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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Commonly Used Renovation Terms


To people who are new to renovation, here are some of the commonly used renovation terms. Hope you find it useful!  :)

All credits go to Whiteboard.
* Extracted for easiler reference *  
Construct Walls
The construction of walls for partitions or segregation reasons.
* Gypsum board - a type of light plasterboard used for making ceilings or walls.
* Hollow blocks - blocks laid in brick fashion using cement to join and plaster to finish off.
* Plywood (bare) - using plywood to create walls and finished with plaster.

Level-up Flooring
Usually used to level up flooring from the kitchen to living room, or from the balcony to living. The idea is to make the floor level the same height so that there is no more drop. Most of the times this is reserved for making the space look bigger by creating an extension of space from living to balcony.

Create Door Opening
When a door opening is needed, the designer will determine whether the wall needs to be hacked. If so, a door opening may be created, simply by hacking a non-load bearing wall.

Seal-up Door Opening
This means to cover up a former door opening by using either hollow blocks or other materials and finish it with plaster.

Concrete Support
Usually for kitchen or bathrooms. The concrete support is to house the sink or stove. It will be finished off with tiles or just plain cement screeding.

Cement base for kitchen / bathroom cabinets
This is also known as plinth. The plinth acts as a skirting from the flooring so that the cabinet will not be in contact with the flooring. For example, in the case of wet flooring.

Shower Kerb
(seperator placed in the bathroom on the floor)
It acts as a base for the shower screen. Otherwise it may also be used to deviate water from the shower area to the rest of the bathroom.

Water Proofing
(only when floor tiles are to be laid over kitchen or bathrooms)
A membrane known as waterproofing will be needed to apply on to the surface before tiles are laid. This is necessary as water may seep into the apartment downstairs if it is not applied.

All credits go to Construction Jagon.
* Extracted for easiler reference*

Wood flooring
Wood flooring is a type of flooring made from the timber of hardwoods, or of spruce or hard pine. There are two basic manufactured types of hardwood. Wood flooring comes unfinished, and once installed is sanded, then finished on site. More modernly, the product is pre-finished in a factory. The products that are pre-finished are often a polyurethane
finish that has added aluminium oxide, however some companies use titanium dioxide or other oxides instead. These metal oxide finishes are used in various types of floor coverings and increase the wear a hardwood floor can handle.

* Solid Wood Flooring
Solid hardwoods are typically 3/4" or 19mm thick, although some do come in 3/8" (10mm) or 5/16" (8mm) thicknesses. Typically the wearing thickness, i.e., the thickness that can be sanded over the lifetime of the floor, above the tongue-and-groove portion, is approximately 7/32" approaching 1/4". This type of hardwood flooring can be installed with a nail-down installation method over wood subfloors. This type of hardwood is also very susceptible to the effects of moisture and temperature, because hardwoods expand and contract with moisture and temperature changes in the atmosphere. Since hardwoods expand and contract in the width of the grain, this type of hardwood flooring is not recommended to be installed over a concrete slab, unless otherwise stated by the manufacturer. There are some instances where 3/8"-thick solid hardwood can be installed on a concrete slab.


* Engineered Wood Flooring
Rather than having one solid piece of hardwood, the engineered hardwood method uses layers of hardwood veneer to create a product that can range in thickness from 3/8" or 8mm up to 9/16" or 14mm thick. The wood veneer can range in thickness depending on the manufacturer, as will the top wearing thickness. In order to create an engineered hardwood, these veneer layers are stacked one on top of the other with the grain of adjacent layers oriented perpendicular to one other. Once the desired thickness is achieved, the boards are then cut into the correct board width. From there, the boards are then manufactured to have a tongue or groove on the edges. The final step is to add stain if necessary, and add a finish. By doing this, the engineered hardwood becomes less susceptible to the effects of moisture and temperature change, because wood expands and contracts in the width of the grain direction. Therefore engineered hardwood is referred to as being dimensionally stable. Solid hardwood does not have dimensional stability because all of the grain runs in the same direction. Because of its dimensional stability, engineered hardwood can be glued directly to concrete above or below grade, as opposed to solid hardwood which cannot.

All credits go to expert realestate.
* Extracted for easiler reference*

Click here for the entire list*.

*Note: The renovate glossary provided covers everything from simple building and carpentry terms, words used in contracts, home automation jargon and design terms.



homebuildingmanual provides a comprehensive list of commonly used terms during home construction. You can make reference to them if you do not understand certain "big" or chiem (Singaporean Slang) terms your ID or Contractor is using. 

sherlockhomeinspectors provides a visual representation of some commonly used home construction terms.


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1 comments:

Anne said...

I think this is a great collection of terms usually used when it comes to renovation and remodeling a house. Actually, I think you could have included photos of engineered flooring and solid wood flooring, other than that, this is a great list. Thanks!