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Glossary
Property care, in plain English.
Trade jargon shouldn't make property care feel intimidating. Here\'s a plain-English glossary of the terms we use most often — across painting, jet washing, gardening, tarmac and general maintenance — written so you actually understand what's being recommended.
- Aerating
- Punching small holes through a lawn (with a fork or hollow-tine tool) to let air, water and nutrients reach the roots. Reduces compaction.
- Bituminous coating
- A bitumen-based liquid used in tarmac restoration paint — bonds to tarmac, restores black colour, and protects against UV. Quality varies enormously.
- Breathable paint
- Paint that allows water vapour to pass through it, important on traditional lime-based or porous masonry. Prevents trapped moisture.
- Cement render
- A modern Portland-cement-based render. Hard, durable, but largely impermeable — usually wrong for pre-1919 buildings.
- Compaction
- Soil pressed so densely that air, water and roots can't move through. Common cause of mossy, poor lawns.
- Cordon (tomatoes)
- A single-stem trained tomato plant. Side-shoots are pinched out so the plant fruits up rather than out.
- Cutting in (painting)
- Painting the precise edges of a wall (along skirting, ceiling, frames) by hand with a brush, before rolling the main surface.
- Driving rain
- Wind-blown rain that hits walls horizontally — a bigger threat to render and paint than vertical rainfall.
- Eaves
- The lower edge of a roof that overhangs the wall. Eaves protect walls from rain and provide shelter for nesting birds.
- Edging (lawn)
- Cutting a clean line between lawn and bed, either with a half-moon iron or a power edger. Single biggest visual lift in a tidy garden.
- Efflorescence
- White salty staining on render or brickwork. Cosmetic, not structural — usually washes or brushes off as the wall dries.
- Fascia
- The flat board running along the lower edge of the roof, where the gutters fix on. Often timber, often the first thing to need repainting.
- Harling
- Traditional Scottish rough-cast lime render — protects stonework while letting it breathe. Common across Fife, often misdiagnosed and mis-treated.
- Hollow tine
- An aerator that pulls plugs of soil out (rather than just pressing holes). More effective on heavy or compacted lawns.
- Limewash
- A traditional, breathable, lime-based paint. Soft chalky finish, needs frequent refreshing, ideal for old harled walls.
- Mineral-silicate paint
- Paint that bonds chemically to mineral substrates. Highly breathable, very long-lasting on render and stone.
- Mulching
- Spreading a layer of compost, bark or leaves on the soil surface. Suppresses weeds, retains moisture, feeds the soil.
- Overseeding
- Spreading grass seed onto an existing lawn to thicken it up. Best done in early spring or early autumn in Fife.
- Permaculture
- A design approach to growing food and managing land that mimics natural ecosystems — perennials, layered planting, low input, high yield.
- Pointing
- The mortar between bricks or stones. Re-pointing is replacing degraded mortar — must use lime mortar on old buildings, not cement.
- Polymeric jointing sand
- A modern jointing sand for block paving that hardens slightly when wet. Resists weeds and washing-out better than plain kiln-dried sand.
- RCD
- Residual Current Device — a safety cut-out for electrical circuits, especially required for outdoor power. We always plug into one when working outside.
- Scarifying
- Raking out moss, thatch and dead grass from a lawn. Ideal in early spring or early autumn. Sets the lawn up for the season.
- Sealing (block paving)
- Applying a clear or tinted sealant after pressure washing to lock the sand in, lift colour, and slow weed regrowth. Lasts 3–5 years.
- Siloxane paint
- Modern breathable masonry paint. Sheds rain but lets vapour out — a fair compromise between traditional and modern.
- Soffit
- The underside of an overhanging roof eave. Often boxed in with timber or PVC; in older houses, often timber that needs occasional repainting.
- Spalling
- When the face of stone or brick flakes off. Often caused by frost damage or by trapped moisture from inappropriate cement repairs.
- Tarmacadam (tarmac)
- A surface made of crushed stone bound with bitumen. Driveway tarmac fades grey over time; quality restoration paint can return it to deep black.
- Thatch (lawn)
- A layer of dead and living organic matter between the grass blades and the soil. Some is good, too much suffocates the lawn.
- Top-dressing
- Spreading a thin layer of compost or sandy loam over a lawn after scarifying / aerating. Improves soil structure over time.
- Vapour barrier
- A material that resists water vapour. Useful in modern construction, problematic if added to traditional buildings designed to breathe.