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House Survey Glossary
Adze
A type of axe with an arched blade at right angles to the handle.
Art Nouveau
A movement that started in the last decades of the 19th century using naturalistic an flower forms as a basis for design.
Axial
Parallel to the long front and back walls in a house.
Barrel vault
Arched ceiling, like the inside of a barrel.
Beam
A long horizontal timber used anywhere in a house.
Bolection moulding
An s-shaped moulding used commonly for the surrounds of doors, windows and fireplaces.
Cambered
A convex or slightly arched shape.
Chamfer/ chamfered
A bevelled edge, especially to a beam.
Clasped purlin
Horizontal beam in the roof carried inside the angle formed by an A-framed truss.
Classical
A broad term; in Britain generally spanning from the end of the mediaeval period to the close of the Georgian period in the early 19th century.
Elevation
Drawing showing one side of a building.
Gable dormer
A dormer window is one within the roof, a gable is where an end wall of a house is carried up to the roof tip, as opposed to a mansard where the roof meets the eaves of a house on all four sides.
Gothic
A style of architecture originating in the later 12th century and characterised by pointed arches.
Header
A brick seen end-on in a wall; a bond stone penetrating two thirds through the thickness of a wall.
Lintel
A beam spanning a door or window opening.
Pilaster
Rectangular pillar attached to a wall.
Pintle
A bolt or pin to hang a hinge for a door.
Purlin
Horizontal beam in a roof.
Mortise or mortice
A socket cut in the side or end of one member to form a joint with the tenon cut at the end of another member.
Nogging
The use of bricks or stones to fill the spaces between timbers in a timber-framed building.
Norman
Romanesque architecture as it appeared in Britain.
Ogee
A geometrical form where two opposed quarter circle curves are placed end to end, creating an 'S' form.
Ovolo-moulding
A quarter-round moulding.
Queen post
Where two posts rise from the tie beam of a roof truss to support the purlins.
Rat trap bond
Bricks laid horizontally on their edge. This is a cheap, quick way of building a wall. Used mainly in the late 18th century.
Reeded
Decoration of narrow parallel convex mouldings in a row.
Romanesque
A style of architecture prevalent before the advent of Gothic characterised by round, rather than pointed arches.
Spandrel
The space made in the corners between an arch and the outer frame.
Soldier arch
A flat lintel of bricks (as opposed to a segmental arch in which the bricks are formed into a slight curve).
Stretcher
Brick laid side on in a wall.
Stop
The decorative end of a chamfer.
Tenon
A projection of reduced cross-section formed in or near the end of a member and designed to form a joint when pushed into the mortise in another member.
Tenoned and pegged
A method of further fastening a mortise and tenon joint by use of pegs run through the joint.
Transverse
Parallel to the short end walls of a house.
Tripartite keyblock
The protruding block over the centre of the doorway, in three parts.
Tudor
16th century architecture. The 4-centred Tudor arch continued to be popular through the 17th century.
Waney
Wandering, not straight.
Wattle and daub
The infilling of woven hazel or willow rods around upright staves coated in a mixture of dung, straw and mud in a timber-framed wall.
Wind brace
A curved timber added to the structure of a roof for extra stiffening against a strong wind.
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