Services for Surface Work
Hi, we have for each category of service, compiled relevant information that you may find useful.
Please note: All information contained within this section is for guidance only. It is best that you check current sources of information.
If you would like to contribute or make a suggestion, please click here.
Please note: All information contained within this section is for guidance only. It is best that you check current sources of information.
If you would like to contribute or make a suggestion, please click here.
Surface Work
Services
Useful Links
Products
Jargon Buster
Areas covered under this Category are as follows:
- Ceiling
- Cornicing
- Coving/Cornicing
- Decorating
- Dry Lining
- External Painting
- Floor Levelling
- Floor Screeding
- Floor Tiling
- French Polishing
- General Decorating
- Internal Painting
- Paint Spraying
- Plastering
- Prep Metal
- Prep Woodwork
- Polish
- Rendering
- Specialist Finishes
- Suspend
- Varnishing
- Wall Paper
- Wall Paper Stripping
- Wall Tiling
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NHIC membership comprises many of the most important companies and organisations operating in the home improvement sector - www.nhic.org.uk
The Painting and Decorating Association (PDA) - www.paintingdecoratingassociation.co.uk - the UK's largest trade and employers' association for contractors in the painting and decorating industry. The Association has one clear purpose - to ensure all members adhere to the highest standards.
Painting Decoration Association - www.paintingdecoratingassociation.co.uk
The National Institute of Carpet & Floorlayers - www.nicfltd.org.uk
The Tile association (TTA) - www.tiles.org.uk
- Dulux
- Leyland
- Johnsons
- Crown
- Sandolin
- Ronseal
- Johnson tiles
- B&Q
- Wickes
- Homebase
- Topps Tiles
- Magnet
- Buildbase
A to B
- Acrylic filler: surface or gap fillers that remain highly flexible to help with movement.
- Anaglypta: wallpaper that has patterns or bubbles embossed in the surface.
- Architrave: moulding around openings such as doors or windows.
- Balustrade: a row of balusters joined to a horizontal handrail, for instance at the side of a landing.
- Batten: timbers of varying size to which slates or tiles are fixed.
- Bell drip: angled section at bottom of a rendered wall which allows rainwater to drip off slightly away from the base of the main walls.
- Bleeding: this happens when paint applied over a solvent will gradually dissolve and show stains.
- Bond: English, Flemish, Garden wall, Stretcher are names given to the way bricks are laid to form a wall.
- Braced door: door with diagonal support braces.
- Broken paint: usually oil paint applied in layers of different colours or tints, which is brushed or combed into patterns of wood grain, marble or weave.
- Buttress: support for a wall, designed to resist outward thrust and add stability.
- Beading: small moulding to cover a join.
- Blown: plaster that has lost its bond with the wall.
- Bond: arrangement of bricks to ensure stability of brickwork.
- Bonding: lightweight plaster used in two-coat plastering or to smooth uneven surfaces.
C to D
- Coping: add protective capping to the top of a wall.
- Corbelling: successive projecting courses of brickwork.
- Chromate: a primer paint used for galvanised surfaces.
- Damp proof course: is an impervious membrane laid about two brick courses above ground level to prevent damp from rising.
- Damp proof membrane: used below the concrete ground floor slab to prevent rising damp.
- Distemper: wall paint made from pigment, water and glue.
- Drip: moulding or groove in external sill to prevent water creeping back.
- Duplex board: is plasterboard with aluminum coating on one side. It is used on ceilings and walls to prevent airborne moisture passing through and condensing.
E to F
- Efflorescence: white powdery salts brought to surface of brickwork.
- Finishing plaster: is the final coat, applied over bonding, browning or plasterboard.
- Flashing: metal sheet, of varying dimensions, used to deflect and direct water at junction between roof and wall.
- Flaunching: cement mortar filler round the top of a chimney stack.
- Float: used by plasters to apply and smooth out plaster.
- Flush door: door with completely flat faces.
- Formation: the deepest point in an excavation for a drive or patio, which is leveled and smoothed prior to laying the sub-base.
- Frog: this is the indent on the bed face of a brick.
G to H
- Glazing bar: thin bar shaped to receive pane of glass.
- Grinning: where paint has been applied too thinly over a darker surface. The surface below may now show or "grin" through.
- Grout: fills the space between the tiles and supports them-almost like glue.
- Hawk: plasters use a handheld board to keep a small supply of plaster at the ready.
- Header: the end face of a brick.
- Herringbone: zig-zag pattern of brickwork.
I to J
- Jamb: the side of an opening in a wall for a door or window.
K to L
- Knotting: varnish applied onto bare wood over knots or resin pockets, to stabilise knots in wood.
- Light: subdivision of a window.
- Lining paper: wallpaper used to cover surfaces before applying paint or wallpaper.
- Lintel: beam placed over an opening to support the wall above usually of concrete, timber or steel.
M to N
- Mist coat: a diluted first coat plaster which is applied to seal the absorbent surface and highlight areas to be filled.
- Muck: slang term for mortar.
- Mullion: upright post in window.
- Nosing: rounded edge of a stair tread projecting beyond the riser.
O to P
- Paint egg shell: oil -based paint that dries semi matt but retains the strength of gloss.
- Paint masonry: paint specially formulated for coating rendered exterior walls.
- Paint primer: used to seal unpainted surfaces to prevent covering coats of paint soaking in. The appropriate type of primer should be used for the surface being painted - wood, metal, plaster or tiles.
- Paint undercoat: is applied on top of the primer. Make sure the undercoat is of the correct colour to provide the right colour base for the finishing coats.
- Paint radiator: for use on central heating pipes and radiators, it will stand up to the high temperatures without discolouring.
- Paint fire-retardant: these special paints contain an additive to provide a fire-resistant quality, they do not resist fire completely, but has a greater flame resistance than ordinary paint.
- Paint vinyl satin emulsion: gives a subtle soft-sheen finish and is a more durable surface than vinyl matt. It is suitable for areas that might need to be occasionally lightly washed or sponged.
- Paint vinyl matt / silk: emulsion paint with good wearing and cleaning properties.
- Paint vinyl silk emulsion: gives a high sheen finish and is the most durable of all the emulsion paints.
- Paint liquid gloss: needs an undercoat but gives the more traditional high gloss finish and is extremely hard wearing.
- Paint satinwood: this is a durable gloss paint that gives a more subtle sheen than the conventional shiny gloss effect.
- Pebble dash: roughcast wall finish with stones bedded in rendered wall.
- Plasterboard: prefabricated sheets of plaster for walls and ceilings.
- Plumbate: lead-based paints, which are poisonous and so, require special care. The paint is used as a primer for steel and has good corrosion resistance.
- Plumb line: a weighted cord used to check or locate a true vertical. Used principally in wallpaperin.
- PVA bonding: white glue diluted by plasterers and used to help plaster stick and stop it cracking.
Q to R
- Rag rolling: form of decoration where paint is transferred to a surface by a loosely rolled rag.
- Render: external sand-cement coating for walls.
- Re-point to replace missing or damaged mortar between bricks.
- Reveal: vertical side of door or window opening.
- Rise: vertical distance between two adjacent stair treads.
- Riser: upright part of a stair or vertical water pipe from the mains.
- Roof truss: prefabricated structural timber framework to support roof.
S to T
- Sarking felt: waterproof felt under roof tile battens.
- Sash: framework for glass.
- Scarifier: used to scratch a base layer of plaster to help additional layers stick.
- Screed: layer of smooth concrete applied to a floor to even it out before finishing.
- Scrim: reinforcing mesh tape used by plasterers to reduce the risk of cracking on plasterboard joints, walls and ceiling.
- Scumble glaze: used in a form of decoration where a light glaze is painted over a darker colou.
- Second fix: items fitted following plastering.
- Shavehook : shaped metal tool designed to scrape softened paint from a decorated surfac.
- Sill: bottom horizontal member of a door or window frame.
- Skim: finishing coat of plaster.
- Soffit: visible underside of a projecting surface.
- Spacers: pieces of x-shaped plastic inserted between wall tiles to produce small gaps. Not remove.
- Span: horizontal distance covered by a beam or lintel etc.
- Spoil: material dug out from an excavation, which is referred to on site as muck.
- Stippler: special brush designed to produce a soft broken effect to a surface being painte.
- Stretcher: the side face of a brick.
- String: sloping board carrying the treads and risers of a staircase.
- Sub-base: the coarse filling such as hardcore or crushed rock that forms a frost resistant strong base to spread and cushion the loads.
- T&G board: tongue and groove, traditional softwood floor boards.
- Tamped concrete: concrete surface compaction with long heavy board leaving shallow ridges. The ridges are shallow to allow water to drain.
- Tread: horizontal part of a stair.
U to V
- Vibration/shock detector: detectors which detect and process vibrations typical of an intruder trying to forcibly open a door or window.
W to X
- Wood chip: two-layer wallpaper with wood chippings sandwiched between the layers.
Y to Z