Water Table (architecture)

A water table is a masonry architectural feature that consists of a projecting course that deflects water running down the face of a building away from lower courses or the foundation. A water table may be found near the base of a wall or at a transition between materials, such as from stone to brick.

WATER TABLE: A projection of lower masonry on the outside of the wall slightly above the ground. Often a damp course is placed at the level of the water table to prevent upward penetration of ground water. Technical Notes 2 - Glossary of Terms Relating to Brick Masonry www.bia.org

Note the water table around the base of the Arthur Heurtley House (illustration provided in that article) designed and built by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1902.

Famous quotes containing the words water and/or table:

    This sand seemed to us the connecting link between land and water. It was a kind of water on which you could walk, and you could see the ripple-marks on its surface, produced by the winds, precisely like those at the bottom of a brook or lake. We had read that Mussulmans are permitted by the Koran to perform their ablutions in sand when they cannot get water, a necessary indulgence in Arabia, and we now understand the propriety of this provision.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “A sigh for every so many breath,
    And for every so many sigh a death.
    That’s what I always tell my wife
    Is the multiplication table of life.”
    Robert Frost (1874–1963)