Q
qala’a See kal’a.
qasr See kasr.
qibla See kiblah.
QR On drawings, abbr. for quarter round.
qt Abbr. for “quart.”
QTR 1. Abbr. for “quarry-tile roof.” 2. On drawings, abbr. for quarter.
QUAD. On drawings, abbr. for quadrangle.
quadra 1. A square frame or border enclosing a bas-relief. 2. The plinth of a podium. 3. Any small molding of plain or square section, as one of the fillets above or below the scotia of an Ionic base.
quadrangle, quad 1. A rectangular courtyard or grassy area enclosed by buildings or a building. Most often used in connection with academic or civic building groupings. 2. Buildings forming a quadrangle.
quadrant 1. An angle-measuring instrument used for measuring elevations. 2. A quarter-round molding. 3. A device for fastening together the upper and lower leaves of a Dutch door. 4. A quadrant stay.
quadrant arch ring A quarter-circle brace that carries thrusts from a vault to external buttresses.
quadrant molding A convex molding, the profile of which is one-quarter of a circle. Also called a quad molding.
quadratura In Baroque interiors and derivatives, painted architecture, often continuing the three-dimensional trim, executed by specialists in calculated perspective.
quadrel A square brick, tile, or stone; a quarrel.
quadrifores ianuae Ancient Roman doors with hinged leaves like shutters, with two leaves on each side.
quadriga In classical ornamentation and derivatives, the representation of a chariot drawn by four horses, i.e., a royal or divine accouterment. Also see triga, biga.
quadripartite Divided by the system of construction employed, into four compartments, as a vault.
quadripartite vault A groined vault over a rectangular area, the area defined by ribs on each side and divided into four parts by intersecting diagonals.
quadripartite vault
quadriporticus An atrium which is nearly square and surrounded by colonnaded porticoes.
quadrivalve One of a set of four folds or leaves forming a door.
quaggy timber Defective wood with numerous shakes. Also see ring shake, starshake, heart shake.
Quaker plan In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, the plan of a three-room stone or brick house found primarily in Pennsylvania; typically had one large room with a fireplace in one corner and an exterior chimney, and two small rooms along side it, one serving as a vestibule and the other as a bedroom. Also see Penn plan.
quaking concrete A concrete of medium consistency suitable for massive construction, such as heavy walls and abutments; shakes likes jelly when rammed in the plastic state.
QUAL On drawings, abbr. for “quality.”
qualification test The evaluation of a product (new, existing, or modified) to determine its acceptability for a given job or function or to determine if it conforms to requirements of an applicable specification.
quality assurance The inspection, testing, and other relevant actions taken (often by an owner or his representative) to ensure that the desired level of quality is in accordance with the applicable standards or specifications for the product or work.
quality control The inspection, analysis, and other relevant actions taken to provide control over what is being done, manufactured, or fabricated, so that a desirable level of quality is achieved and maintained.
quality of steam The dryness of saturated steam expressed as a percentage of perfect dryness.
quantity distance tables Same as American table of distances.
quantity survey A detailed analysis and listing of all items of material and equipment necessary to construct a project. Also called a takeoff.
quantity surveyor A term, especially used in Britain, for an oversight role for which there is no direct equivalent in the US. Primarily, the quantity surveyor checks the drawings; measures the quantities of work to be done and establishes their costs; establishes general requirements; prepares bills of quantities and other bidding and contract documents; arranges for bids and their review; advises on the selection of contractors; advises, negotiates with, and settles with contractors on the costs of change orders; checks applications for payment; and settles construction accounts.
quarrel A small pane of glass, usually diamond-shaped or square-shaped and set diagonally; framed and held in place by slender, grooved strips of lead (cames).
quarrels
quarry 1. An open excavation at the earth’s surface from which building stone is extracted. 2. Same as quarry glass.
quarry-faced Descriptive of the freshly split face of ashlar, as it comes from the quarry, squared off only for the joints; usually used in massive masonry work.
quarry-faced masonry
quarry glass A small, square piece of glass; usually set diagonally.
quarry run Building stone as it is supplied from the quarry, unselected for color and texture.
quarry sap The natural moisture in stone as it comes from the quarry ledge; varies in amount with the porosity.
quarrystone bond In masonry, an arrangement of stones in an uncoursed rubble wall.
quarry tile, promenade tile Unglazed ceramic tile, machine-made by the extrusion process from natural clay or shales; sometimes used for factory floors.
quarter 1. A small timber used as an upright stud in partitions to which the laths are nailed. 2. A square panel.
quarter bend A 90° change in direction, as in piping.
quarter-cleft Same as quarter-sawn.
quarter closer, quarter closure A brick which has been cut to one-quarter of its normal length but is of normal thickness and width; used to complete a course or to space normal-sized bricks.
quarter closer
quarter-cut, radial-cut Said of veneer which has growth rings at right angles (or nearly at right angles) to the face of the veneer.
quartered Same as quartersawn.
quartered partition A partition formed with quarters, 2.
quarter-girth rule A method sometimes used to compute the volume of wood in a log.
quarter grain The grain of quarter-sawn wood.
quarter-hollow molding A concave molding; same as cavetto.
quarter house In French Louisiana in the 18th century, the dwelling of a laborer on a sugar plantation.
quartering 1. A method of obtaining a representative sample by dividing a circular pile of a larger quantity into four equal parts and discarding opposite quarters, continuing the process until the desired size of sample is obtained. 2. Studs in a building wall. 3. A small scantling.
quartering house A subsidiary building that provided housing for servants in the 17th century; usually near or adjoining a principal structure in the mid-Atlantic area of America.
quarter landing Same as quarterpace.
quarterpace, quarterpace landing, quarter-space landing A stair landing, often square in plan, between two flights which make a right-angled (90°) turn.
quarterpace stair A stair having a quarter-turn. Compare with halfpace stair.
quarter panel A quarter, 2.
quarter round A convex molding the profile of which is exactly or nearly a quarter of a circle. An edge or corner when rounded, as in tile or plaster work, is called a bullnose.
quarter round
quarter-round light A window, often one of a pair, that has the shape of one-quarter of a complete circle.
quartersawn, rift-sawn Descriptive of lumber sawn so that the growth rings intersect the wide face at an angle of 45° or greater. Also see edge-grained. (See illustration p. 784.)
quarter section A square tract of land that is one-half mile on each side.
quarter-space landing See quarterpace.
quarter-turn Descriptive of a stair which, in its progress from top to bottom, turns 90°.
quarter-turn stair Same as quarterpace stair.
quatrefoil column A column whose cross-section is a quatrefoil.
quartz The most abundant form of mineral silica; very hard, will scratch glass.
quartz glass, silica glass Glass consisting entirely of pure, or nearly pure, amorphous silica; has the highest heat resistance and ultraviolet transmittance of all glasses.
quartersawn
quartz-halogen lamp A lamp having a tungsten filament in a quartz envelope; quartz is used instead of glass to permit higher temperatures, higher currents, and therefore greater light output.
quartz-iodine lamp Obsolete term for a tungsten-halogen lamp.
quartzite A variety of sandstone composed largely of granular quartz which is cemented by silica forming a homogeneous mass of very high tensile and crushing strengths; esp. used as a building stone, as gravel in road construction, and as an aggregate in concrete.
quartzitic sandstone A type of sandstone in which most of the grains are quartz and the cementing material is silica; intermediate between normal sandstone and quartzite.
quatrefoil A four-lobed pattern divided by cusps; also see foil.
Quattrocento architecture Renaissance architecture of the 15th cent. in Italy.
quatrefoil
Queen Anne arch An arch over the triple opening of the so-called Venetian or Palladian window, flat over the narrow side lights, round over the larger central opening.
Queen Anne arch
Queen Anne sash A window having an ornate upper sash and a plain lower sash.
Queen Anne style 1. English architecture during the reign of Queen Anne, from 1702 to 1714; primarily country houses and many houses in the suburbs of London, often of red brick. Characterized by a dignified simplicity and moderateness in scale; avoidance of the appearance of massiveness; hipped roofs hidden behind parapets; sash windows. 2. An eclectic style of domestic architecture primarily of the 1870s and 1880s in England and the United States; misnamed after Queen Anne; actually based on country-house and cottage Elizabethan architecture. A blending of Tudor Gothic, English Renaissance, Flemish, (and in the United States on Colonial elements), houses in this style usually are characterized by an asymmetrical façade with emphasis on verticality; often, a front-facing gable; commonly, timber-framed and irregular in plan and elevation; decorative trusses, bracketed posts, gingerbread in the form of spindlework, finials, and cast-iron cresting; textured shingles, masonry with variations in wall surface treatment and color; carved ornamentation, and patterned horizontal siding; contrasting wall materials used in combination with the various stories decorated differently; one or more conspicuous porches often set within the main structure of the house; typically, an irregularly shaped, steeply pitched roof, ornamented gables and ridges, overhanging eaves, bargeboards, second-story projections, various-shaped ornamental dormers, cresting, finials, pendants, and/or pinnacles; shingles laid in decorative patterns; tall ornamented chimneys; frequently, a tower; a paneled main entry door typically located off the central axis of the façade. Occasionally called Victorian Queen Anne style to avoid confusion with the 18th-century Queen Anne style, 1 from which it differs markedly.
home in Queen Anne style, 2
queen bolt Same as queen rod.
queen closer A brick which has been cut in half along its length; it is of normal thickness but half normal width; used to complete a course or to space normal-sized bricks.
queen closure Same as queen closer.
queen post One of the two vertical supports in a queen-post truss.
queen-post roof A roof supported by two queen posts.
queen closer
queen-post roof
queen-post truss, queen truss A roof truss having two vertical posts between the rafters and the tie beam; the upper ends of the vertical posts are connected by a straining piece, 1 (such as a tie rod or cable).
queen rod, queen bolt A metal rod which serves as a queen post.
queen truss See queen-post truss.
quenched Said of a metal which was first heated and then cooled by contact with a liquid, gas, or solid, for the purpose of hardening or tempering.
quetta bond A bond in brickwork having vertical voids in which reinforcement is placed (usually connecting to foundations, floors, and roof); the voids then are filled with mortar.
quick-break Descriptive of a device having a high-opening speed regardless of how it is operated.
quick-change room In a theater, a dressing room on or near the stage, where actors may make quick changes of costume or makeup.
quick-closing valve A valve or faucet whose automatic closure is fast-acting.
quick condition A soil condition in which water flows upward with sufficient velocity to reduce significantly the bearing capacity of the soil through a decrease in intergranular pressure.
quick-disconnect device 1. A hand-operated device that provides a means for connecting and disconnecting a gas appliance. 2. A connector (to a gas supply) that is equipped with an automatic means for shutting off the supply when the device is disconnected.
quick-hardening lime A hydraulic lime.
quicklime See lime.
quick-response early-suppression sprinkler A fast-response sprinkler that is listed as providing fire suppression of specific hazards.
quick-response extended coverage sprinkler A fire sprinkler that is listed as providing the characteristics of both a quick-response sprinkler and an extended coverage sprinkler.
quick-response sprinkler A fire sprinkler that combines the characteristics of a fast-response sprinkler and a spray sprinkler.
quicksand Fine sand, sometimes with an admixture of clay, which is saturated with water so that it has no bearing capacity at its surface; fine sand in a quick condition.
quick set See flash set, false set.
quick soil A soil deposit that is reasonably stable if undisturbed, but suddenly becomes loose when disturbed.
quick sweep Descriptive of any carpentry or joinery work having a small radius of curvature.
quilted figure See blister figure.
quilt insulation A blanket-type thermal insulation having, on one or both principal faces, a flexible facing that is stitched or quilted.
quincunx An arrangement of elements so that four are symmetrically placed around a central one.
quincunx plan Same as cross-in-square plan.
quinquefoil, quintefoil See cinquefoil.
quirk 1. An indentation separating one element from another, as between moldings, or between the abacus and echinus of a Doric capital. 2. A V-groove in the finish-coat plaster where it abuts the return on a door or window; reduces the possibility of cracking by freeing the two surfaces.
quirk bead, bead and quirk, quirked bead 1. A bead with a quirk on one side only, as on the edge of a board. 2. A recessed or double-quirked bead, where the bead is flush with the adjoining surface and separated from it by a quirk on each side. Also called flush bead. 3. A return bead, in which the bead is at a corner with quirks at either side at right angles to each other. 4. A bead with a quirk on its face.
quirk beads
quirk molding, quirked molding A molding characterized by a sudden and sharp return from its extreme projection or set-off and made prominent by a quirk running parallel to it.
quitclaim deed A written instrument whereby the seller conveys only whatever interest he has in property, but makes no warranties or representations as to the nature of that interest or as to the absence of any limitations or restrictions thereon, or even that he has any right to the property at all.
quoin, coign, coin In masonry, a hard stone or brick used, with similar ones, to reinforce an external corner or edge of a wall or the like; often distinguished decoratively from adjacent masonry; may be imitated in non-load-bearing materials. Occasionally imitated, for decorative purposes, by wood that has been finished to look like masonry.
stone quoins set in brickwork
quoin block Same as corner block.
quoin bonding In masonry, bonding at a corner with alternating stretchers and headers.
quoin header A quoin which is a header in the face of a wall and a stretcher in the face of the return wall.
quoining Any architectural members which form a quoin.
quoin post Same as heelpost, 2.
quoin stone A quoin.
Quonset hut A prefabricated structure, developed during World War II, that has a semicylindrical shape; commonly constructed of corrugated steel fastened to arched steel ribs that are rigidly fastened to a concrete slab floor.
quotation A price quoted by a contractor, subcontractor, material supplier, or vendor to furnish materials, labor, or both.
