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'Demising Wall' — What's Up With That?
 (The following came to me via e-mail recently. It was a little wordy for a verbatim reprint, so I chopped it back a bit.)
Dear Tim:
I just finished reading your book (“Cracks, Sags and Dimwits — Lessons to Build On"). It's an excellent how-to-avoid-or-succeed guide for many different professions. Its lessons are easily adapted to life in general, not just to the work or professional environment.
I agree with you on “reentrant.” What’s up with that? On the other hand, what’s up with a “demising wall” that I keep seeing on plans? All of us in code-land have heard builders use that term forever, but there doesn’t seem to be a definition even in Webster’s.
Tim DeVries
Commercial Plans Examiner
Accolades aside (thank you for those kind words), you have piqued my curiosity, Tim. I too have heard “demising wall” and just assumed that it was a real term. However, if not, you have come to the right man to get to the bottom of this long-perpetuated cauldron of linguistic gobbledygook.
Here is what Webster’s Collegiate says about “demise”:
1. To convey by will or lease
2. a) Death b) A cessation of existence or activity c) A loss of position or status
Shocking! Not a single hint of walls or separation. Brings to mind a recent fracas involving a builder, an attorney and a chaplain.
FRAMER PRYENBANG (shouting to some other guys on his framing crew): “Hey guys! Come help me lift this demising wall I just framed.”
LAYWER LOCKJAW (stiffly walking onto the site wearing suit and tie, toting a briefcase.): “Demising wall — did someone say there is a demising wall on the premises?”
FRAMER PRYENBANG: “Yeah, there’s one right here. I’m just about to lift it into place.”
LAWYER LOCKJAW: “I’m afraid you can’t lift that wall, sir. If it is a demising wall, it has just changed ownership. I have a last will and testament in my possession indicating said demising wall shall become the property of the residence at 123 Fruitloop Court, two houses south of here, at precisely this hour on this appointed day. You and your crew are hereby ordered to carry that demising wall to its new owner.”
PASTOR PITCHGRAVE (rushing onto the scene, black robes fluttering): “Not so fast, ye ambulance chaser! That demising wall shan’t be goin’ anywhere but to meet its maker. It’s dead, don’t you know. Why, with all those nails and claw hammers a-bangin’. And the power saws — mercy sakes alive, the power saws! Pryenbang, have your backhoe man dig a hole in the backyard. This demising wall, she’s a-goin’ to the big house in the sky.”
Maybe my spelling is bad and the real word is dimising, not demising. It wouldn’t be the first time our industry perpetuated bad grammar or spelling. For example, an electrician I know uses a lot of Leviton brand products. However, he pronounces it “Levington.” What’s up with that? There is no “ng” in Leviton. Just to be sure, I called the good folks at Leviton and asked how they pronounce the name of their company. They managed, once gaining control of their rollicking laughter, to assure me that the proper enunciation (or is it “pronunciation?”) is Lev-i-ton. Now armed with this critical piece of information, I had a little discussion with my electrician buddy. “Larry, you know it’s pronounced Lev-i-ton, don’t you?”
“Yeah, sure, everbuddy knows how it’s pernounced. Now, d’you mind making yourself useful and handing me that box of Levington duplex testicles over there?”
I checked Webster’s for dimising, but nope, no such word.
The term usually shows up on architectural plans, so to be sure that Webster didn’t somehow miss the architectural boat, I e-mailed my friend Bill Kreager at Mithun Architects in Seattle.
Bill is a word man. Before answering the “demising” question, he too referenced my book, calling it “pithy and good”. Pithy? What’s up with that? Pithy is the word I use to describe a too-old apple. Back to Webster I went: Pithy: a) The continuous central strand of spongy tissue in the stems of most vascular plants. b) The essential part: core. Okay, I can live with definition “b”. But since most people think of pithy as “punky” or “spongy,” I’ll probably refrain from using it in its complimentary meaning.
Getting back to the hard-hitting lesson at hand, here is a paraphrased version of what Bill found out for me:
If demise means death, then a demising wall would be that wall in a columbarium (columbarium?) that separates one urn of ashes from another. Or perhaps “convey” refers to crossing over the “demising wall,” sort of a structural River Styx? (Gotta love Bill. Anyone who can work “columbarium” into a joke is a guy I don’t mind hanging out with.)
Anyway, we have consulted, here at Mithun, our 1993 “Dictionary of Architecture and Construction, Second Edition,” edited by Cyril M. Harris. Between “demirilievo” (my spell checker did not recognize that word) and “demographic,” there is no reference to “demising wall.”
Therefore we must fall back upon the common jargon that uses “demising wall” as an equal term to “party wall,” which is defined by Mr. Harris as: “A wall used jointly by two parties under easement agreement, erected upon a line dividing two parcels of land, each of which is a separate real estate entity; a common wall.”
Thank you, Bill. And here I thought a demising wall was simply any old interior wall.
As I wrote this column, I kept wondering, would anyone really care about these linguistic fancies? But then I recalled one of my favorite books, “Eats Shoots and Leaves,” the international best seller about punctuation (what in the heck is up with that?) by Lynne Truss, and reassured myself, that, yes, people are interested in words. Good thing. Wouldn’t want to write any pithy articles.
Tim Garrison of ConstructionCalc.com, is a professional engineer, author, and software producer for the building industry. Check out his new book, "Cracks, Sags, and Dimwits — Lessons To Build On," available at www.lulu.com, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Send e-mail to buildersengineer@constructioncalc.com. Tim reads every one.
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The views expressed in this article represent the personal views, statements and opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views, statements, opinions or policies of the National Association of Home Builders. NAHB does not necessarily endorse any of the views expressed by the author and NAHB is not responsible for any direct or indirect consequences arising out of the views expressed in this article.
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