*
WOW ITS only 80 at 8:30this morning here
Discussion Forum
Discussion Forum
Up Next
Video Shorts
Featured Story
Skim-coating with joint compound covers texture, renews old drywall and plaster, and leaves smooth surfaces ready to paint.
Featured Video
SawStop's Portable Tablesaw is Bigger and Better Than BeforeRelated Stories
-
Podcast Episode 661: Clever Shop Storage, Breaking in to Construction, Connector Nails
-
FHB Podcast Segment: Tips on Building a Career in Construction
-
Podcast Episode 660: Trim Coil over Fascia, Wiring Penetrations, and Partially Finished Basements
-
FHB Podcast Segment: When to Use Coil Stock on Fascia and Rake Trim
Highlights
"I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I can confidently say that I expect to be a life-long subscriber." - M.K.
Replies
*
DEFENESTRATION...to throw some one out a window. What I would like to do to more than a few people.
*I have heard the term, but I would think that should be EXFENESTRATION. Defenestration sould be the removal of the window (or other opening) itself. (De- = undo, opposite, or reverse. Ex- = out)I suppose if you told someone to "put it where the sun doesn't shine", you could be telling them to defenestrate their backside with it??;-)
*
Hey I get to use the shorter OED my wife gave me a few years ago (Oxford English Dictionary, focuses on the earliest usage of each word). De- can mean through or away too -- and remember the evil grammarians and entymologists showed up after languages were in full bloom. I knew someone would mention defenestrate -- apparently an old Latin word and one of those $2 words that stands for something kinda funny, like onomatopoeia or worse, onomatomania.
*OSB= Oriental Sponge Board. If the specs call for 3/4" just use 3/8ths. You'll get it within a week or two.
*. . . yeah and don't fergeti onanism
*Poor Onan, terribly misunderstood.
*Yup. . . once an i onageralways ani onager!!Shoulda studiedi ontology.
*
I think we need an official translator here. Perhaps Fine Homebuilding could enlist a summer intern or some other slave laborer to compile an on-line list of acronyms. In the last two posts I just read I came across
CMU, GWB, RFBI
which I don't know in addition to UCB and OSB which I do. Not to mention that some of you guys have been using (at least in the case of TJI) registered trademarks in what appears to be a generic sense - heaven forbid, the corporate trademark gremlins are undoubtedly gonna get you guys...
At least with real words, I stand a chance of looking them up at http://www.dictionary.com, which in the case of fenestration led me to a neat new word ("hey, stuff something in that fenestrated face of yours...").
Actually, my question is: "does anyone know of a web site that does a better job of deciphering construction jargon than does http://www.dictionary.com or http://www.m-w.com (Merriam-Webster)?
fenestration Fen`es*tra"tion, n. 1. (Arch.) The arrangement and proportioning of windows; -- used by modern writers for the decorating of an architectural composition by means of the window (and door) openings, their ornaments, and proportions.
2. (Anat.) The state or condition of being fenestrated.
fenestrate Fe*nes"trate, a. [L. fenestratus, p. p. of fenestrare to furnish with openings and windows.] 1. Having numerous openings
*CaseyR,
Joseph FuscoView Image
*CaseyR, CMU=concrete masonry unit
*Fred,
Joseph FuscoView Image
*Concrete block , Chuck
*Joe, Left off the rest of the equation concrete masonry unit= your basic concrete block. Chuck beat me to the post.
*How bout BiBiM?Boogerin' is Better in Michigan!Blue
*
Joseph Fusco View Image
*Joeb . . . thick. . .as ini "as a brick"Great concept album by Jethro Tull.Was lookin through a customers bookcase while chawin down 'tother day and found a couple of "Biggles" books from WWll, quite the pro Brit propaganda, almost Rambo-ish-pm
* Hey Patrick,
Joseph Fusco View Image
*Hey joe. . . snow's gone but we're still ice fishin, can't wait to get this frozen seal jissum off'n my 'stache.-pm
* Patty,
Joseph Fusco View Image
*JoeyYa musta missed that great joke Young Bob told us back in the winter about the 'Eskimo' who had trouble with his snowmobile and took it into his mechanic. After lookin it over the mechanic said "Looks like you blew a seal", the 'Eskimo' replied. . ."naw that's just frost on my mustache"still gives me the giggles-pm
*heck, still makes me laugh out loud, and Friday night I'm going to the graduation ceremony of the kid who told it to me last summer. I've been tellin' it every chance I get. Great joke. Great kid. - yb
*Pat,
Joseph FuscoView Image
*Just a little clarification on CMU. A CMU is any type of brick or block or other "concrete" or "masonary" unit used in building. Although I do not think it pertains to stones, just man made blocks bricks and even clay tile blocks.....and that one about the eskimo? Hillarious! I have another joke with the same idea but a different story. I liked it so much that I actually typed and saved it for just such an occassion...here goes....So it seems this penguin was driving through a small town when his car broke down. He called AAA, and his car was towed to a local garage where the mechanic told him he would need a couple of hours to check out the problem. The penguin was in no particular hurry, so he wandered off to look around. Entering a local supermarket, he bought some fish sticks and vanilla ice cream for lunch, and then hung out in the frozen foods section until it was time to return to the garage. The mechanic, seeing him enter the garage, came over wiping his hands on a rag and shaking his head saying "it looks like you blew a seal". Blushing, the penguin quickly wiped his bill with his flippers and replied "Oh no! It's just ice cream!"Pete Draganic
*An 8 year old on my Little league team told me this one:If when you go into the bathroom you're a Russian, and when you come out you're an American, then what are you when you're in the bathroom?European
*CaseyR, If we can get back to the subject at hand... We get a lot of people down here from all over the country. What I call a rat run is called a stiff back in other parts of the country. Likewise for what we call a cripple ( the short stud under the header ) is called a buck up north.I also find that some people have their own words for parts and pieces and I swear that some people make them up as they go. As long as I think I know what they're talking about, I can get by. The one thing that has helped me is to ask what they are talking about. I learned a long time ago that if you pretend to know what someone is talking about, you can get yourself in a world of trouble.GWB - I have no idea.RFDI - You got me.UCB - Hell if I knowCMU and OSB - I do know. Concrete Masonry Unit concrete block or "haydock block" as we say here, and Oriented Strand Board, a cheap substitute for plywood.One of the most important ones to know is NTS. If you find this on your blueprints, watch out. It means "Not To Scale". Ed.
*Casey & GaccGWB = Gypsum Wallboard aka drywallRFDI you probably meani RFBI= Rigid Foam Board Insulation aka foam board, styrofoam,polyisoUCB is probablyi UBC= Uniform Building Code (USA)-pm
*I had a guy ask me one time:"Why do they call it i Oriental Strand Board ?"
*Ron, Is Tijuana eleven imported from Mexico????
*Here in THE GREAT NORTHWEST, that "short stud under a header" is called a "trimmer". A "cripple" is the short stud OVER a header, or under a sill. A "buck" is what you use in a foundation form to end a pour, like at a door way, or if you are not pouring the whole wall at once. We also use the term "buck" as a verb - "go buck that thing off at 11'4"...comes from "bucking logs" (cutting them to length). - jb
*Jim , thats the same terminology we use . Thats odd ,I'm a helluva lot closer to Dallas than to The Great Northwest . Chuck
*What do you call that "zigzag thing" that holds up a staircase. So far I've heard stringer (I use it), carriage, horse, ...Then there are trimmers & jacks, etc. See, none of this was a problem when carpenters from one coast didn't communicate with the other.
*We call them stringers or every once in awhile some import will call them horses. I think of the carriage as the whole structure under there - all three stringers for example - but it isn't a common term here. And speaking of here, it's about 45 FREAKIN' DEGREES OUTSIDE AND IT'S JUNE! - jb
*WOW ITS only 80 at 8:30this morning here
*Jim, I'm thinking the weather seems pretty good right about now:-) Sam
*Hey Sam, you made it home ok? Have to differ on the weather though bro, we even built a fire last night and the missus had one going this AM when I came home from a meeting. TOO COLD FOR JUNE! - jb (hey, don't you have better things to do than yap with us your first day back? :-)))
*Pete - My experience in design doesn't include fired bricks - made of clay - in the cmu category. I think that the masonary unit has to include cement to be in that group. I often have the discussion with architects or contractors about surfaces being either brick or cmu (usually in the context of instead of teh absolute cheapest exterior skin - "Drivit" or e.i.f.s for the purist).Of course, for some - it's Carnegie Mellon University - but that's a whole 'nother story.
*We call them stringers or horses. The whole thing is called a carriage. I have heard the experssion "trimmer", but it's been a while. ( the three horses and a carriage - get it? ) I don't know where that got started. The weather here sucks. Just ask Chuck C. up in OK. It's getting to be that time of the year where all of us down here just have to grin and bare it. Yesterday the temp was close to 90 with a heat index ( the amount of humidity factored in ) at close to 100. And it's only the first of June.You guys up North can laugh, but we get to laugh in December when it's 70 degrees outside. No down time here.Starting to Fry in Texas.Ed.
*Jim, Yeah, I will admit that after a day or two of this I'm wishing things were a little warmer but after a spell of that humidity, the cooler weather was nice. Those wings were bouncing around a lot on the plane but I made it anyway:-)) Now that I think of it, maybe I'd better shut this computer off.....:-)))