Glossary of construction slang and other terms

The following terms, some slang, some general or outdated are frequently used or understood by those working on most UK building sites: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, typically involved in cutting and smoothing building stone.
• Banksman – a person qualified to direct vehicle movements
• Bagging – slang term for heavy duty hose (normally with bauer couplings) for temporary pumping.
• 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 would normally be 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 site 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 additional payments 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. OR sometimes short for "Steel fixer" see below
• 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 to do with maintenance or repair.
• Making good – see 'snagging'.
• Mate – an unqualified or part-qualified assistant to a skilled operative such as a roofer or painter.
• Nappy – portable bund to contain spills
• 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 (navigations).
• Rubber duck – slang for a wheeled excavator (as opposed to a tracked excavator)
• Saw doctor – one who sharpens and repairs saws and cutting tools. Also applied to those performing the same task in a saw mill.
• Shoddy – work that is of dubious or low quality.
• Snagging – the identification and rectification of faults, defects, 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.
• Steel fixer – someone who erects steel reinforcement for reinforced concrete structures.
• Tupper – a worker who carries the hod for a bricklayer.
• Waster – someone who does no or little work.
• Working on the lump – receiving wages ‘gross’, without any deductions for tax and national insurance. In other words, the money is received as a lump sum.

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

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• Common spelling mistakes in the construction industry.
• Construction industry acronyms.
• Financial management glossary.
• Glossary of electrical terms.
• Glossary of paving terms.
• Glossary of property law terms.
• Notation and units on drawings and documents.
• Symbols on architectural drawings.
• Writing technique.