The words on the drawings.
Every trade has a vocabulary, and a renovation quotation is written in it. These are the terms this site uses, in the plainest wording that is still accurate — with a link to where each one actually matters.
Nothing here says who supplies, installs or warrants anything. That is recorded per decision, not per word.
- ACPAluminium composite panel
Two thin aluminium skins bonded either side of a core, sold as flat sheet. Used where a surface must stay flat, shed water and not swell — which is why it appears on wet-area walls and facades rather than a timber board.
Feature wall decisions- Carcass
The box of a cabinet, before doors, fronts and hardware. Its core material is what decides whether the cabinet survives humidity and the occasional leak, and it is the part nobody sees when comparing quotations.
Cabinet specification- Gola
A continuous recessed channel behind the cabinet front that you hook your fingers into, instead of a handle. Nothing protrudes and there is no separate part to corrode.
Hardware guide- M&EMechanical and electrical
The services layer — wiring, switches and sockets, lighting points, water supply, drainage and ventilation. Their positions are fixed before finishes go on, because moving one afterwards means opening a wall that is already tiled.
Cabinet, ceiling and lighting coordination- Material schedule
A list of every material by location, with its substrate, finish and fixing. It is the document a supplier quotes against, which is why two suppliers reading one schedule can be compared.
What you receive- Moisture zone
Whether a surface is dry, semi-wet or wet. Which zone it sits in decides the substrate, the edge treatment and the fixing — the same finish can be right in one zone and a failure in the next.
Edge banding in wet zones- Plinth
The recessed base a floor cabinet stands on, set back so it is not kicked and so a mop does not reach the door. A shadow gap is the alternative approach to the same junction.
Shadow gap at the floor- Reveal
A deliberate recess where two surfaces meet, so the joint reads as a shadow line instead of a butt joint that shows every millimetre of movement.
Cabinet specification- Scribe
A thin filler piece cut to follow a wall that is not straight, so the joint between cabinet and wall closes cleanly. Every real wall needs one somewhere, which is why a drawing that shows none has not been measured.
Renovating an older house- Set-out
Marking the agreed positions on the actual building before work starts, and re-measuring wherever the building disagrees with the drawing. Buildings usually do disagree, by a little.
How a project is documented- Shop drawing
A fabricator's own drawing of what it will actually make, checked against the design before anything is cut. It is where a misreading is caught while it still costs nothing.
What you receive- Soffit
The underside of something overhead — an eave, a balcony above you, or the boxed-in space between a wall cabinet and the ceiling.
Exterior envelope decisions- SPCStone-plastic composite
A rigid floor plank with a mineral-filled core. It does not swell the way a board core does when water reaches the joint, which is the usual failure in a Sarawak wet area.
Flooring by zone- Specification
The written record of what is being built — materials, positions, dimensions and finishes, in enough detail that different trades price and build the same thing rather than each their own reading of it.
Design + Specification- Substrate
The material underneath the finish — the board, panel or screed that a tile, laminate or coat of paint is fixed to. Most wet-area failures are a substrate failure wearing the finish's clothes.
Floor and wall surfaces- Tolerance
How far a real dimension is allowed to differ from the drawn one. Written as a number it can be checked by anyone; left unwritten it becomes an argument after the fact.
The QC checklist- Variation
A change to the scope after the scope was agreed. Recorded at the moment it happens, because what changed and why are both far easier to establish then than at the end.
Scope and responsibility- WPCWood-plastic composite
A board of wood fibre and polymer. It resists rain, rot and termites without repainting, so it is used outside and on sheltered facades where real timber would need a maintenance cycle.
Exterior envelope decisions