- Regulatory VOC
- The grams of volatile organic compounds counted against each liter of coating once the space taken by water and exempt solvents is removed from that liter. A painter matches this figure against the ceiling that applies to the product's own class, never another class, to confirm a coating may be used on a California job.
- Gloss category
- The grouping of an ordinary coating by sheen, either flat, nonflat, or the high-gloss nonflat class, which sets its VOC ceiling when no specialty category fits. Glossier products are allowed a higher ceiling, so identify the category from the product data before comparing any number.
- Stain-blocking primer
- A primer made to seal water, smoke, or tannin stains so they cannot bleed into the finish coat. Ordinary primer or extra topcoats let the discoloration return, so matching the primer to the kind of stain is a frequent surface-preparation decision.
- Certified renovator
- The trained person, working for an EPA-certified firm, who directs lead-safe work in older housing, instructs the crew on the job, and carries out the final wipe check. Knowing who must be present and what that person personally verifies is a recurring lead-safe painting topic.
- Minor repair exemption
- A small-area allowance in the lead-safe rule: disturbing only a tiny amount of paint in any one interior room, or across one exterior project, does not trigger the full work practices. It disappears with window replacement, demolition, or a prohibited method, so know both the limits and the exceptions.
- Plastic-sheeting containment
- Taped-down plastic laid well beyond the work area, plus closed windows and doors and covered ducts, to keep lead dust from spreading through a pre-1978 building. Interior and exterior jobs use different distances, so expect to compare the two.
- Cleaning verification card
- A printed reference card held against a damp disposable cloth wiped over sills, counters, and bare floors after lead-safe work. If the cloth looks dirtier than the card, the surface is cleaned and wiped again, so the card decides whether the room is finished.
- HEPA shroud
- A dust-collecting hood fitted to a sander or grinder and connected to a vacuum with a high-efficiency filter. The lead-safe rule bars power sanding and similar high-speed paint removal unless dust is captured at the point it is made, a common contrast between permitted and prohibited methods.
- Lead trigger task
- A job activity, such as dry scraping, heat-gun work, or manual sanding on lead-containing coatings, that California's lead-in-construction rule treats as high exposure until air results prove otherwise. Workers on these tasks get interim protection immediately, so learn which tasks fall in which tier.
- Lead action level
- The airborne lead concentration, averaged over eight hours, at which monitoring and other employer duties begin. It sits below the permissible exposure limit, and a short burst at a high reading can push the daily average past either number, so keep the two values apart.
- Flame spread index
- A tested number showing how quickly flame travels across a finish, paired with a smoke-developed index. Together they place wall and ceiling finishes into Class A, B, or C, and the building's occupancy group, sprinklers, and location decide the weakest class allowed.
- Thin-finish exemption
- A building-code allowance that spares very thin coverings applied directly to a wall or ceiling, paint included, from fire testing. Thick heavy vinyl wallcovering can exceed the thickness limit and must be tested as installed with its adhesive, so not every product is exempt.
- Dry film thickness
- The thickness of a coating once cured, usually read in mils with a calibrated magnetic gauge on steel. Specifications print an allowed range both for every individual coat and for the finished build as a whole, so a job can fail on one thin coat even when the total looks acceptable.
- Dew point rule
- A weather restriction against coating steel unless its surface is comfortably warmer than the temperature at which moisture condenses from the air. A cool surface can hold an invisible film of condensation that weakens adhesion, so painters subtract and compare instead of trusting air temperature alone.
- Solvent-borne versus water-borne
- Two coating families with different weather windows: solvent-borne paint tolerates cooler, damper conditions than water-borne paint, which needs warmer and drier air. Check readings against the limits for the product actually being used rather than applying one weather rule to every coating.
- Stripe coat
- An extra brushed layer applied to edges, corners, welds, seams, and crevices before the full coat, because film thins out first on sharp profiles. Some specifications require it in addition to the normal coat count, so it is a quality step rather than optional touch-up.
- Holiday
- A missed spot or pinhole in a coating where bare substrate shows through. Protective-coating work finds and repairs holidays before the next coat goes over them, because a hidden skip becomes the place where moisture and corrosion begin.
- Fish eye
- Small round craters that open in a wet coat when the surface carries oil, wax, or silicone contamination. Thorough cleaning and de-glossing before priming prevents it, which is why the exam keeps returning to clean surfaces before any coating.
- Efflorescence
- A white powdery deposit left on masonry or plaster when moisture carries salts to the surface and evaporates. Paint over it fails, so the moisture source is found, the salts are brushed and washed off, and the wall dries completely before any primer.
- Blast cleaning
- Propelling abrasive at steel to remove rust, mill scale, and old paint while leaving a rough profile for the coating to grip. It is subject to weather limits and followed promptly by primer, since freshly blasted steel can flash-rust when left exposed.
