The Glossary · 45 terms
The words
we use on the job.
Decorating has its own language, some of it technical and some of it just old. If a decorator says something you do not follow, it is probably here. If it is not, ask them; a good one will enjoy explaining.
B
- Back rolling
- Going over sprayed or freshly rolled paint with a dry roller to even the texture and push it into the surface.
- Bagging
- Wrapping a wet brush or roller in a plastic bag overnight so you do not have to wash it between coats. Works for a day with water based paint, longer in the fridge.
- Binder
- The glue in paint that holds the pigment together and to the wall. Acrylic, vinyl, alkyd oil, lime or silicate. Cheap paint has less of it, which is why it chalks and marks.
- Bittiness
- Specks and nibs in a dried film. Dust, skin from an old tin, or a shedding brush.Defects
- Breathable
- A coating that lets water vapour pass through it. Essential on lime plaster, stone and old harling. Limewash, clay paint and mineral paints breathe. Vinyl emulsion and acrylic masonry paint do not.
- Burnishing
- The shiny patch left when a matt paint is rubbed. Contract matt and cheap flat emulsions burnish easily; durable matts do not.
C
- Caulk
- Flexible acrylic filler in a tube for gaps between different materials, such as skirting and wall. Paintable, not waterproof.The Kit Room
- Chalking
- Powder on the surface of old exterior paint as the binder breaks down in sunlight.Defects
- Cissing
- Wet paint crawling away from spots of grease or silicone, leaving craters. Also called fish eyes.Defects
- Cutting in
- Painting a clean straight line with a brush where two surfaces or colours meet, along a ceiling or around a frame, without tape.
D
- Distemper
- A soft, chalky, glue bound paint used on walls and ceilings until the 1950s. Powders when rubbed and must be washed off before modern paint will stick.
- Dead flat
- The lowest possible sheen. Beautiful, and marks if you look at it wrongly.
- Dry brush
- A brush with almost no paint on it, dragged lightly to blend or to texture. Also what happens when you forget to reload.
E
- Efflorescence
- White salt crystals pushing through paint on a damp wall.Defects
- End grain
- The cut end of a piece of timber where the fibres are open like straws. Drinks water and paint alike. Coat it twice.
F
- Feathering
- Sanding the edge of a repair or a flaked area so it slopes gently into the surrounding paint and does not show as a step.
- Fitch
- A small round or flat brush with long bristles for detail, mouldings and getting behind pipes.
- Flashing
- Patches of different sheen on a wall where filler was not primed or a touch up was made with a brush.Defects
- Flow
- How well a paint levels itself after the brush leaves it. Oil paint flows; water based paints need speed and a light touch.
H
- Harling
- The traditional Scottish rough lime render thrown onto stone walls. Should be finished in limewash or mineral paint, never acrylic.
- Holidays
- Missed patches. Named because the paint took the day off.
K
- Key
- A slightly roughened surface that gives the next coat something to grip. You key a surface by sanding it.
- Knotting
- Shellac solution painted over knots in softwood to stop resin bleeding through.
L
- Laying off
- The final light strokes, all in one direction, that even out the paint and remove brush marks. The single most important habit in trim painting.
- Lime plaster
- Wall plaster made from lime, sand and often hair, used in almost every house built before about 1919. Soft, breathable, and needs breathable paint.
- Limewash
- Slaked lime in water, brushed thin onto lime or stone in many coats. Fife’s original exterior finish.The Paint Shelf
M
- Mist coat
- A thinned first coat of contract matt on new plaster that soaks in and seals it. Not optional.
- Microporous
- A finish that lets water vapour out but resists liquid water in. Exterior wood stains and some modern exterior paints.
- Mil
- A thousandth of an inch, used for paint thickness. A typical coat of emulsion dries to about one and a half mil. Which is why one coat rarely does.
N
- Nibs
- Small hard bumps in a dry film. See bittiness.
O
- Opacity
- How well a paint hides what is under it. Also called covering power. Yellows and reds have low opacity and need more coats.
P
- Picture framing
- A visible border round a wall where cut in brushwork looks different from the rolled middle.Defects
- Pile
- The depth of the fibre on a roller sleeve. Short for smooth, medium for most walls, long for rough render.The Kit Room
- Primer
- The first coat on a bare surface, whose job is to bond and seal, not to look nice.
R
- Raking light
- Light falling across a surface at a low angle, which shows every flaw. Decorators check their work in it; homeowners discover it at four in the afternoon in October.
S
- Sash and case
- The traditional Scottish sliding window: two sashes running on cords and weights inside a boxed case. Repairable almost indefinitely if painted properly.Anatomy of a sash window repaint
- Sheen
- How much light a dried paint reflects, from dead flat to full gloss.The Paint Shelf
- Snots
- Dried lumps of paint on the rim of the tin or the edge of a moulding. Trade word, no apology.
- Spread rate
- The area a litre of paint should cover, printed on the tin. Stretch it and you get a thin, patchy coat that fails early.
- Stabilising solution
- A clear primer that binds powdery or chalky surfaces so paint can hold.
- Sugar soap
- An alkaline cleaner for washing walls and woodwork before painting. Removes grease, nicotine and grime. Rinse it off.
T
- Tack cloth
- A slightly sticky cloth for lifting the last dust off woodwork before the final coat.
U
- Undercoat
- A high build coat between primer and top coat that levels and hides. What gives gloss its depth.
V
- VOC
- Volatile organic compounds, the solvents that evaporate as paint dries and give it a smell. Water based paints have far fewer.
W
- Wet edge
- The still workable boundary of the paint you have just applied. Keep it wet and join into it, and there are no lap marks. Let it dry and there are.
Put the words to work
Now go and
lay something off.
The workshops are where these words become habits. Two hours with a brush and a piece of skirting teaches laying off better than any glossary.
A word or two explained in every letter, along with the tool or repair it belongs to.