Glossary

Renovation, in plain English.

Every contractor uses jargon. Most homeowners don’t need a translator, but it helps to have one. 30 terms you’ll see on a real estimate, contract, or job-site walk-through, defined the way we’d explain them at your kitchen table.

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Process & contracts
Materials & finishes
Pricing & money
Permits & licensing
Building systems

Process & contracts

Process & contracts.

Change order: A written addition to your original contract that documents new work, the price for it, and how it shifts the schedule. Reputable contractors put change orders on paper before any extra work starts; verbal change orders are how invoices end up bigger than estimates.
Cycle time: Industry term for how long your kitchen or bath is unusable. We minimize cycle time by ordering long-lead items (cabinets, glass) before demo starts, then sequencing trades back-to-back rather than in series with gaps.
Dust wall (containment): Plastic sheeting on a frame, taped at every edge, that isolates the work zone from the rest of the house. Often paired with a HEPA-filtered air scrubber. Standard practice on every CW Services interior project, your living areas should not get gritty.
Lead time: How long it takes a material to arrive after order. Cabinets are typically 4–10 weeks; quartz is 2–4 weeks after templating; specialty tile can be 6+ weeks. Long lead times are why we pick materials before demo.
Mock-up: A small physical sample of the final assembly: tile pattern, cabinet finish, paint color on the actual wall, used to confirm aesthetics before committing the full order. Cheap insurance against expensive surprises.
Punch list: The final list of small items remaining at end of project, touch-up paint, missing trim caps, a slightly off cabinet door. We complete the punch list before walk-through; you should never inherit one.
Spec sheet: A document listing every material and finish in your project: paint colors and sheens, cabinet line and door style, hardware, faucets, lights, all with model numbers. We write this with you so the crew installs exactly what you chose.

Materials & finishes

Materials & finishes.

Backsplash: The wall surface above a counter, usually tile, that protects drywall from water and grease. A typical kitchen backsplash runs from the counter to the underside of the upper cabinets, about 18 inches tall.
Mil thickness: A unit of thickness equal to one-thousandth of an inch. Used for paint film thickness specs (Sherwin-Williams Emerald typically applies at 4–5 mils wet) and waterproofing membrane thickness.
Schluter Kerdi: A polyethylene waterproofing membrane that bonds to the substrate behind tile in showers. Eliminates the failure modes of older mud-bed pans. Industry-standard for high-quality bathroom remodels; CW Services uses Kerdi or its equivalents on every shower.
Self-leveling underlayment: A pourable cementitious product that flows out flat to correct dips in a subfloor. Required for tile and LVP installs over uneven substrates; a properly leveled subfloor is what separates a 30-year floor from a 5-year one.
Trim package: The combined baseboard, casing, crown, shoe molding, and door trim profile chosen for a room. Choices range from simple modern to detailed traditional; budget impact is mostly labor (cuts and miters), not material.
Waterfall edge: A countertop detail where the stone slab continues vertically down the side of an island to the floor, instead of stopping at the top. Modern look; uses more slab and adds fabricator time, so it costs more.

Pricing & money

Pricing & money.

Allowance: A budget placeholder in your contract for items you have not picked yet, often tile, fixtures, or counters. If your final selection costs more, you pay the difference; if less, you keep the savings. Always check what trades the allowance covers.
Hard costs vs soft costs: Hard costs are physical materials and labor (cabinets, counters, framing). Soft costs are everything else: permits, design fees, dumpster, port-a-john, deliveries, project insurance. A real estimate breaks both out.
Hold-back / retainage: A percentage of the contract (typically 5–10%) withheld from the contractor until the punch list is complete and the project is signed off. Aligns incentives toward finishing the small details.

Permits & licensing

Permits & licensing.

Construction Supervisor License (CSL): A Massachusetts license required for anyone building, altering, repairing, or demolishing structures of any size. Unrestricted CSL allows work on 1- and 2-family dwellings of any size; restricted CSL is for smaller projects. CW Services holds an unrestricted CSL.
Egress window: A window large enough to allow occupant escape in a fire, required by code for any room legally counted as a bedroom, including basement bedrooms. Specific minimum opening dimensions and sill-height rules apply in MA.
EPA Lead-Safe (RRP): Federal certification required for any contractor who disturbs paint in pre-1978 housing. The contractor must use lead-safe work practices: containment, no high-dust methods, proper cleanup, dust testing. CW Services holds an active RRP certification.
HIC (Home Improvement Contractor): A Massachusetts registration separate from CSL, required for anyone performing residential remodeling work on existing 1–4 unit dwellings. Provides homeowner access to the MA Guaranty Fund. CW Services LLP is registered.
OSHA 30: A 30-hour construction safety certification covering fall protection, electrical safety, hazcom, scaffolding, and more. CW Services' supervisors carry OSHA 30; field crew carry OSHA 10 minimum.
Zoning relief / variance: When your proposed project violates a zoning bylaw (setback, height, floor-area ratio). You can apply for a variance from the local Zoning Board of Appeals. Adds 6–12 weeks. Common on additions in older Bristol County towns with tight lots.

Building systems

Building systems.

Closed-cell foam: A type of spray-foam insulation that is dense, water-resistant, and acts as both insulation and a vapor barrier. Common at the rim joist of basements and on the exterior of below-grade foundation walls.
Curbless shower: A shower with no raised lip at the entry; the floor flows continuously into the shower. Requires careful slope of the subfloor toward a linear drain plus continuous waterproofing. Looks great, ages well, but needs precise install.
Load-bearing wall: A wall that supports the weight of the floor or roof above it. Removing one requires engineering, a permit, and a properly sized beam. Removal mid-job is the most common cause of unexpected cost.
PEX: Cross-linked polyethylene plumbing tubing. Replaced copper as the supply-line standard for most residential remodels, flexible, frost-resistant, faster to install. We use PEX-A for higher temperature and chemical tolerance.
Plaster-and-lath: The wall construction in most homes built before ~1950: wood lath strips nailed to studs, then 2–3 coats of plaster troweled over them. Repairs require different tools and patience than drywall; older Brockton, Middleborough, and Berkley homes are full of it.
Soffit-vented vs roof-vented exhaust: How a bathroom or kitchen exhaust fan terminates. Venting to the soffit or through the roof is correct; venting into the attic (a common shortcut in older homes) dumps moisture and causes mold. We always vent to the exterior.
Subfloor: The structural floor surface (typically 3/4" plywood or OSB) that sits on the joists, beneath the finished flooring. Quality of finished floor depends entirely on subfloor flatness, fastening, and dryness.
Vapor barrier: A material (usually plastic sheeting or specialized membrane) that prevents moisture from passing through an assembly. Critical at basement walls and in crawlspaces; placement (warm side vs cold side) is climate-dependent.

Got a term we missed?

Email Glenn. We'll add it to the glossary, with credit if you'd like.

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