Topic summary
Top plate
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Wall plate.
Timber framing
A plate in timber framing is "A piece of Timber upon which some considerable weight is framed...Hence Ground-Plate...Window-plate [obsolete]..." etc. Also called a wall plate, raising plate, or top plate, An exception to the use of the term plate for a large, load-bearing timber in a wall is the bressummer, a timber supporting a wall over a wall opening (see also: lintel). These are common in Australia.