# Forum Home Renovation Concreting  What To Call It?  A 'Skirt' ?

## abrogard

We have a shed. With concrete slab. Then I poured a bit out the front - 700mm - to slope down to ground level so's things could be rolled in and out of the shed easily.  What's the proper name for such as that? 
And then to stop rain drips eating away at the ground right at the edge of the slab and undermining it  I will pour about 700mm wide concrete 80mm deep all around the shed extending the slab out but 20mm lower than the slab top making a walkway, or a path, or an extension ? What should that be called? 
Are there 'proper' building terms for these things or do we just call 'em whatever we like?

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## Wildman

I would call it an "Apron", thats what the concrete surrounding aircraft hangers was referred to. According to Wikipedia, there is no such use for "Skirt" but hey its your shed, call it whatever article of womens clothing you like!  :Redface: ) 
An *apron* is an article of clothing.
 Apron may also refer to:  An expanse surrounding some object; for example, an airport can have a concrete "apron" around it, where planes and other vehicles can move about.

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## ringtail

x 2 for apron

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## r3nov8or

> According to Wikipedia...

   That's the great thing about Wikipedia, you can go and define it  yourself. Just create/find a couple of external references to refer to  and, voila!, it becomes true   :Smilie:  
BTW I agree with apron

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## an3_bolt

Technically in the aircraft world, we refer to the use of apron as the non-maneouvring area of the airport ie not the runway and not the taxi way but where we stop the aircraft for parking, loading, servicing and maintenance.  Some parts of the world it is referred to as the ramp area.

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## abrogard

Hmmm... perhaps 'skirt' betrays something about my psyche I'd rather you not see... 
'Apron', O.K.  I'll go with that. 
Both of the structures I mentioned being, to my mind, really a necessary functional part of the shed, I just thought it possible there was some technical term for them. 
I'm fairly unknowledgeable ( prefer that term to 'ignorant' ) and words like 'gunnel' and 'strake' and 'girt' and 'joddle' give me the feeling that virtually anything can have a technical term used by those in the know, those that deal with these things all the time. 
For a shed with an elevated slab needs some sort of an approach unless you're going to require lifting wheeled traffic over the step the slab then presents.  
Looking from that angle 'ramp' would fit and mine would just be a teeny little ramp as befits the height of the slab - a mere 100mm. 
And walls dripping rain down on the ground right there at the edge of the slab just cause the ground to be eaten away, sometimes, in some soils on sloping blocks, very spectacularly.   
So I kinda thought this 'apron' structure might be right there in the manual for professional 'best practice' shed builders with some techie name. 
It is kinda like a ground level gutter, isn't it? Breaking the force of the water and allowing it to drip over the edge. 
Plus there's an assistance with vegetation, too - quite a hassle when some weeds take deep root beneath your slab right there at the bottom of the wall. Have this little 'surround' and you can mow such thing down easily by, for instance, running your mower with two wheels up on the surround.  Even kikuyu finds it harder to work its way into the shed. 
So it is so valuable I just opined it might be a recognised structural artifact. 
You can't say it's just a question of how you site the shed on the slab, because the point is that the 'apron' is lower than the slab and so there's no chance of feeding rain back into the shed. 
Hmmm.  What'd I write all that for?  One glass of wine too many.  Must go... children having crisis...

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## inferno6688

maybe it can bedescribed as an apron for 'scour proection'  :Smilie:

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## abrogard

Yep. I'd think 'scour' would apply more on a sloping block where there's existing runoff streaming by.  But, yes, it'd apply here, too. 
It's more 'drip impact' I'm thinking of.  But anyway, not to make too much of it. 
I think the front bit has got to be a 'ramp'.  Even if it is only 700mm. It still is a ramp I think. 
I was thinking of things like, 'lip', 'corbel', 'skirt', 'edging' - and really expecting to find some trade name for it, but it doesn't seem so. 
 How about 'flange' ?  Seems to fit most of the definition:  Freedictionarydef. 
'strengthen an object or hold it in place....'  Well, ultimately the idea is for the 'flange' to help hold the slab in place. 
I think it fits but I don't think anyone would want to use it.  We always think of flanges as being quite small things, I think.   :Smilie:

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## Hoppy

Guys aprons are best left in the kitchen. But try the word "plinth" for the surround at the base of the walls.
The 700m in front of a doorway should really be called a ramp.

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## Moondog55

Nah It's an aprom; plinths are used I am sure to raise something up; to put it above the surrounds so that it stands out.
Should not have drips falling off the roof; that's what guttering is for, collects all that water and directs it to the water tank alternative is to use a shallow half pipe filled with coarse gravel leading to a sump

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