Glossary

Glossary of Scottish Building Terms

Barge Flashing
Pieces of metal, usually lead, copper or zinc which run between a flat roof and sloping slated roof, to prevent water penetrating junctions.

Blocking Course
Plain course, usually stone, forming a low parapet superimposed on a cornice usually concealing a gutter.

Brattishing
In roofs, the ornamental cresting of cast or wrought iron crowning a roof, but sometimes also found applied to cornices and other ornamental features.

Cant/Edge Bedding
Occurs where the layers of the stone are vertical and run at 90 degrees to the plane of the wall. Projections such as cornices and pediments should be edge bedded.

Cement Mortar
Mortar, introduced in mid-nineteenth century, in which the binding agent, hydraulic Portland cement, is mixed with fine aggregate.

Copes
The covering course of a wall, designed to throw water off it, also called capping.

Crow Step
Steps on a gable upstanding from the plane of a roof.

Cupola
Small domed roof structure over stair, typically glazed to let light in.

Damp Proof Course
A course of impermeable material to prevent damp rising from the earth and penetrating a wall.

Dormer
A window placed on the inclined plane of a roof, the frame being placed vertically on the rafters.

Downpipes
Pipes which run down the outside of a building for carrying away rainwater and waste water etc.

Dry Dash
A rough textured finish in which clean small pebbles or crushed rock chippings of a suitable size are thrown onto a freshly applied coat of mortar and left exposed.

Eaves
Overhanging edge of a roof.

Fanlight
Glazed area above a door, if rectangular rather than semi-circular, semi-elliptical or segmental, more correctly an over-door light.