English

The exterior of a house in India being plastered with concrete

Noun

parge ‎(plural parges)

1. (construction) A coat of cement mortar on the face of rough masonry, the earth side of foundation and basement walls.
   • 1990 May, Cheryl M. Fiorillo, “Lightweight block, heavyweight insulator”, in Popular Science, volume 236, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Popular Science Pub. Co., ISSN 0161-7370, OCLC 4015531, page 107:

     I watch as the mason at the Gilbert house picks up a glob of parge coat on his trowel. He smooths it on, moving from the bottom of the wall to the top. Next, he drapes a white fiberglass mesh from the top of the wall to the bottom and pushes it into the parge coat with his trowel.

   • 1991 July–August, Paul Briggs, “Mortars & finishes”, in The Old-House Journal, volume XIX, number 4, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: Old House Journal Corporation, ISSN 0094-0178, page 37:

     Parging is a single layer of mortar applied directly to the wall with a trowel so that it covers the entire surface. Parges generally are rough and cover the whole masonry surface, but at times they are only applied to the joints or recessed portions of the stonework. Parges might subsequently be whitewashed for a more refined appearance, or used later as the scratch coat for stucco.

   • 2007, John Banta, Extreme Weather Hits Home: Protecting Your Buildings from Climate Change, Gabriola Island, B.C.: New Society Publishers, ISBN 978-1-55092-350-6, page 177:

     A better method for dealing with efflorescence on masonry is to coat the offending surface with a parge coat of plaster. This is a plaster material that is slightly softer and more porous than the masonry. As the moisture flows through the masonry, it continues through the parge coat and evaporates from the surface, but the salts remain behind in the parge coat.

Synonyms

• parging

Verb

parge ‎(third-person singular simple present parges, present participle parging, simple past and past participle parged)

1. (construction) To apply a parge on to a surface.
   • 1992 November–December, Christopher Phillips, “Rebuilding fireplaces”, in The Old-House Journal, volume XX, number 6, Gloucester, Mass.: Old House Journal Corporation, ISSN 0094-0178, page 33:

     If your smoke chamber [of a fireplace] is very oddly shaped or virtually impossible to parge, you can solve this problem using expanded metal lath. […] Once you have parged the sides and back of the smoke chamber, set the lintel in a bed of mortar and brick up the breast (front).

   • 1998, Henry S. Harrison, Houses: The Illustrated Guide to Construction, Design and Systems, 3rd edition, Chicago, Ill.: Dearborn Real Estate Education, ISBN 978-0-7931-2967-6, page 200:

     When more than one unit thick of brick or tile is used in the wall, the back of the face brick or tile may be covered with mortar. This parging will substantially increase the waterproofing of the wall. Basement walls usually are parged.

   • 2004, Stephen Diller; Janelle Diller, Craftsman's Construction Installation Encyclopedia, Carlsbad, Calif.: Craftsman Book Company, ISBN 978-1-57218-151-9, page 197:

     You can waterproof by parging, coating with a commercial sealer, or both. […] Parging is a thin cement-sand plaster that you apply to the block. Allow the block to cure at least three days before parging.

Related terms

• parge coat
• pargeting

Anagrams

• gaper, grape, pager