Remodeling Glossary

Accessibility Remodeling

Accessibility remodeling is renovation that removes physical barriers in a home, such as steps, narrow doors, high reach and slippery wet areas, so that people who use wheelchairs or walkers, or who have limited strength, balance or sight, can live there safely.

Air Sealing

Air sealing is the work of closing the cracks, holes and gaps in a home’s outer shell so that heated or cooled air cannot leak out and outdoor or attic air cannot leak in, using caulk, foam, gaskets, weatherstripping and rigid blocking.

Bathroom Exhaust Ventilation

Bathroom exhaust ventilation is a fan and duct system that pulls moist air, odors and fumes out of a bathroom and discharges them directly outdoors, so steam from showers and baths does not condense on walls, ceilings and hidden framing.

Bathroom Waterproofing: see Shower Waterproofing Membrane

Bathroom Wet Area

A bathroom wet area is the part of a bathroom that takes direct water during normal use, such as a shower compartment, the walls above a tub with a shower head and the floor of a curbless or wet-room shower, and that therefore must be built with water-resistant surfaces and backing.

Batt Insulation

Batt insulation is a type of blanket insulation sold as flat, pre-cut pieces of fiberglass, mineral wool or natural fiber, sized to fit snugly between wall studs, floor joists or ceiling joists to slow the flow of heat through those framing cavities.

Blower Door Test

A blower door test is a diagnostic test that uses a calibrated fan, sealed into an exterior doorway, to push or pull air out of a house and measure how much air leaks through the building shell.

Blown-In Insulation

Blown-in insulation is loose, fluffy insulation, usually cellulose or fiberglass, that a machine blows through a hose into attics, wall cavities and other hard-to-reach spaces, where it settles into a blanket that slows heat flow.

Building Envelope

A building envelope is the set of assemblies, such as walls, roof, floors, windows and doors, that separates the heated or cooled inside of a home from the outdoors and from unconditioned spaces like a vented attic or garage.

Building Permit

A building permit is an official document from the local building department that authorizes specific construction work, such as building, altering, repairing or demolishing a structure, and requires that work to be inspected against the adopted building code.

Cabinet Box Material

Cabinet box material is the panel product used to build the body of a cabinet, meaning its sides, bottom, top, back and shelves, most often plywood, particleboard or medium-density fiberboard (MDF), usually covered with a veneer, laminate or paint.

Cabinet Face Frame

A cabinet face frame is a rectangle of solid wood rails and stiles fastened to the front edges of a cabinet box, which stiffens the box, hides its raw edges and gives the doors, drawers and hinges something to mount to.

Cabinet Overlay

Cabinet overlay is the distance a cabinet door or drawer front extends past the edge of the opening it closes, which decides how much of the face frame or box edge stays visible around it.

Cabinet Refacing

Cabinet refacing is a remodeling method that keeps the existing cabinet boxes in place and gives them a new face: new doors and drawer fronts, a new veneer or laminate skin over the face frames and exposed sides, and usually new hinges and hardware.

Ceiling Joist

A ceiling joist is a horizontal framing member, usually a 2x lumber board or part of a truss, that spans between walls to carry the ceiling below and, in many roofs, to tie the bottom ends of the rafters together.

Certificate of Occupancy

A certificate of occupancy (CO) is a document issued by the local building official, after inspection, stating that a building or a described part of it complies with the adopted code and may legally be used for its stated purpose.

Color Rendering Index (CRI)

Color rendering index (CRI) is a 0-to-100 score of how closely a light source shows the colors of objects compared with a reference light of the same color temperature, where a higher number means colors look more natural.

Construction Contingency Budget

A construction contingency is money set aside in a remodeling budget, outside the contract price, to pay for conditions nobody could see before the walls were opened, such as rot, outdated wiring or hidden water damage.

Construction Defect

A construction defect is a flaw in the design, materials or workmanship of a building or improvement that makes it fail to meet the contract, the applicable code or accepted trade standards, and that causes or threatens damage or loss.

Construction Moisture Meter

A construction moisture meter is a hand-held tool that estimates how much water is in wood or another building material by measuring an electrical property, such as resistance between two pins or the response to a field from a flat sensor plate.

Continuous Exterior Insulation

Continuous exterior insulation is a layer of rigid insulation board installed over the outside face of the wall framing, unbroken across studs, plates and headers, so heat cannot bypass the insulation through the wood or steel.

Countertop Edge Profile

A countertop edge profile is the shape a fabricator cuts and polishes into the exposed front and side edges of a countertop, from a nearly square eased edge to rounded, beveled, stepped or built-up shapes.

Curbless Shower

A curbless shower is a shower with no raised curb at its entry, so the bathroom floor continues into the shower at the same level and a sloped floor, usually toward a linear drain, keeps water inside the wet area.

Dedicated Electrical Circuit

A dedicated electrical circuit is a branch circuit, with its own breaker in the panel, that feeds only one appliance or one code-defined group of outlets, so that load never shares capacity with lights or other receptacles.

Design-Build Remodeling

Design-build remodeling is a delivery model in which one company holds a single contract to both design the project and build it, instead of the owner hiring a designer or architect separately and then putting the drawings out to bid.

Drywall

Drywall is a building panel made of a noncombustible gypsum core with paper bonded to both faces, fastened to studs or joists to form the interior surface of walls and ceilings, then taped, coated with joint compound and painted.

Drywall Corner Bead

Drywall corner bead is a long, angled trim strip fastened over the outside corners of drywall to protect the edge from dents and give the joint compound a straight, crisp line to finish against.

Drywall Level of Finish

Drywall level of finish is a six-step scale, Level 0 to Level 5, published by the Gypsum Association in GA-214 that describes how much taping, joint compound and skim coating a gypsum board surface gets before paint or other decoration.

Ductless Mini-Split System

A ductless mini-split system is a heat pump or air conditioner that links an outdoor compressor unit to one or more indoor air handlers mounted in the rooms, joined only by refrigerant lines, a power cable and a condensate drain, so it moves heat without any ductwork.

Egress Window

An egress window is a window large enough, low enough and easy enough to open that a person can climb out of a bedroom or basement in a fire and a firefighter can climb in, built to the emergency escape and rescue opening rules of the residential building code.

Electrical Panel Capacity

Electrical panel capacity is the largest current, in amperes, that a home’s electrical service and main panel are rated to deliver at once, set by the main breaker and service conductors and checked against a load calculation of everything the house might run.

Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Engineered hardwood flooring is a real wood floor board made of several layers of wood veneer or slats glued together with the grain running in opposing directions, topped by a hardwood wear layer that forms the visible, walkable surface.

Engineered Wood Beam

An engineered wood beam is a horizontal structural member made in a factory by gluing wood veneers, strands or boards together under heat and pressure, so it is stronger, straighter and more uniform than a sawn lumber beam of the same size.

Existing Building Code

An existing building code is a model code, most often the International Existing Building Code (IEBC), that sets the rules for repairing, altering, adding to, changing the use of and moving buildings that already exist, so that work on them does not have to meet every new-construction rule.

Expansion Gap in Flooring

An expansion gap in flooring is the space left between the edge of a floor and the walls, cabinets, pipes and other fixed objects around it, so the floor can swell and shrink with humidity and temperature without buckling.

Exterior Door Threshold

An exterior door threshold is the strip fixed across the bottom of an outside door opening, between the jambs, that the door closes against to block air and water while giving a durable surface to step over.

Final Building Inspection: see Rough-In Inspection

Floating Floor Installation

Floating floor installation is a method of laying flooring in which the planks or tiles lock or glue to each other but are not fastened to the subfloor, so the whole floor rests on the surface below as one connected sheet.

Floor Joist

A floor joist is one of a series of parallel horizontal framing members, usually lumber or engineered wood I-joists, that span between walls, beams or foundations to carry the subfloor and everything on it down to the supports at each end.

Floor Underlayment

Floor underlayment is a thin layer installed between the subfloor and the finished floor, such as foam, cork, rubber, felt, plastic sheeting or thin plywood panels, that cushions the floor, smooths small flaws, blocks moisture from below or reduces noise, depending on the type.

Frameless Cabinet Construction: see Cabinet Face Frame

Grout Joint

A grout joint is the space left between tiles, filled with grout, that locks the tiles together, seals their edges and absorbs the small differences in tile size and flatness that every tile has.

Handrail Code Requirements

Handrail code requirements are the building-code rules for the rail a person grips on a stair or ramp, covering when one is required, its height above the stair nosings, its grip shape and size, its clearance from the wall, and how it runs and ends.

Home Energy Audit

A home energy audit is an inspection of a house, backed by diagnostic tests, that finds where and how the home uses and loses energy and ranks the improvements that would cut that waste.

Home Remodeling

Home remodeling is construction work that changes an existing house’s layout, structure, systems or use, such as moving walls, reworking a kitchen, adding a bathroom or finishing a basement, rather than simply repairing or refreshing what is already there.

Home Renovation vs. Remodeling: see Home Remodeling

HVAC Load Calculation

An HVAC load calculation is an engineering estimate of how much heat a home loses on a cold design day and gains on a hot one, measured in Btu per hour, so that heating and cooling equipment and ducts can be sized to match the house instead of guessed.

Joint Compound

Joint compound is a paste, sold ready-mixed or as a powder, that drywall finishers spread over the seams, screw heads and corner bead of gypsum board to bed the joint tape and build a smooth surface that can be sanded and painted.

Kitchen Cabinet Filler Strip

A kitchen cabinet filler strip is a narrow board, finished to match the cabinets, that fills the space between a cabinet and a wall, corner, appliance or another cabinet so doors, drawers and handles can open without hitting anything.

Kitchen Work Triangle

The kitchen work triangle is a layout guideline that connects the three main work centers of a kitchen, the sink, the cooktop or range, and the refrigerator, with imaginary lines, and sets limits on how long each line and the total loop should be.

Labor vs. Material Costs: see Remodeling Cost Per Square Foot

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring is a manufactured floor covering made of a wood-fiber core board, usually high-density fiberboard, topped with a printed decorative layer and a clear protective wear layer and balanced by a backing layer, sold as planks or tiles that click together.

Lighting Color Temperature

Lighting color temperature is a rating, in kelvin (K), that describes how warm or cool the white light from a bulb or fixture looks, from yellowish light at low numbers such as 2700K to bluish light at high numbers such as 6500K.

Load-Bearing Wall

A load-bearing wall is a wall that holds up part of the building above it, such as floor joists, ceiling joists or roof framing, and carries that weight down through the floors to the foundation.

Low-E Window Glass

Low-E window glass is glass with a microscopically thin, nearly invisible metal or metal-oxide coating that reflects long-wave infrared heat, so it lowers a window’s U-factor and, in some versions, its solar heat gain, while still letting most visible light through.

Luxury Vinyl Plank (LVP)

Luxury vinyl plank (LVP) is a resilient floor covering made in plank form from layers of vinyl, with a printed design layer that imitates wood and a clear wear layer on top, installed glued down, loose-laid or as a click-together floating floor.

Natural Stone Countertop

A natural stone countertop is a work surface cut and finished from a slab of quarried rock, such as granite, marble, quartzite, soapstone or limestone, rather than from a manufactured material like engineered quartz or laminate.

Non-Load-Bearing Wall: see Load-Bearing Wall

Permit Plan Review

Plan review is the building department's check of a permit application's drawings and documents against the adopted codes before a permit is issued. Reviewers may approve the plans, approve them with conditions or return comments that must be answered first.

Prehung Door Unit

A prehung door unit is a door slab that comes already mounted on hinges inside its own frame, with jambs on both sides and the head across the top, ready to set into a rough opening as one piece.

Punch List in Construction

A punch list in construction is a written list, made near the end of a project, of work that is unfinished, damaged or not built to the contract, which the contractor must complete or correct before the owner makes final payment.

Quartz Countertop

A quartz countertop is a kitchen or bath work surface cut from engineered stone, a manufactured slab made mostly of crushed quartz bound together with polymer resins and pigments, then fabricated to size and installed on base cabinets.

Recessed Lighting Housing

A recessed lighting housing is the metal can or mounting frame installed above a ceiling or inside a wall that holds a recessed light’s socket or LED module, its wiring connections and its trim, and whose ratings decide whether insulation may touch it and how much air it leaks.

Remodeling Allowance

A remodeling allowance is a set amount of money written into a contract price for an item that has not been chosen yet, such as tile, light fixtures or appliances, which is adjusted up or down once the real item is picked.

Remodeling Change Order

A change order is a written, signed amendment to a remodeling contract that changes the work, the price or the schedule after the contract was signed. It should state what changes, the cost or credit, the time impact and both signatures before the changed work starts.

Remodeling Contractor Warranty

A remodeling contractor warranty is the contractor’s promise to repair defects in their workmanship, and sometimes in materials they supplied, that appear within a stated period after the job is finished, on the terms written in the contract or warranty document.

Remodeling Cost Per Square Foot

Remodeling cost per square foot is a project’s total cost divided by the floor area it covers, used to compare jobs of different sizes or to make a first rough budget.

Remodeling Draw Schedule

A draw schedule is the payment plan in a remodeling contract that ties each payment to a finished, checkable stage of work, such as passed rough-in inspection or closed walls, so the owner never pays far ahead of the work done.

Remodeling Project Schedule

A remodeling project schedule is the ordered list of phases and dates for a remodel, from design and permitting through material lead times, rough-in, inspections, finishes and the punch list, usually kept by the contractor and updated as work proceeds.

Remodeling Scope of Work

A remodeling scope of work is the written description, inside or attached to a contract, of exactly what work a contractor will do, which materials and equipment will be used, and what is excluded from the job.

Return on Remodeling Investment

Return on remodeling investment is the share of a remodel's cost that is recovered in the home's resale value, usually expressed as a percentage. Published averages are national or regional estimates, not an appraisal of any one house.

Roof Truss

A roof truss is a prefabricated, engineered frame of lumber pieces joined into triangles, usually with metal connector plates, that spans from one bearing wall to another and carries the roof and often the ceiling below.

Rough-In Inspection

A rough-in inspection is a required building-department check of the plumbing, electrical, gas and mechanical systems a contractor has installed inside open walls, floors or ceilings, made before any of that work is covered, concealed or connected to fixtures.

Self-Leveling Underlayment

Self-leveling underlayment (SLU) is a pourable mix, usually based on cement or gypsum, that is spread over a primed concrete or approved wood subfloor and flows out under its own weight to form a flat, smooth surface ready for tile, vinyl, laminate or wood flooring.

Shear Wall

A shear wall is a wall built and fastened to resist sideways forces from wind or earthquakes, so the house does not rack, lean or slide off its foundation.

Shower Curb

A shower curb is the low raised barrier at the entry of a shower that holds water inside the shower floor until it reaches the drain.

Shower Pan

A shower pan is the floor of a shower, built or bought as a unit, that slopes toward the drain and holds a waterproof layer, so every drop that lands on it, or soaks through tile and grout, leaves through the drain instead of reaching the subfloor.

Shower Waterproofing Membrane

A shower waterproofing membrane is a watertight layer, applied as a sheet or a liquid, that sits under the tile and grout of a shower so water that soaks through the tile cannot reach the wall framing or subfloor.

Siding Rainscreen

A siding rainscreen is a wall design that leaves a narrow drainage gap between the back of the siding and the water-resistive barrier, so rain that gets behind the siding can drain out and the wall can dry instead of staying wet.

Sill Plate

A sill plate, also called a mudsill, is the lowest piece of wood framing in a house: a board laid flat on top of the concrete or masonry foundation and bolted to it.

Smart Thermostat Compatibility

Smart thermostat compatibility means whether a Wi-Fi thermostat can be powered by, and correctly control, a home’s heating and cooling system, which mostly depends on the system’s control voltage, the number and type of thermostat wires, and the equipment type.

Solar Heat Gain Coefficient (SHGC)

Solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC) is a window rating, from 0 to 1, for the share of the sun’s heat striking a window that ends up inside the house, whether it passes straight through the glass or is absorbed and then released indoors.

Solid Hardwood Flooring

Solid hardwood flooring is flooring milled from a single piece of wood from top to bottom, usually 3/4 inch thick with tongue-and-groove edges, nailed or stapled to a wood subfloor and finished either at the factory or on site.

Sound Transmission Class (STC)

Sound transmission class (STC) is a single-number rating of how well a wall, floor-ceiling, door or window blocks airborne sound such as voices, TV and music, measured in a laboratory under ASTM E90 and calculated under ASTM E413.

Stair Rise and Run

Stair rise and run are the two dimensions of each step: the rise, or riser height, is the vertical distance from one tread nosing to the next, and the run, or tread depth, is the horizontal distance between those nosings, measured at a right angle to the tread edge.

Structural Header

A structural header is a horizontal beam built into a load-bearing wall over a door, window or other opening, which picks up the weight from above and carries it sideways to studs or posts on each side of the opening.

Subfloor

A subfloor is the structural layer of plywood, OSB or boards fastened across the floor joists that carries people and furniture to the framing and gives the finished floor a flat, solid base.

Substantial Completion

Substantial completion is the stage of a construction project when the work is complete enough, under the contract documents, that the owner can occupy or use it for its intended purpose, even though minor punch list items may still need to be finished or corrected.

Thermal Bridging

Thermal bridging is heat flowing around your insulation through solid parts of a wall, roof or floor, such as wood studs, steel framing, headers and slab edges, that run from the warm inside surface to the cold outside surface.

Thinset Mortar

Thinset mortar is a cement-based tile adhesive, made from portland cement, fine sand and additives, that is mixed with water or a liquid polymer and spread in a thin, notched layer to bond ceramic, porcelain or stone tile to a floor, wall or backer board.

Tile Backer Board

Tile backer board is a rigid panel, most often made of portland cement reinforced with glass-fiber mesh, that is fastened to studs or a subfloor to give ceramic and stone tile a stable surface that will not swell, soften or rot when it gets wet.

Tile Lippage

Tile lippage is the difference in height between the edges of two tiles that sit next to each other, so that one tile edge stands proud of its neighbor across the grout joint.

Vapor Retarder

A vapor retarder is a material or coating built into a wall, ceiling or floor to slow the movement of water vapor through it by diffusion, so moisture from indoor air does not condense inside the assembly.

Wall Stud

A wall stud is one of the vertical boards, usually 2x4 or 2x6 lumber, that run from the bottom plate to the top plate of a framed wall and carry its load, hold its sheathing and drywall, and make room for wires, pipes and insulation.

Weather-Resistant Barrier (WRB)

A weather-resistant barrier (WRB) is a continuous sheet or coating installed over the studs or sheathing of an exterior wall, behind the siding, that catches water getting past the cladding and drains it back outside before it can soak the wall.

Whole-House Ventilation

Whole-house ventilation is a fan-driven system that swaps stale indoor air for outdoor air on a steady schedule across the whole home, instead of relying on leaks and open windows.

Window Flashing

Window flashing is the set of thin, waterproof materials, such as self-adhered tape, flexible membrane or bent metal, installed around a window opening so that any rain that gets behind the siding is directed back outside instead of into the wall framing.

Window Rough Opening

A window rough opening is the framed hole in a wall, bounded by the header, jack studs and rough sill, that a window unit is set into, sized a little larger than the window so it can be shimmed plumb, level and square.

Window U-Factor

Window U-factor is a rating of how fast heat passes through a whole window, frame and glass together, for each square foot and each degree of temperature difference between inside and outside.

Window Water Management: see Window Flashing