Panel - In house construction, a thin flat piece of wood, ply. wood, or similar material, framed by stiles and rails as in a door or fitted into grooves of thicker material with molded edges for decorative wall treatment.

Paper, building - A general term for papers, felts, and similar sheet materials used in buildings without reference to their properties or uses.

Paper, sheathing - A building material, generally paper or felt, used in wall and roof construction as a protection against the passage of air and sometimes moisture.

Parting Stop or Strip - A small wood piece used in the side and head jambs of double-hung windows to separate upper and lower sash.

Partition - A wall that subdivides spaces within any story of a building.

Penny - As applied to nails, it originally indicated the price per hundred. The term now series as a measure of nail length and is abbreviated by the letter d.

Perm - A measure of water vapor movement through a material (grains per square foot per hour per inch of mercury difference in vapor pressure).

Pier - A column of masonry, usually rectangular in horizontal cross section, used to support other structural members.
Pigment - A powdered solid in suitable degree of subdivision for use in paint or enamel.

Pitch - The incline slope of a roof or the ratio of the total rise to the total width of a house, i.e., an 8-foot rise and 24-foot width is a one-third pitch roof. Roof slope is expressed in the inches of rise per foot of run.

Pitch Pocket - An opening extending parallel to the annual rings of growth, that usually contains, or has contained, either solid or liquid pitch.

Pith - The small, soft core at the original center of a tree around which wood formation takes place.

Plaster Grounds - Strips of wood used as guides or strike off edges around window and door openings and at base of walls.

Plate - Sill plate: a horizontal member anchored to a masonry wall. Sole plate: bottom horizontal member of a frame wall. Top plate: top horizontal member of a frame wall supporting ceiling joists, rafters, or other members.

Plough - To cut a lengthwise groove in a board or plank.
Plumb - Exactly perpendicular; vertical.

Ply - A term to denote the number of thicknesses or layers of roofing felt, veneer in plywood, or layers in built-up materials, in any finished piece of such material.

Plywood - A piece of wood made of three or more layers of veneer joined with glue, and usually laid with the grain of adjoining plies at right angles. Almost always an odd number of plies are used to provide balanced construction.

Pores - Wood cells of comparatively large diameter that have open ends and are set one above the other to form continuous tubes. The openings of the vessels on the surface of a piece of wood are referred to as pores.

Preservative - Any substance that, for a reasonable length of time, will prevent the action of wood-destroying fungi, borers of various kinds, and similar destructive agents when the wood has been properly coated or impregnated with it.

Primer - The first coat of paint in a paint job that consists of two or more coats; also the paint used for such a first coat.

Putty - A type of cement usually made of whiting and boiled linseed oil, beaten or kneaded to the consistency of dough, and used in sealing glass in sash, filling small holes and crevices in wood, and for similar purposes.