What is a sleufrooster?
A sleufrooster is a Dutch stainless steel grille for open bed joints or gaps between timber parts: it keeps out bees, wasps and mice but lets air through.
What is batter in walls?
Batter is the deliberate backward slope of a wall face, typical of retaining walls. How to read a batter such as 1 in 20 and how to measure it.
What is a beetle (mallet)?
A beetle is a heavy wooden mallet, often bound with iron bands, used to drive stakes, posts and wedges or to tamp earth.
What is a slaper?
Slaper is the Dutch term for a beam that picks up cut purlins when a dormer is built into a roof. In UK practice the closest term is a trimmer.
What is a crinkle-crankle wall?
A crinkle-crankle wall is a serpentine garden wall, often just half a brick thick, whose curves give stability and create sheltered, sunny bays for fruit.
What is SKG?
SKG is a Dutch certification mark (Stichting Kwaliteit Gevelbouw) for burglar-resistant locks, cylinders and hardware, rated with one to three stars.
What is skeleton frame construction?
Skeleton frame construction is a building method in which a frame of columns and beams in concrete, steel or timber carries the loads and the walls are non-load-bearing.
What is a structural insulated panel (SIP)?
A structural insulated panel (SIP) is a load-bearing, insulating sandwich panel of two OSB boards bonded to a foam core, used for walls and roofs.
What is sintering?
Sintering bonds fine particles together at high temperature without fully melting them. In building it makes bricks and tiles denser, harder and less absorbent.
The 50-degree heating test: what it can tell you about a heat pump
A 50°C heating-flow trial is only for a suitable combi boiler with separate radiator and hot-water controls. Learn what to record and why a heat-pump survey is still essential.