Glossary of construction slang and other terms

Revision as of 11:06, 17 November 2019

The following terms, some slang, some general or outdated are frequently used or understood by those working on most UK building sites:

• Banker – a mason who cuts and smooths building stone.
• Brickie – a bricklayer.
• Brush hand – a young or untrained assistant to a professional painter, often with limited experience.
• Butcher – often applied to a carpenter with limited skills and abilities.
• Chancer – a person who does work that is normally undertaken by a skilled craftsman. They are typically not properly qualified, or have not completed the required training or apprenticeship for the work they are doing and so are taking a chance on their ability to do the work to the required standard.
• Chippy – a popular term for a carpenter (i.e one who chips wood).
• Cowboy – a charlatan, chancer, one who masquerades as a skilled craftsman but who in reality has few qualifications or skills to do the work. Cowboys often have more success with those of limited knowledge concerning building construction.
• Dirty money – given as extra payment to workers who undertake tasks that are of an unpleasant nature, e.g having to descend into a sewer to clear a blockage.
• Dyker – a builder of dry-stone walls, usually a mason.
• Fixer – someone who builds with stone provided by a banker (see above). The term can also apply to any site operative who fixes a component into position e.g skirting boards.
• Ganger – a foreman who supervises a gang of workers or general operatives; usually works under a general foreman.
• Jobbing builder – someone who undertakes small jobs for various people, usually of a maintenance or repair nature.
• Mate – an unqualified or part-qualified assistant to a skilled operative such as a roofer or painter.
• Navvy – usually applied to manual labourers, especially those who dig trenches or excavations, and especially on civil engineering projects. The term derives from the ‘navigators’ who dug canals.
• Saw doctor – one who sharpens and repairs saws and cutting tools. Also applied to those performing the same task in a saw mill.
• Shoddy – completed work that is of dubious or low quality.
• Snagging – the process of identifying faults, mistakes or omissions in a completed construction, whether new or refurbishment, and making them known to the contractor in a snagging list (or punch list).
• Spark /sparky – an electrician, usually a skilled operative who is fully qualified to undertake the work.
• Spread – a plasterer.
• Tupper – a bricklayer’s hod carrier.
• Working on the lump – an operative who is paid by a contractor in full, i.e they receive the money ‘gross’ without any deductions for tax and national insurance. In other words, the money is received as a lump sum.

Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• Certificate of making good defects.
• Defects.
• Defects liability period.
• Employer's agent.
• Practical completion.
• Retention.
• Snagging.
• Surety.
• Work-to-complete list.