Our Glossary

Accessible:	To be accessible, a piece of equipment or an area to be inspected must be within the inspector's normal reach and should not require him to remove or relocate household furniture or stored personal goods. Attic access and other areas to be inspected are considered accessible if they have been designed for a normal sized person to enter into or to pass through in a safe manner. Roofs are considered accessible if there is no imminent danger of physical harm to the inspector or the shingles.

Beam:	One of the principal horizontal wood or steel members of a building.

Boiler:	An enclosed vessel in which water has been heated for circulation as hot water or steam for a building.

Brick Veneer:	Brick used as the outer surface of a frame wall.

BTU:	British Thermal Unit: a standard unit for measuring heat; equal to the amount of energy required to raise the temperature of one pound of water at room temperature by one degree Fahrenheit at a constant pressure of one atmosphere. In the United States, the rated capacity of furnaces and boilers is expressed in terms of BTUs emitted per hour. All heat sources (fuel oil, natural gas, electricity) are measured in BTUs.

Building Code:	A set of rules and standards adopted by a jurisdiction which prescribes standards for buildings.

Building permit:	Written permission from a jurisdiction to erect or modify a building.

Circuit breaker:	A safety device which opens (breaks) an electric circuit automatically when it becomes overloaded.

Crawl space:	A shallow, unfinished space beneath the first floor of a house that has no basement, used for visual inspection and access to pipes and ducts. Also, a shallow space in the attic immediately under the roof.

Dry stacking:	A method of reinforcing the structure of a home in which blocks are stacked together to support beams with no mortar holding the blocks together. It is not commonly considered to be the best method of structural reinforcement.

Drywell:	A drainage pit lined or filled with stone so that roof runoff, liquid effluent, or other sanitary wastes will leach or percolate into the surrounding soil.

Duct damper:	A piece of metal inserted into a duct which allows the regulation of air flow through the various duct runs.

Ducts:	In a house, usually round or rectangular metal pipes for distributing warm air from the heating plant to rooms or distributing air from a conditioning device, or as cold air returns. Ducts are also made of asbestos, fiberglass, and composition materials.

Efflorescence:	A white powder on brick, block, or stone that forms as a result of a chemical action and can be washed off without damage; deposits of soluble cells on the surface of masonry.

Flashing:	Non-corrosive metal or felt used around angles or junctions.

Flexible black tubing (solid):	Tubing three or four inches in dimension without perforations used to carry roof water from the base of the downspout away.

Flue:	A passageway in a chimney for conveying smoke, gases, or fumes to the outside air.

Footing:	Concrete base on which a foundation wall sits.

Foundation:	The supporting portion of a structure below the first floor construction, or below grade, including the footings.

French drain:	A drain, normally along a footing, constructed of tile laid in a bed of gravel and designed to collect water and carry it away from the footing.

Furnace:	An enclosure in which energy, in a non-thermal form, is converted into heat.

Fuse:	A short plug in an electric panel box which opens (breaks) an electrical circuit when it becomes overloaded.

GFI Outlets:	Ground fault interrupt: An outlet that has been designed to trip quickly to prevent possible shock. All houses built within the last 10-12 years are required by code to have GFI protection on outlets in the bath, exterior, and garage.

Humidifier:	A device designed to increase the humidity within a room or a house by means of the discharge of water vapor.

Moisture barrier:	Treated paper or plastic that retards or bars water vapor used to keep moisture from passing into walls or floors.

Moisture buildup:	Staining of shingles causing premature aging. Stains are caused from mold, mildew, and fungus growing on shingles.

O.C. (on center):	The spacing for studs, rafters, joists, and the like in a building is measured from the center of one member to the center of the next.

Open ground:	This means that there is a three hole receptacle that has power to it, but no ground wire.

Oversized fuse:	The amps of the fuse or breaker are too large to protect the wiring. The fuse or breaker should be replaced according to the gauge of the wire.

Pier:	A column of masonry, usually rectangular in horizontal cross section used to support other structural members.

Pointing:	Treatment of joints in masonry by filling with mortar to improve appearance or protect against weather.

Rafter:	One of a series of structural members of a root spanning from an exterior wall to a center ridge beam or ridge board designed to support roof loads. The rafters of a flat roof are sometimes called roof joists.

Reverse polarity:	Erroneous reversing of the hot and neutral wire at an electrical outlet.

Scuttle hole:	A small opening to the attic or to the crawl space.

Shared circuit:	This means there are two circuits on one breaker. Each circuit should be on a separate fuse or breaker.

Septic tank:	A sewage tank in which part of the sewage is converted into sludge and gas before the remaining waste is discharged by gravity into a leaching bed underground.

Slab:	Concrete floor placed directly on earth or a gravel base and usually about four inches thick.

Smoke detectors (hardwired):	Smoke detectors powered by the building's electrical system.

Splash back:	A block designed to receive roof drainage from downspouts and to carry it away from the building.

Sump pump:	An electrical pump normally located in a hole in the basement slab with the purpose of pumping accumulated water away from the footings. The water should be discharged to the exterior of the building.

Swale:	A wide shallow depression in the ground to form a channel for storm water drainage.

Thermal seal:	Double-pane or insulated glass is sealed at a factory. At some point, due to a number of causes, the seal will become breached or broken. This allows a fog or condensation to form between the glass panes. This does not affect window operation.

Truss:	A frame or jointed structure designed to act as a beam of long span.

Vapor barrier:	Material such as paper, plastic, paint, or concrete which is used to prevent vapor from passing into a building space.

Water table:	The upper limit of the part of the soil, or underlying material, that is wholly saturated with water; the depth below the surface at which free water is found.

Window wells:	Small retaining walls made of metal or masonry, normally build around basement windows to hold earth away from the windows and allow grading.

Wagner Home Inspections, Inc.
313 Williams Street, Suite 7 • Tallahassee, FL 32303
800-7-WAGNER
contact@wagnerinspections.com