Natural Stone Definitions
D
D Radius Curb Transition Piece
Custom piece of curb used to transition two runs of curb where they meet.
Damp Proofing
One or more coatings of a compound that is impervious to water. Usually applied to the back or face of the stone or the back of the wall at or near grade.
Dead Load
Dentil
Block projections on an entablature.
Dentil Course
Mold course immediately below the cornice, comprising of small, uniformly spaced blocks referred to as “dentils.”
Derrick
A hoisting device, usually made up of a guyed mast and hinged boom with pulleys and cables.
Diamond
A carbon-based mineral, usually man-made, used as an abrasive in stone cutting equipment.
Diamond Match
A vein matching technique in which contiguous faces of adjacent slabs are unfolded about two perpendicular axes, producing a vein pattern which has approximate symmetry about a point.
Diamond Wire Saw
A machine using a cable of various diameters and lengths, impregnated with diamond dust or more commonly fitted with cylindrical diamond-coated segments. Diamond wire saws are used in quarrying, slabbing, and contour sawing operations.
Die
A covering layer of interior stone from wainscot to ceiling.
Digital Inventory Management
A software and camera system allowing fabricators and distributors to have a photographic inventory of their materials.
Digital Layout Application
Software designed to allow CAD drawing files to be used with scaled digital photographs to allow a fabricator to preplan the layout of his slab or tile project prior to cutting.
Digital Templating
A process for virtual, digital measurement of site conditions that eliminate the need to make physical templates. Digital templating information can be interfaced with various CAD and CNC systems to allow rapid transfer and utilization of the information.
Dimensional Stone
A natural stone product that has been cut, machined, and/or finished to specific size or shape.
Dolomite
- The mineral form of calcium magnesium carbonate. A constituent of some building limestones.
- A crystalline variety of limestone containing in excess of 40 percent magnesium carbonate as the dolomite molecule. Also called “dolostone.”
Dolomitic Limestone
Limestone that contains more than 10 percent but less than 80 percent of the mineral dolomite.
Dolostone
Dovetail Slot
A continuous groove with a trapezoid section resembling a dove’s tail.
Dowel
A short piece of cylindrical non-ferrous metal used as a stone anchor.
Drafted Margin (British)
Tooled border around the face of a stone. Also called “margin draft.”
Dressing
The shaping and squaring of natural stone blocks for storage and shipment. Sometimes called “scabbing.”
Drill Rigs
Machines used in quarry operations to bore holes in a linear path to facilitate separation of the stone loaf from its original position.
Drip
A groove or slot cut beneath and slightly behind the forward edge of a projecting stone member, such as a sill, lintel or coping to cause water to drop at that location and prevent water from running down the face of the wall.
Drip Stone
A projecting molding over the heads of doorways, windows, and archways to throw off the rain. Also known as a “hoodmold” and, when rectangular, as a “label.”
Driveway Apron
A driveway apron is where the street pavement or sidewalk meet a home’s driveway. Aprons are often decorative but also intended to lend durability to the opening of the driveway, a space that is vulnerable to street cars and trucks.
Dry Seam
A naturally occurring unhealed fracture in stone which may be a plane of weakness.
Dry Stack Wall
In rubble masonry construction, a self-supporting wall erected without mortar, one stone placed upon the other.
Dual Finish
Multiple contrasting finishes, such as thermal and polished, on one piece of stone.
Durability
The measure of the ability of natural building stone to endure and to maintain its essential and distinctive characteristics of strength, resistance to decay, and appearance, while exposed to the elements encountered in its application environment.
Dutchman
- A small piece of stone inserted as a patch in a larger piece of dimensional stone.
- A small piece of stone inserted in an ashlar wall.
