The Structure of your home for the purposes of this web site is divided into categories to help you quickly locate a specific topic. To avoid confusion, this heading of “Structure” is the simply the overall term. Within each category, this word may be repeated to refer to specific design components, etc.
The categories are as follows: Foundation, Basement, Exterior, Attic, Chimney and Roof. These are the “bones” of the building. There has been many changes through the decades of acceptable construction methods. There were periods through history of attempted changes or usage of materials that proved to have deficiencies or even be potentially hazardous. Simple changes from adding steel rebar to concrete and chimney structures and no longer allowing asbestos products in many building materials have been some of the changes that might be familiar with the casual buyer. Each section may have more details than you may be interested in perusing. Read what you need and take a breather. Just like buying a house, some things can produce information overload.
This of course is not an engineering class but still has many informational sections that may still appear overwhelming. To assist in explaining many systems/areas of a structure. included will be photographs and diagrams to attempt to clarify each area.