A paper: A mortgage loan given at a lender’s best terms and lowest interest rate.
batt or batt insulation: Rolled fiberglass insulation.
base price: The price for a standard production house without any options or lot upgrades.
blind corner: The area under a countertop where the two legs of an L-shaped counter intersect. It cannot be accessed unless a special cabinet is used.
bridge loan: A short-term loan that allows buyers to borrow against the equity in their existing house before they have sold it in order to close on a new house.
building green: An approach to construction that emphasizes energy efficiency, healthier indoor air, and resource conservation both in the selection and manufacture of materials and in the operation of the building itself.
cans: A light fixture that is recessed up into the ceiling.
cat 5 utp: Category 5 unshielded twisted pair wiring used for high-speed Internet connections.
change orders: An order for an item that was not in the original contract with a builder. It will be an added cost to the homeowner.
closing costs: The fees that a lender requires at the time a mortgage is assumed. Closing costs range from about 1 to 5 percent of the mortgage amount.
collector lot: A lot in a subdivision that collects the rainwater runoff from several adjacent lots.
composite countertop: A countertop material that looks like granite but is actually made of quartz particles mixed with an epoxy or acrylic binder.
composite wood: An outdoor decking material made of recycled wood fibers and recycled plastic.
credit score: A score used by lenders to determine a loan applicant’s credit worthiness.
crown molding: Wood strips shaped in various rounded profiles and installed at the ceiling line to add a decorative detail. A single crown molding is only one piece of wood; a triple crown molding has three pieces of wood and is more elaborate.
custom builder: A home builder who builds one-of-a-kind houses, using either a plan provided by the client or one from his own portfolio. The builder builds on the client’s lot and his price includes only construction.
design/build: A custom home builder who offers design services.
developer: The person who buys the raw land, subdivides it, and sells lots to home builders. Some developers are also builders.
dimensional lumber: A sawn piece of lumber that comes straight from the tree and is cut to standard sizes used in residential construction.
dimensional shingle: An asphalt shingle that appears to be three-dimensional when seen from the ground below.
eave: The edge of a roof that overhangs the wall below.
elevation: The exterior side of a building.
elevation drawing: A picture of the exterior of a building.
empty nesters: A couple with adult children who no longer live at home.
engineered wood: Structural framing members made by shaving thousands of strands of lumber off a log, coating them with wax and resin, aligning the fibers to provide maximum structural strength, and shaping them to be variously a beam, column, joist, subflooring, or sheathing.
engineered-wood joist: A roof or floor joist that is shaped like a steel I-beam, but made of wood. The two chords at the top and bottom may be solid wood or laminated (layers of wood that are glued together). The web between the two chords is made of engineered wood.
equity: The difference between what you paid for a house and its present market value.
felt: See Roofing felt.
FICO score: A credit score based on your credit records and calculated using a statistical model designed by Fair, Issac & Company in San Rafael, California. The FICO score is used by lenders to determine your credit worthiness.
flashing: Strips of metal used around door and window openings, along walls and everywhere the roof plane intersects another plane (chimneys, roof vent, skylight, another section of roof, etc.) to prevent moisture penetration.
footer: A foundation footing.
Footing: The base of the foundation; to spread out the total building load, it is wider than the foundation wall above it.
foundation: A wall made of concrete or concrete masonry units that carries the building loads above it down to solid soil. To spread out the total building load, the base of the wall, called a footing, is wider.
framing: The structure that both supports and encloses the house. In most residential construction the framing is primarily wood and includes wood studs, roof trusses or roof joists, floor joists, subflooring, and roof and exterior wall sheathing. The framing rests on the foundation.
gable: The triangular end of a roof.
galley kitchen: A kitchen with a single aisle and counters and appliances to either side.
glazing: Glass areas; either doors or windows.
grade: Ground level.
green: A material or method of construction that is more environmentally benign than a standard building material or building convention.
ice dam: An ice build-up at the edge of a roof that prevents melting snow from draining into the gutters; in extreme cases, the melting snow leaks into the living spaces below.
I-joist: Another name for an engineered-wood joist.
integrator: An installer of a structured wiring network.
inventory house: A production-built house that is finished or under construction, but not yet sold.
joist: The framing member that supports the floors and the roof when roof trusses are not used.
junk fees: Extra fees a lender tacks onto his closing costs to make more money on the loan.
lease-back: An arrangement whereby a house is sold and then the seller leases it back from the buyers for a specified period.
lock-in: A mortgage lender’s commitment to a specified interest rate, provided that the loan is closed within a fixed period.
low-e: Low emissivity. A low-e coating is added to window glass to make the window more energy efficient. The coating helps to keep the heat inside in winter and outside in summer.
master planned community: Another name for PUD (see this page).
mechanic’s lien: A legal claim on a property by those who perform work on it or furnish materials. In the case of a new house, all laborers and suppliers are entitled to attach a mechanic’s lien against the owner if they have not been paid.
ogee: A wood trim piece with an S-shape profile, commonly used as part of a wall base or a crown molding.
option: An upgrade offered by a builder of a production-built house.
oriented strand board: Four-by-eight sheets of engineered wood commonly used for subflooring and for exterior wall and roof sheathing.
origination fee: A fee charged by a mortgage lender and included in the closing costs. It is usually 1 percent of the mortgage amount.
OSB: Oriented strand board (see above).
pile: Carpet fibers.
point: 1 percent of the mortgage amount. Points, which are calculated to the nearest eighth, are charged by nearly all mortgage lenders and included in the closing costs charged at the time a buyer assumes a mortgage.
production builder: A builder who offers a limited number of floor plans and optional upgrades for a fixed price and who sells the lot as well as the house. Most build on lots that are subdivided by a land developer, and most will make only minor changes to the floor plans that they sell.
PUD: Planned unit development. A very large housing community that usually includes a mixture of house types (single-family houses, town houses, and condo apartments). Each house type will be offered in varying sizes and prices by several builders. Amenities generally include recreational facilities such as tennis courts, swimming pools, jogging trails, tree stands, and open green spaces. The size can vary from as small as two hundred acres to as large as several square miles.
RG6: Coaxial cable tri- or quad-shielded; it is used for the video and cable wiring portion of a residential structured wiring network.
recessed cans: A light fixture that is recessed up into the ceiling.
R-factor: A measure of the rate at which heat passes through a building material. The higher the R figure, the slower that heat can pass through it, and the more energy efficient it is.
roof deck: The roofing surface created when four-by-eight-foot sheets of plywood or oriented strand board are nailed to the roof joists or trusses. The underlayment and finish roofing material are attached to the roof decking.
roof truss: Wood trusses used to support a roof.
roofing felts: Black, asphalt-impregnated paper nailed to a roof deck for temporary waterproofing and as an underlayment before the shingles are installed. The felts are designated by pounds, as in “30-pound felt.”
SEER: Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating, a rating system that is used to indicate the energy efficiency of central air conditioners and heat pumps operating in their cooling mode.
semi-custom builder: A builder who sells a limited number of floor plans but who is willing to make substantial changes to meet buyers’ needs.
SHGC: Solar Heat Gain Coefficient, a measure of how much solar heat passes through a window.
sheathing: Four-by-eight-foot sheets of plywood or OSB that are nailed to the wood studs and roof trusses to enclose the house and give it structural stability. Wall sheathing can also be less expensive sheets of laminated fiberboard (looks like masonite) or asphalt-impregnated fiberboard.
site superintendent: The person at the job site who has the day-to-day responsibility for overseeing the construction of a house.
slope: A vertical drop in feet per hundred horizontal feet. A 1 percent slope drops 1 foot over a distance of 100 feet.
soffit: The underside of a roof that projects beyond the wall below.
solid surfacing material: A synthetic material used to make countertops. It can be either solid acrylic or an acrylic/polyester mix.
spec or specifications: A detailed written description for each item used in the construction of a house.
stand-alone subdivision: A subdivision that has only one type of house rather than a mixture of house types and few if any amenities. The houses are usually built by only one builder.
structured wiring: High-capacity phone and cable wiring networked from a central hub. The network allows high-speed data transmission, multiple phone lines, and networking of computers.
stud: A two-by-four-inch by eight- or nine-feet piece of wood that is used to frame walls in residential construction.
subfloor: Four-by-eight-foot sheets of plywood or OSB that are nailed to the floor joists to create a floor. The finish flooring material—carpet, hardwood, or whatever—is laid over the subfloor.
swale: A shallow ditch that carries surface water runoff.
tear-down: A house of relatively little value that is purchased and then torn down so that a new and usually much larger house can be built.
TJI: A floor or roof joist made of engineered wood that is shaped like a steel I-beam.
tract builder: A builder who builds houses on tracts of land, subdivided into lots by a developer. Most tract builders prefer to be called production builders.
trim: Wood that is installed around window and door openings and at the base of walls to cover over structural framing and drywall edges and create a finished look.
U-factor: A measure of the rate at which heat passes though a window. The lower the U-factor, the more energy efficient the window.
underwriting: The process of evaluating a mortgage loan application.
VOCs: Volatile organic compounds, which are chemically unstable and off-gas from many building materials.
window treatments: Blinds, drapes, or louvers added to a window to provide privacy. These are usually provided by the homeowner, not the builder.
wood stud: A piece of wood that is two by four inches by eight or nine feet that is used for framing in residential construction.