Product Description

Do you need to know your lime putty from your lime plaster? Want to improve your flatness tolerance? Stuck with an incomprehensible DIY manual? The Penguin Dictionary of Building is your answer. Ably steering you through the confusing maze of jargon and technical terms, this ever-popular text has sold over 150,000 copies and is invaluable for anyone interested in construction: students, professional architects, bricklayers, carpenters, glaziers, plasterers, plumbers or DIY enthusiasts. From abrasives to Z-purlin via the murder clause, this clear and comprehensive dictionary provides succinct and accurate explanations of the techniques, equipment and issues of the building world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30286 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

From the Publisher

Some sample entries:

DEAD LEG

A hot-water pipe leading to a tap and not part of a circuit. The hot water in a dead leg cools off between draw-offs, wasting water and heat, and increasing the danger of legionnaire's disease. Domestic hot-water cylinders are located near to the use points so as to limit dead legs to the lengths required by water companies. Large installations often have secondary circulation, but even they have short dead legs.

PERMIT TO WORK

Written permission to do hazardous work, to control access to a building site or part of it, or to services (e.g. telecom rooms). Permits should state who issued them and their position; the work involved and the person responsible for it; dates and times; associated risks; safety precautions and protective clothing needed. The permit should record the completion of the work, with the return of keys, badges, etc.

TERRACOTTA

Italian for burnt clay, a finer-grained ceramic than brick or tiles, used for making hollow clay blocks, ceramic veneer wall facings, statuettes, etc. It is moulded to shape and fired at 1200ºC. Terracotta can be unglazed but is more usually covered with a clear glaze or an opaque colour and should then be called faience. It has fairly low porosity and even if unglazed is very frost-resistant and durable.

About the Author
John S. Scott worked as a chartered structural and mining engineer, and as a certified colliery manager. He died in 1997. James H. MacLean has ten years' site experience, lastly as site manager for Costain Construction in London. He has also translated building terms for two French-English dictionaries. He now lives in Tasmania.

Customer Reviews

Great for self builder who no nothing!
I'm an electrician who's doing a self build, but know's nothing about building terminolgy. Great to be able to deal with builders and designers and be able to understand what there on about! I thought distemper was a disease a dog had! Well worth the money.

Essential
This, in my opinion, is essential for any student of architecture or related disciplines. The list of terms (and accompanying explanations) is almost endless. I'd say this book is a bout as good as Google, better in many ways, all information you can trust. Never again will you be baffled when a client orders somethign you've never heard of or your boss asks for a drawing of something you don't know. Keep this on you at all times. Very good book indeed.

Very Useful and Informative
A very comprehensive and well described dictionary of building terms. Extremely useful for both students and anyone involved in the construction industry.