1. F09plastic's Visual Dictionary

2. Air Barrier Paper

A semi-permeable membrane
that allows water vapor to pass
through but not air or liquid
water.

It is used to prevent infiltration
of air into and out of the house,
which can increase enegy
costs, and to increase the
integrity of the envelope.

3. Attic Ventilation: Soffit Vent

Openings in the soffits of a
roof that allow airflow into the
roof cavities and prevent
condensation caused by the
humid air from the interior of
the house. Soffit vents also
serve to cool the house during
the summer by allowing heated
air to escape the attic cavities.

4. Attic Ventilation: Ridge Vent

Allows even and continuous
airflow into the highest portion
of the attic space, in order to
prevent the buildup humid air.

5. Attic Ventilation: Gable Vent

Gable vents aid in the
ventilation off the attic by
creating cross drafts in the
wind that blows through the
attic space cooling it down and
removing water vapor.

6. Attic Ventilation: Roof Turbine

Turbine vents use wind to pull
humid air out of the attic
space. They use a mechanism
that allows them to remove
much more air from the attic
space than a plain roof vent
can.

7. Backhoe

A large piece of excavating
equipment that consists of a
two part articulated digging
arm with a toothed bucket on
the end, and moves on a set of
tracks.

8. Brick Arches

Single Rowlock Brick
Arch

Flat Shouldered Arch

9. Brick Bonds

Running Bond- alternating
stretchers

Stack Bond- Bricks one on top
of the other without alternating

10. Brick Bonds cont'd

Header

Stretcher

Soldier

Sailor

Rowlocks

11. Brick Sizes

Closure Standard Brick in a
header (3 5/8”x 3 5/8”x 8”)

Unable to determine length or
true dimensions because of
height from the ground

12. Bulldozer

A bulldozer is a piece of
equipment that moves on
tracks and is fitted on the front
with a large plate called a
blade.

Buldozers are used for pushing
large quantities of soil or
gravel etc.

13. Cladding

Brick

Wood Boards

Stone (coursed ashlar)

14. Cladding cont'd

Wooden Shingles

15. Code Requirements: Bedroom Window

IBC window minimums
require at least 5.7 sq ft of
opening total. 34 1/4” inches
wide across the opening and a
24” tall opening are required
for single or double hung
windows. Also it must be at
least 44” above the finish floor.

My window is 49” wide and
the opening is 24” tall, and
thusly satisfies the opening
size code. Unfortunately it is
only 39” above the finish floor,
which does not meet the 44”
minimum

16. Concrete Joints: Control Joints/
Isolation Joints

Control Joints are intentionally
placed linear discontinuities
placed in order to control the
weak points and the location of
the cracks.

Isolation Joints are control
joints that are located where
concrete comes in contact with
another material or object (e.g.
the brick column). They are
there in order to allow room
for the expansion, contraction,
and other movements of the
concrete slabs.

17. Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU)

CMUs are blocks of hardened
concrete with or without core
holes designed to be used in
the same manner as bricks or
stone.

CMU are typically 8” wide 8”
tall and 16” long

3 courses of standard brick
equal 1 CMU.

18. CMU cont'd

CMU comes in a
variety of sizes and
styles. This is 12” wide
CMU.

6” wide CMU

19. Decorative Concrete Masonry Units

Split Face Block CMU

Ribbed Block CMU

20. Doors: Panel Door (1 lite 2 panels)

Panel

Stile

Top rail

Lock rail

Bottom rail

21. Door: Transom

A Transom is a window that
does not open and is located
directly above a door in order
to allow sunlight into the
building.

22. Door: Sidelight

Sidelights are fixed windows
that sit directly to the left and
right of an exterior door, and
provide sunlight to the interior
of the building.

23. Electrical components

Transformer- steps down
voltage of electricity coming
into the house from the power
lines.

Service head- the central
location at which the
electricity enters the house.
Feeds directly into the service
panel through the meter.

Meter- device that records the
total amount of electricity used
by a household over a certain
period of time.

24. Electrical Components cont'd

Service Panel- The control
center for electrical circuits in
the house. Contains main
disconnect switch and circuit
breakers for different parts of
the house.

Duplex Receptacle – location
at which an appliance can be
connected to the house circuit
that contains two plug-ins.

25. Framing Elements

1. Anchor Bolt

2. Sill Plate

26. Framing Elements cont'd

3. Floor Joist

4. Subflooring

27. Framing Elements cont'd

5. Sole Plate

6. Stud

28. Framing Elements cont'd

7. Top Plate

8. Ceiling Joists

29. Framing Elements cont'd

9. Rafter

10. Roof decking

30. Framing Elements cont'd

11. Sheathing

12. Stringer

31. Front End Loader

A front end loader is a wheeled
machine that uses two arms
attached to a bucket to move
material such as gravel, soil, or
asphalt from the ground to a
different location like a
conveyor belt or dump truck.

32. Gypsum Board

Gypsum board is an interior
facing panel consisting of a
gypsum core sandwiched
between paper faces.

Gypsum Board serves as a
smooth and continuous interior
finish surface.

33. Heat Pump

Compressor/Evaporator – pulls
in outside air in order to cool
or heat a refrigerant which is
sent to the air handling unit.

Air Handling Unit-Takes
refrigerant from the
compressor/evaporator and
circulates it throughout the
building.

An advantage to this system is
the ability to rapidly heat a
building with it

A chief disadvantage is all the
noise that the system makes
when operating

34. Insulation

Insulation serves to keep the
integrity of a building's
thermal envelope, by retaining
air of a certain temperature in
the interior of the building.

Batt insulation

Loose Fill (in packaging)

Rigid Board

Foamed

35. Lintel

A lintel is a beam that caries
the load of a wall across the
opening of a door or window.

36. Mortar Joints

Concave Tooled joint

Raked Joint (tooled as well)

These joints are 3/8” wide and
due to the fact that they are
both part of a veneer, the
mortar is likely medium
strength (N) or medium high-
strength (S).

37. Oriented Strand Board (OSB)

OSB is a building panel
composed of long shreds of
wood fiber oriented in specific
directions and bonded together
under pressure.

38. Plumbing

Lavatory- drained with a 1
1/2” diameter pipe.

Water Closet- drained with a
3” diameter pipe.

Drop-In style sink

Plumbing Vent Stack- Allows
air into the drainage pipes for a
plumbing system

39. Plywood

A wood panel composed of
layers of wood veneer bonded
together under pressure

40. Rebar

Rebar is a shortened term for
steel reinforcing bars in
concrete or masonry.

This rebar is ½” in diameter
and would thusly be referred to
as #4 rebar.

The deformations in the
surface of the rebar are to
increase the friction between
the rebar and the poured
concrete thusly keeping the
rebar fixed in place.

41. Steep Roof Drainage

Gutter – a channel that collects
rainwater and snowmelt at the
eave of a roof.

Downspout – A vertical pipe
for conducting water down
from a roof to a lower level.

Splashblock – A small precast
block of concrete or plastic
used to divert water at the
bottom of a downspout.

42. Steep Roof Materials: Underlayment

Underlayment – A layer of
waterproof material such as
building felt between roof
sheathing and roofing

The underlayment provides an
extra waterproof layer between
the sheathing and the roofing
itself.

43. Steep Roof Materials: Clay Tile

Clay Roofing Tiles

44. Steep Roof Materials: Shingles

A small unit of waterproof
material nailed in overlapping
fashion with many other such
units to render a wall or
sloping roof watertight.

The shingles in theses
photographs are concrete tile
shingles which have been
formed like clay tiles.

45. Steep Roof Materials: Metal Panel

Metal panel roofs are
commonly made out of
galvanized steel, copper, lead-
coated, copper, stainless steel,
terne, and terne coated
stainless steel.

46. Steep Roof Shapes

Gable Roof

Hip Roof

Gambrel Roof

Mansard Roof

47. Steep Roof Terms

Ridge- The highest point on
the roof.

Valley- The sloping
intersection of two roofing
planes.

Rake- The sloping edge of a
roof.

48. Steep Roofing Terms cont'd

Eave- The level low
edge of a roof.

Soffit- the
undersurface of a
horizontal element of a
building.

49. Steep Roofing Terms cont'd

Fascia- The exposed
vertical face of an
eave.

No Fascia

50. Stone

Random Rubble

Coursed Rubble

51. Stone cont'd

Random Ashlar

52. Vapor Retarder

A layer of material intended to
obsruct the passage of water
vapor through a building
assembly.

The vapor barrier's job is to
prevent water vapor from the
humid interior air from
infiltrating the inside of the
wall and damaging the
insulation. It is typically placed
on the inside of the insulation
rolls for this purpose.

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

54. Windows

Casement Window- Opens by
swinging out and being
operated by a crank.

Single Sash Single Hung- This
window opens by a single
sliding sash

Awning- Operates my rotating
outward from the top of the
sash.