Sand Float Finish - Lime mixed with sand, resulting in a textured finish.

Sas - A single light frame containing one or more lights of glass.

Sash Balance - A device, usually operated by a spring or tensioned weather stripping designed to counterbalance double-hung window sash.

Saturated Felt - A felt which is impregnated with tar or asphalt.

Scratch Coat - The first coat of plaster, which is scratched to form a bond for the second coat.

Screed - A small strip of wood, usually the thickness of the plaster coat, used as a guide for plastering.

Scribing - Fitting woodwork to an irregular surface. In moldings, cutting the end of one piece to fit the molded face of the other at an interior angle to replace a miter joint.

Shake - A thick handsplit shingle, resawed to form two shakes; usually edge-grained.

Sheathing - The structural covering, usually wood boards or plywood, used over studs or rafters of a structure. Structural building board is normally wed only as wall sheathing.

Sheet metal work - All components of a house employing sheet metal, such as flashing, gutters, and downspouts.

Siding, drop - Usually ¾ inch thick and 6 and 8 inches wide with tongued-and-grooved or shiplap edges. Often used as siding without sheathing in secondary buildings.

Sill - The lowest member of the frame of a structure, resting on the foundation and supporting the floor joists or the uprights of the wall. The member forming the lower side of an opening, as a door sill. window sill. etc.

Sleeper - Usually, a wood member embedded in concrete, as in a floor, that serves to support and to fasten subfloor or flooring.

Soffit - Usually the underside of an overhanging cornice.

Soil Stack - A general term for the vertical main of a system of soil, waste, or vent piping.

Solid Bridging - A solid member placed between adjacent floor joists near the center of the span to prevent joists from twisting.

Span - The distance between structural supports such as walls, columns, piers, beams, girders, and trusses.

Splash Block - A small masonry block laid with the top close to the ground surface to receive roof drainage from downspouts and to carry it away from the building.

Square - A unit of measure-100 square feet-usually applied to roofing material. Sidewall coverings are sometimes packed to cover 100 square feet and are sold on that basis.

Stair Carriage - Supporting member for stair treads. Usually a 2-inch plank notched to receive the treads; sometimes called a "rough horse."

STC - (Sound Transmission Class). A measure of sound stopping of ordinary noise.
Stile - An upright framing member in a panel door.

Stool - A flat molding fitted over the window sill between jambs and contacting the bottom rail of the lower sash.

Story - That part of a building between any floor and the floor or roof next above.
Strip flooring - Wood flooring consisting of narrow, matched strips.

String, stringer - A timber or other support for cross members in floors or ceilings. In stairs, the support on which the stair treads rest; also stringboard.

Stucco - Most commonly refers to an outside plaster made with Portland cement as its base.

Stud - One of a series of slender wood or metal vertical structural members placed as supporting elements in walls and partitions. (Plural: studs or studding.)

Subfloor - Boards or plywood laid on joists over which a finish floor is to be laid.

Suspended Ceiling - A ceiling system supported by hanging it from the overhead structural framing.