wainscoting
Wood paneling, tongue-and-groove boards, or similar material installed between a baseboard and a chair rail.

Waiver
Voluntary relinquishment or surrender of some right or privilege. 

walk-out basement
A feature that allows a door to open onto ground level. 

Walk-through
A final inspection of a home to check for problems that may need to be corrected before closing.

wallboard
Sheets of compacted gypsum with a paper exterior. Also known as dry wall, sheetrock, gypsum board, and plaster board. 

warehouse fee
A closing-cost fee representing the lender's cost of holding a borrower's loan temporarily before it is sold on the secondary mortgage market. 

warm air heating system
A heating system in which furnace heating air moves to a living space through a single register or a series of ducts, circulated by natural convection (gravity system) or by a fan or blower in the duct work (forced system). 

warranty
A legally binding promise to do something in the future. 

water meter
A device for recording the amount of water flowing through a pipe. 

water table
The level at which the ground is saturated with water. 

watt
The unit used to measure the rate at which a device consumes electricity. 

weather stripping
Individual lengths of rubber or plastic used to plug air leaks around doors and window frames. 

weep holes
Spaces or small openings left in a masonry wall to allow water to drain from behind the wall. 

Western style
A cabinetry term referring to a style of cabinet with a face frame around the front opening. 

wetlands
Watery areas such as swamps, marshes and floodplains. 

wild deed
An improperly recorded deed. 

will
A legal document outlining the disposition of a person's estate in the event of his or her death. 

window light
An individual pane of glass. 

window seat
A bench built under an interior window. 

window well
A curved, corrugated steel insert used to isolate basement windows from moisture if they're below the soil line. 

window well covers
Curved plastic covers designed to be installed on top of a window well to cover the opening.