Glossary
The words that turn up in a kitchen quote
Thirty one terms, in plain English, including the California ones that a national glossary will not cover. Worth ten minutes before reading a quote.
- Allowance
- A placeholder sum in a contract for something not yet chosen, most often the countertop stone, the tile or the plumbing fittings. An allowance with a dollars-per-square-foot basis behind it is useful. One with only a lump sum is a number waiting to change.
- Arc-fault protection (AFCI)
- A breaker or device that recognizes the electrical signature of an arcing fault, the kind that starts a fire inside a wall, and disconnects the circuit before it can. Standard on kitchen branch circuits now, and fitting it is a normal part of rewiring an older kitchen.
- Backsplash
- The finished surface between the counter and the wall cabinets, typically 18 inches high, protecting the wall from splashes. It can also run full height behind the range or across a whole wall where there are no wall cabinets.
- Base cabinet
- A floor-standing cabinet that carries the countertop, normally 24 inches deep and 34 and a half inches high before the counter goes on. Base cabinets can be doors, drawers or a combination.
- Bookmatching
- Cutting two adjacent slabs from the same block and opening them like a book so the veining mirrors across the join. It consumes more slab than a standard layout and is priced accordingly.
- Change order
- A written variation to the agreed scope, priced and signed before the work is done. Change orders are normal on older housing, because opening a wall reveals things nobody could see. What is not normal is a change order presented after the fact, which turns a discovery into an argument.
- Conversion varnish
- A catalysed cabinet finish sprayed and cured in a shop rather than brushed on site. It is harder and more moisture-tolerant than site-applied paint, which is why it holds up better in coastal air, and it is one reason doors are usually taken away to be refinished rather than sprayed in the room.
- Counter-depth refrigerator
- A refrigerator built shallower than a standard unit so its door front sits roughly flush with the countertop. It costs more per cubic foot of storage and is often the difference between a walkway that works and one that does not.
- Dedicated circuit
- A branch circuit serving one appliance and nothing else. Kitchens need several of them: two small-appliance circuits for the counter receptacles, plus dedicated circuits for the dishwasher, the disposal and any electric range or oven.
- Downdraft
- A ventilation unit that extracts at counter level rather than from above, usually rising out of the counter behind a cooktop. It suits island cooktops where a ceiling hood would spoil the sightline, and it is generally less effective than an overhead hood at the same airflow.
- Face frame
- A frame of solid wood across the front of a cabinet box, to which the doors hinge. Framed construction is the traditional American cabinet and is more forgiving on uneven walls than frameless.
- Frameless
- Cabinet construction with no face frame, sometimes called full-access or European construction. Doors mount directly to the box sides, which gives more usable width per opening and full-height drawer access.
- Full-extension runner
- A drawer slide that lets the drawer pull completely clear of the cabinet, so the back of the box is reachable. Undermount runners hide the hardware beneath the drawer and usually come with a soft-close mechanism.
- GFCI
- Ground-fault circuit interrupter. A device that cuts power the instant it detects current leaking to ground. Standard on kitchen countertop outlets and the ordinary protection anywhere water and electricity share a room.
- Home improvement contract
- A contract between an owner or tenant and a contractor for work on a residence, defined in California Business and Professions Code section 7151.2 and regulated in detail by section 7159.5, which sets out the written form, the down payment limit and the payment schedule requirements.
- Honed finish
- Stone ground to a flat matte surface rather than polished to a shine. On marble it is the practical choice, because a honed surface hides the dull etch marks left by lemon, wine and vinegar far better than a polished one does.
- Inset door
- A cabinet door that sits within the face frame rather than overlaying it, flush with the frame face. It is the most demanding cabinet style to build and fit, requires a face frame, and costs accordingly.
- Linear foot
- The unit cabinetry is measured and priced in: one foot of wall length carrying cabinets. A kitchen with 24 linear feet has 24 feet of cabinet run counted along the walls and the island.
- Load-bearing wall
- A wall carrying structural load from above rather than just dividing space. Removing one requires a beam sized by an engineer, posts down to a bearing point and sometimes a new footing under them. On mid-century Newport Beach tract housing, the wall between kitchen and family room frequently is one.
- Make-up air
- Replacement air brought into a house deliberately to balance a powerful extraction hood. Without it a big hood takes its air from wherever it can, which can mean pulling combustion products back down a flue, so it is designed in alongside the hood rather than added later.
- Mitred edge
- A countertop edge formed by cutting two pieces at 45 degrees and joining them, so a thin slab reads as a thick one. It is how a two-inch or four-inch apparent edge is achieved without a solid block of stone, and it is skilled fabrication work.
- Overlay
- How far a cabinet door covers the box or frame in front of it. Full overlay leaves only a narrow gap between doors and is the modern default; partial overlay shows more of the face frame between doors.
- Pot filler
- A folding tap mounted on the wall above the range so a heavy pan can be filled where it sits rather than carried from the sink. It needs a supply line run to that wall and a penetration through the splash, both of which have to be decided before the wall closes.
- Punch list
- The list made at the final walkthrough of everything still to be put right: a door that needs adjusting, a missed touch-up, a drawer that catches. It is normal for one to exist, and the final payment is usually held against clearing it.
- Quartz, engineered
- A manufactured slab of ground quartz bound in resin, typically around 90 percent mineral. Non-porous, consistent between slabs, needs no sealing. Not to be confused with quartzite.
- Quartzite
- A natural metamorphic stone quarried in slabs, harder than granite and far more etch-resistant than marble. It has real slab-to-slab variation and needs periodic sealing.
- Rough-in
- The stage where electrical, plumbing and mechanical work is installed with the walls still open. It is the last point at which anything can move cheaply, because once the drywall goes on, relocating a drain or adding a circuit becomes a demolition job in a finished room.
- Soffit
- The boxed-in section of ceiling above the wall cabinets, standard in kitchens of the 1950s through the 1970s. Removing it and running the cabinetry higher is one of the cheapest ways to change the proportions of an older kitchen, and it is far cheaper while the ceiling is already open.
- Templating
- The measurement of the countertop after the cabinets are set and levelled, usually digital, producing the file the fabricator cuts from. It cannot happen earlier, which is why there is a gap between cabinet install and counter install on every schedule.
- Waterfall edge
- A countertop that turns down the end of a cabinet run or island and continues to the floor. It requires a mitred corner, consumes extra slab, and typically adds $1,200 to $3,000 to a stone package.
- Work zones
- The modern successor to the work triangle. Rather than three points, a kitchen is planned as zones for storage, preparation, cooking and cleaning, each with the equipment and counter space it needs. It suits open plans and multi-cook households better than the triangle does.
Where these definitions come from
Construction and cabinetry terms are standard trade usage. The contract and licensing references are drawn from the California Business and Professions Code. The quote guide shows where most of these words appear on a piece of paper, and the cornerstone guide covers how a project here runs from end to end.
Find out what your kitchen costs
Call (949) 791-4160 or use the quote form, and a Newport Beach kitchen company prices the work at no charge.