelmed and confused by some of the building jargon that gets thrown around when you start looking to build your new home. We all know a ‘Chippie’ isn’t just something you eat with your fish, but do you know the essentials so that you can make confident decisions?
Here are some (non essential) terms that will give you some builder cred!
Frog – The indentation in the top of most bricks
Jamb – The vertical sides of a door or window frame
Hip – The slopping angle where two roof planes meet to form a ridge
Muck – Bricklayer’s nickname for sand and cement mortar
Pickled floor – Informal casual look when you rub white paint into stained wood flooring
Skim – Finishing coat of plaster
Spoil – Material dug out during excavation
Noggin – Short wooden inserts between joists
Screed – A thin layer on a floor to level the surface
Trap – A plumbing fitting that holds water to prevent air and gas backing up into the fixture
Sconce – A light fixture attached to a wall
Stretcher – The long face of the brick/tile, with the joint of the course above in the centre of the face of the brick below.
Toenailing – Nailing an angle to connect one framing piece to a second
Tongue & groove – A way of connecting wood, where the tongue of a board is placed into the groove following it.
And on a more serious note, here are some common ones:
Brick veneer – Thin covering of bricks applied to a timber frame
Easement – A section of land on your property around which building restrictions may apply. Examples include, sewerage pipes, driveways, electricity poles.
Fascia – A board fixed to the rafter ends along the roof eaves
Fixed Price – A type of contract in which the builder agrees to an established price in advance. Fixed priced contracts can still include ‘prime cost’ and ‘provisional sum’ items which are subject to variation.
Flashing – Sheet metal or other material used in roof and wall construction to protect it from water seepage.
Inclusion – The fittings and fixtures that are included in the base price of the home.
Lintel – A horizontal structure that supports the load over an opening (eg. Door or window)
Lumens – Unit of measure for total light output. The higher the lumens the more light that is output. Ambient light will generally be 60-200 lumens, task orientated light within a home will be generally 200-500.
Prime cost – Allowances made for the supply of items where the final selection is yet to be confirmed. These costs are subject to change depending on the final selection, and do not include installation costs.
Provisional sum – Allowances made for the supply of items where the final selection is yet to be confirmed. These costs are subject to change depending on the final selection, and do include labour installation costs.
Setbacks – The distance from the property boundary to your home.
Truss – A prefabricated triangular timber framework commonly used in roof constructions
Upgrade – The fittings and fixtures that are available at an additional cost
Variations – A change to the approved plans and specifications occurring during construction. There is often an additional cost associated with any variations made after construction has commenced. They could take the form of materials and or/labour costs.
Just when you thought ‘toenailing’ a ‘noggin’ was a bad thing, in fact, it is part of every good home!
Let us do the legwork for you.
- We’ll ask the right questions to better understand your needs
- We’ll create a recommended shortlist ideally matched to you
- We’ll answer specific questions or concerns related to home building, land purchasing or financing
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