A sill plate or sole plate in

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

is the bottom horizontal member of a

wall A wall is a structure and a surface that defines an area; carries a load; provides security, shelter, or soundproofing; or, is decorative. There are many kinds of walls, including: * Walls in buildings that form a fundamental part of the s ...

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and func ...

to which vertical members are attached. The word "plate" is typically omitted in America and carpenters speak simply of the "sill". Other names are ground plate, ground sill, groundsel, night plate, and midnight sill. Sill plates are usually composed of

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

but can be any material. The timber at the top of a wall is often called a top plate, pole plate, mudsill,

wall plate A plate or wall plate is a horizontal, structural, load-bearing member in wooden building framing. Timber framing A plate in timber framing is "A piece of Timber upon which some considerable weight is framed...Hence Ground-Plate...Window-plat ...

or simply "the plate".

Timber sills

Zicht op doorgang van de schuur - Schoonebeek - 20411613 - RCE

In historic buildings the sills were almost always large, solid timbers framed together at the corners, carry the bents, and are set on the stone or brick foundation walls,

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

, or piles (wood posts driven or set into the ground). The sill typically carries the wall framing (posts and studs) and floor joists. There are rare examples of historic buildings in the U.S. where the floor joists land on the foundation and a plank sill or timber sill sit on top of the joists.Sobon, Jack A.. Historic American timber joinery: a graphic guide. Fourth printing. ed. Becket: Timber Framers Guild, 2010. pp 21, 22. Another rare, historic building technique is for the posts of a timber-frame building to land directly on a foundation or in the ground and the sills fit between the posts and are called ''interrupted sills''.

Stick framing

In modern wood construction, sills usually come in sizes of 2×4, 2×6, 2×8, and 2×10. In stick framing, the sill is made of treated lumber, and is anchored to the foundation wall, often with J-bolts, to keep the building from coming off the foundation during a severe storm or earthquake. Building codes require that the bottom of the sill plate be kept 6 to 8 inches above the finished grade, to hinder termites, and to prevent the sill plate from rotting.

Automobiles

automobiles A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

, the sill plate is located underneath the door and sometimes displays the make or model of the vehicle.

Naval architecture

naval architecture Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and ...

, sill also refers to the lower horizontal plate (frame) height, above which doors and access opening are fixed.

References

* Burrows, John (2005).
Canadian Wood-Frame House Construction
'.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) (french: Société canadienne d'hypothèques et de logement) (SCHL) is Canada's national housing agency, and state-owned mortgage insurer. It was originally established after World War II, to help re ...

, .

External links

US Coast Guard Load Line Technical Manual
{{Woodworking Building engineering Structural system Woodworking Architectural elements Carpentry