At a glance
| UK name | US name | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Skirting board | Baseboard | Both name the board along the foot of a wall. |
| Architrave | Casing (door or window casing) | Same job: covering the joint between wall and lining. |
| Cornice (coving if plain and hollow) | Crown moulding | Trade usage; coving is not always plaster. |
| Dado rail | Chair rail | The lower panelled wall is wainscot in the US. |
| Rebate | Rabbet | The Wood Handbook uses 'rabbet'. |
| Housing (a groove across the grain) | Dado (the joint) | UK 'dado' is a zone of wall. |
| Lipping, edge band | Edge banding | Trade usage overlaps in the UK. |
| Carcase | Carcass | Spelling; also 'case' in US casework. |
| Plinth | Toe kick, toe base | The recessed base under cabinets. |
| Timber | Lumber | The Wood Handbook defines 'lumber' as sawn and planed timber. |
| Planed all round (PAR) | S4S, surfaced four sides | Both mean planed on four faces. |
| Mitre, moulding | Miter, molding | Spelling. |
The Wood Handbook uses the US words (rabbet, lumber, S4S). The other pairs are common trade usage with no source read; confirm with the partner workshop.
A door and its trim, named
This drawing names the parts of a door and its trim, in elevation and in plan section through the hinge-side jamb. The architrave covers the joint between the wall and the lining; the lining carries the door; the leaf closes against the stop, in the rebate; the reveal is the strip of lining left showing at the edge of the architrave. The leaf itself is framed: stiles up the sides, rails across, panels between. The architrave runs down to plinth blocks, which the skirting butts to.
Eleven details in section
Here are the geometric terms drawn at one scale, on a 5 mm grid. They show the shape each word names: the sizes are illustrative, not rules, and the table entries say where each definition comes from. For the mouldings themselves, such as ovolo, torus and scotia, see the moulding profiles chart.
Profiles and trim
Source keys in square brackets. WH: the glossary of the USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook (FPL-GTR-282, 2021). ADK, ADB, ADM, ADE: Approved Documents K, B, M and E. Sheet: another sheet in this library, which lists its own sources. Trade: trade usage, with no standard or dictionary read.
| Term | What it means | Also called (UK / US) | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Architrave | The moulding round a door or window opening that hides the joint between the wall and the timber lining. [Sheet: architrave profiles] | US: casing. | Give its width, thickness and the reveal on the drawing. |
| Bead, astragal | A small convex half-round moulding. Astragal is the same idea, and also names the half-round strip that covers the gap between a pair of doors. A quirk bead has a narrow groove (the quirk) beside it. [Sheet: moulding profiles] | Sources disagree about astragal: name the sense you mean. | |
| Bolection | A moulding that stands proud of the face of a frame or panel, used where a frame and an inset panel meet at different levels. [Sheet: moulding profiles] | It laps the joint, so draw it with the frame and panel. | |
| Chamfer | A flat angled cut along an edge, usually at 45 degrees. [Sheet: moulding profiles] | Give the size of the flat, not just the angle. | |
| Cornice, coving | The cornice is the moulding at the top of a wall where it meets the ceiling. Coving is a plain concave version, usually plaster or board. [Sheet: moulding profiles (cornice); Trade (coving)] | US: crown moulding. | The two words are used loosely: give the profile and the material. |
| Cyma recta, cyma reversa (ogee) | S-shaped mouldings. The recta is hollow above and bulges below; the reversa bulges above and is hollow below. Joiners usually call a reversa an ogee. [Sheet: moulding profiles] | Ogee. | Easy to swap: draw the section. |
| Dado, dado rail, picture rail | The dado is the lower part of a wall and the dado rail is the moulding along its top. A picture rail is a moulding fixed high on the wall to hang pictures from. [Sheet: dado, chair, picture and plate rails] | US: chair rail; the lower panelling is wainscot [Trade]. | In US joinery 'dado' also means a groove across the grain: see Housing. |
| Fluting, reeding | Fluting is a repeated shallow hollow cut along a surface; reeding is the reverse, a row of small beads. [Sheet: moulding profiles; fluted, reeded and slatted profiles] | Say which, and give the pitch. | |
| Moulding, millwork | A moulding is a wood strip with a curved or projecting surface, used for decoration. Millwork is planed and patterned timber for finish work in buildings, such as sash, doors, cornices, panelwork and other trim. [WH glossary] | US: molding; millwork. | Millwork is a US trade word and wider than moulding. |
| Plinth block | A block at the foot of an architrave that the skirting butts to, so the two do not need a mitre. [Sheet: skirting and architrave heights] | Set its size from the skirting and the architrave. | |
| Profile | The shape you would see if the moulding were sawn across its length. [Sheet: moulding profiles] | Two mouldings with the same name can have different profiles: a drawing is safer than a name. | |
| Skirting board | The board fixed along the foot of a wall that covers the junction of wall and floor and protects the wall. [Sheet: skirting and architrave heights] | US: baseboard. | Heights are measured from finished floor level. |
| Other profile names | Fillet, ovolo, torus, scotia, cavetto, quadrant, bullnose and others are drawn and defined on the moulding profiles sheet. [Sheet: moulding profiles] | A name fixes the shape, not the size. |
Joints and construction
| Term | What it means | Also called (UK / US) | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carcase | The box of a cabinet or wardrobe: its sides, top, bottom and back, before doors, drawers and shelves are fitted. [Trade] | US: carcass. | Give the carcase thickness and the door overlay separately. |
| Dovetail | A joint in which wedge-shaped tails on one piece lock into matching sockets between pins on the other, so the joint resists being pulled apart. Named in the Wood Handbook's joint figure. [Trade; WH names it] | Common in drawer corners: see the drawer construction sheet. | |
| Groove | A channel cut along the grain, for a panel to sit in or a tongue to enter. [Trade] | UK trade: plough (a groove along the grain). | A channel cut across the grain is a housing. |
| Housing | A groove cut across the grain to take the end of a shelf or panel. [Trade; the Wood Handbook names 'dado' joints] | US: dado. | UK 'dado' is a wall zone, US 'dado' is a groove. |
| Lipping, edge band | Lipping is a solid timber strip fixed to the edge of a board to cover the core. An edge band is a thin strip of veneer, plastic or similar on the edge. Trade usage overlaps. [Trade] | US: edge banding, for both. | Give the material, thickness and width of each edge. |
| Mitre | A joint in which two pieces are cut at an angle, usually 45 degrees, to meet at a corner. [Trade; the Wood Handbook names the miter joint] | US: miter. | Walls are seldom square, so a mitre can open: see Scribe. |
| Mortise and tenon | A mortise is a slot cut into a piece, usually edgewise, to receive the tenon, a projecting member left by cutting away the wood around it. Together they make a joint. [WH glossary] | State the tenon thickness and whether it is through or stopped. | |
| Rail, stile, panel | In a framed and panelled door or wall the stiles are the upright members of the frame and the rails the horizontal ones; the panel is held in a groove in the frame. A fielded panel has a raised centre; a flat or Shaker panel does not. A floating panel is held loose so it can move. [Trade; Sheet: timber movement (floating panel)] | Mullion or muntin: an upright dividing panels [Trade]. | Say whether panels are fielded, flat or bolection-moulded. |
| Rebate | A step cut along an edge or into a corner, for example where a door leaf closes into its frame or a panel sits behind a bead. [Trade; the Wood Handbook uses 'rabbet'] | US: rabbet. | Give both dimensions of the step. |
| Tongue and groove | A joint in which a tongue on the edge of one board fits a groove in the edge of the next. Matched lumber is edge dressed to make a close tongued and grooved joint. [WH glossary and figure 10-6] | Abbreviation: T&G. | State the tongue size and whether the joint is glued. |
Doors, stairs and ironmongery
| Term | What it means | Also called (UK / US) | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doorset, leaf | The leaf is the moving part of a door, without its frame, lining or hardware. A doorset is the leaf, frame, seals and ironmongery supplied, tested and certified together. [Sheet: door sizes and tolerances (leaf); fire door specification guide (doorset); ADB App. C para C4] | Fire and sound ratings belong to the doorset, not the leaf. | |
| Lining (door lining) | The timber that lines a wall opening and carries the door: the jamb linings at the sides and the head across the top. [Trade] | US: jamb. | Not the same as a 'wall lining' in Approved Document B (see below). |
| Stop (door stop) | The shoulder, or the strip fixed to the lining, that the closed leaf meets. In a solid rebated frame the stop is the part left standing beside the rebate. [Trade] | Say whether the stop is solid or planted. | |
| Reveal | Two senses. In trim, the strip of lining left showing because the architrave is set back from its edge. In building, the side of a wall opening. [Sheet: architrave profiles (trim sense); Trade] | Give the reveal as a dimension. | |
| Threshold | The bottom of a door opening, where the floor meets the foot of the leaf. Approved Document M limits a raised threshold at an accessible entrance to 15 mm in total height (Volume 2, 2.7(e)). [ADM; Trade] | Sill. | A raised acoustic threshold needs checking against level access: see the acoustic doors sheet. |
| Clear opening width | In Approved Document M Volume 1, the width through an open door measured from the inside face of the open leaf to the inside edge of the frame or stop, ignoring handles and other furniture. [Sheet: door sizes and tolerances; ADM] | It is smaller than the leaf width. | |
| FD30S, E30 Sa | FD30S is the older BS 476-22 notation for a fire door that keeps its integrity for 30 minutes, with S for restricted smoke leakage. E30 Sa is the European equivalent. Approved Document B drops the FD notation on 2 September 2029. [Sheet: fire door specification guide; ADB App. C] | The rating belongs to the certified doorset. | |
| Intumescent seal | A strip fitted in the leaf or frame edge that swells when heated, to close the gap between leaf and frame in a fire. [Sheet: fire door specification guide] | Not an acoustic or smoke seal on its own. | |
| Nosing, rise, going | The nosing is the leading edge of a stair tread. The rise is the height between consecutive treads, and the going is the depth of a tread from front to back, less any overlap with the tread above. [ADK Appendix A] | See the staircase anatomy sheet for newel, string and baluster. | |
| Rw | A single-number quantity that characterises the airborne sound insulation of a building element, such as a doorset, in the laboratory. [ADE Annex C; Sheet: acoustic doors and Rw ratings] | A laboratory figure, not what the door achieves on site. |
Timber, boards and finishes
| Term | What it means | Also called (UK / US) | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balanced construction | A construction in which changes in moisture content will not cause warping, for example matching veneers and a finish on both faces. [WH glossary] | A veneered panel with veneer on one face only is not balanced. | |
| Warp: bow, crook, cup, twist | Warp is any variation from a true plane surface. Bow is a deviation flatwise along the length, crook a deviation edgewise along the length, cup a deviation across the width, and twist a winding so the four corners of a face are not in one plane. [WH glossary] | A flatness limit is written in millimetres over a stated length. | |
| Flat sawn, quarter sawn, rift sawn | The Wood Handbook calls a board flat grained (plain or flat sawn) when the growth rings meet the wide face at less than 45 degrees, and edge grained (quarter sawn) when they meet it at 45 to 90 degrees. Rift sawn lies between, and definitions vary. [WH glossary; Sheet: timber cuts explained] | US: plainsawn, quartersawn. | Quarter sawn moves less across the width. |
| Heartwood, sapwood | Heartwood is the older central wood, usually darker and more decay resistant. Sapwood is the pale outer wood, more susceptible to decay. [WH glossary] | Say whether sapwood is allowed on exposed faces. | |
| Moisture content | The water in wood as a percentage of the weight of the oven-dry wood. The equilibrium moisture content is the level wood settles at in air of a given temperature and humidity. [WH glossary] | MC; EMC. | Timber is fitted close to the moisture content it will reach in the room. |
| Nominal, sawn and finished size; PAR | Nominal size is the size by which timber is known and sold, and often differs from the actual size. Finished size is the size after planing, sanding and any veneering or edge banding. PAR means planed all round. [WH glossary; Sheet: sawn versus finished timber sizes] | US: S4S (surfaced four sides). | The drawing carries the finished size. |
| Veneer, book match | A veneer is a thin layer or sheet of wood. In a book match every other leaf is turned over so the figure mirrors at each joint. [WH glossary; Sheet: veneer specification] | Slip match: leaves slid side by side, figure repeats. | A match needs leaves from one flitch, numbered. |
| MDF | Medium density fibreboard: a dry-process board made from wood fibres and resin under heat and pressure, specified in Britain to BS EN 622-5. Flat and smooth, but not waterproof. [WH glossary; Sheet: MDF decoded] | MR (moisture resistant), FR (fire retardant) grades. | Moisture resistant does not mean waterproof. |
| Film-forming, penetrating finish | A film-forming finish, such as lacquer, varnish or paint, builds a layer on the surface. A penetrating finish, such as an oil, soaks in and leaves the texture of the wood. [Sheet: finishes on timber joinery] | A product labelled penetrating can still leave a film. |
Drawings, tolerances and fit
| Term | What it means | Also called (UK / US) | Watch out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scribe | To mark and cut an edge so that it follows an uneven surface such as a wall, floor or ceiling and closes the gap. [Sheet: joinery tolerances and scribing] | Allow for scribing in the dimension: say how much. | |
| Shadow gap | A deliberate recessed gap at a junction, such as skirting to wall or wall to ceiling, which reads as a clean dark line. It makes any difference between wall and trim visible in the line. [Sheet: shadow gaps and flush trim] | Reveal; recessed joint. | A gap through a fire or acoustic line is a specialist detail. |
| Set-out | The drawing, and the arithmetic behind it, that fixes where every panel, stile and joint goes on a wall before anything is cut. [Sheet: wall panelling set-out] | Do it on the surveyed wall, not the design wall. | |
| Mock-up | A full-size trial of a detail or part of the work, made and checked before production. [Trade; Sheet: prototype and mock-up approval] | Prototype; sample. | State what the mock-up is to prove. |
| Wall lining (Approved Document B) | The surface of walls and ceilings that Approved Document B asks to meet a reaction-to-fire class. Skirtings, architraves, cover moulds, picture rails and similar narrow members are not counted. [Sheet: moulding materials compared; ADB Vol 2 para 6.3] | Not the same as a door lining. |
Abbreviations on joinery drawings
These are common on UK drawings. Each partner workshop has its own drawing key, so attach the key to the drawing set.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Note |
|---|---|---|
| FFL | Finished floor level | The height of the finished floor surface, from which skirting and door heights are measured. |
| SSL | Structural slab level | The height of the structural floor before the finish and build-up. |
| CL | Centre line | Also drawn with a symbol. |
| PAR | Planed all round | Timber planed on all four faces. |
| MR, FR | Moisture resistant, fire retardant | Board grades: neither means waterproof or fireproof. |
| NTS | Not to scale | Used on a sketch, never on a dimensioned drawing. |
Naming a joinery item on a schedule
Names for the same thing differ between workshops, and one name can cover two profiles. A schedule line is safer when it says five things in the same order every time:
- The item and where it is, for example architrave, door D12, both faces.
- The section drawing, at 1:1, with the profile name as a label and not as the definition.
- The dimensions: width, thickness, reveal, rebate or groove size, as numbers.
- The material and finish, by species or board type and by finish and sheen.
- How it fits: scribed, mitred or butted, and fixed how.
Where a drawing and a name disagree, say which governs. For the profile shapes see the moulding profiles chart, and for sizes the skirting and architrave heights. For tolerances and scribing see joinery tolerances and scribing.
Specification wording
Paste into your schedule or specification and replace anything in [square brackets] with your own figures. Wording is a starting point: your specification governs.
Trim item
Architrave: [species] [ ] x [ ] mm to the profile on drawing [ref], full size, with a reveal of [6] mm, mitred at the head and finished at the foot with [plinth blocks], scribed to the wall, fixed [ ], finished [ ]. Where the profile name and the drawing differ, the drawing governs.
Door and lining
Doorset: leaf [ ] mm thick, [flush / panelled] with [fielded / flat] panels; lining [ ] mm with a [rebated / planted] stop; threshold [ ]; clear opening width [ ] mm. All parts as drawing [ref]; fire and acoustic ratings, where required, apply to the complete doorset.
Terms clause
Joinery terms on these drawings and schedules have the meanings given in [project glossary / the Technical library glossary dated [ ]]. Where a name could describe more than one profile or joint, the section drawing governs. Dimensions are finished sizes unless marked nominal.
Terms used on this page
- Datum
- The single reference level or line that all heights on a drawing and a survey are measured from.
- Plumb
- Truly vertical. A wall out of plumb leans.
Standards and sources
- USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook, FPL-GTR-282 (2021), glossary and figures 10-6 and 10-8: read 6 Nov 2026; US usage.
- Approved Document K (2013) Appendix A; Approved Documents B, M and E: as read for the earlier sheets and for the acoustic doors sheet.
- BS 1186-3:1990, Timber for and workmanship in joinery: specification for wood trim and its fixing: BSI lists it current, under review. Not read.
- BS 8888 and BS EN 12519: BS 8888: BSI announced a 2025 edition (status not confirmed on a product page). BS EN 12519 (windows and pedestrian doors, terminology): the 2004 edition is withdrawn, the 2018 edition is current by retailer listings. Neither read.
- Library sheets cited in the tables: each lists its own sources.
Questions we are asked
What is the difference between a rebate and a groove?
A groove is a channel cut along the grain with wood on both sides; a rebate is a step cut along an edge or into a corner, so it has wood on one side only. A channel cut across the grain is a housing. In the US a rebate is a rabbet.
What is a scribe in joinery?
To scribe is to mark and cut an edge so it follows an uneven surface, such as a wall, and closes the gap. A scribe is also the allowance left on a panel edge to be cut to fit. See the joinery tolerances and scribing sheet.
What does shadow gap mean?
A deliberate recessed gap at a junction, such as skirting to wall, which reads as a clean dark line and makes any difference between the wall and the trim visible in the line. Where it crosses a fire or acoustic line, it is a detail for the specialist.
What is the difference between lipping and edge banding?
Lipping is usually a solid timber strip fixed to a board edge to cover the core; an edge band is a thin strip of veneer, plastic or similar. UK trade usage overlaps, and the US uses edge banding for both. State the material, thickness and width of each.
Is an architrave the same as a casing?
They do the same job, covering the joint between a wall and a door or window lining, but the profiles and proportions differ between UK and US practice. Architrave is the UK word, casing the US one.
Why do two joiners name the same profile differently?
Profile names are not standardised, and one name can cover more than one shape; sources disagree even about astragal. Draw the section at full size and let the drawing, not the name, govern.
Download the factsheet
A two-page A4 PDF with the UK and US names, the labelled door and trim, the short glossary and specification wording, to keep with your project file.