Balloon Framing
Balloon Construction
Overview: A customer ask what was
"balloon construction" in the old days. It was a good
question that requires a little history to answer.
Balloon
framing was a popular framing technique until the middle of
the twentieth century for house framing before it went out
of style. It’s a building home framing term that
contemporary builders are not often familiar with in the
twenty first century. The term evolved out of jest when post
and beam construction material became too expensive and
labor intense.
It greatly reduced the amount of skill and
labor required by post and beam house construction. It made
constructing homes and outbuildings more affordable for the
average homeowner during the period. The balloon framing
technique made houses lighter in material weight and
generally believed that they might blow away in a strong
wind, thus the name balloon construction. Well they didn’t
blow away and many of the balloon constructed home are still
standing, some over a hundred years old. They can be seen
through northern New England and the northern Midwest if you
know what to look for.
Essentially balloon construction involves using long outside
wall studs that run from the sill plate all the way to the
roof on two story houses. The second story floor joists are
attached to the studs to form the floor of second story.
Most of these homes have very short walls or knee wall on
the upper level. Looking at the house from the outside it is
obvious that the outside wall isn’t tall enough for a full
two story house, usually eighteen to twenty feet from the
foundation to the roof line. They usually are only
approximately only fourteen or fifteen feet tall on the
outside walls.
The
second floor joists are nailed directly to the outside wall
vertical studs and are either notched to the studs or
blocking is used underneath the joist to carry the weight of
the second floor and roof. It is interesting to note that
structural nails came into use about this time to replace
the wooden peg of post and beam construction. In addition,
roof shingles and metal roofing were used in place of the
very heavy slate roofs. The coming of balloon construction
was really an advancement of technology, driven by the need
for less expensive construction material and skilled labor
require for post and beam construction.
Balloon
construction framing was phased out in the late 1930s due to
fire safety concerns. Understanding that insulation material
wasn’t what it is today and more often than not no
insulation was used at all. As the wall bays ran open ended
from the sill plate to the attic, they acted like a chimneys
aiding fire and smoke to rapidly work its way from the
basement to the upper floor and roof. In later years
blocking between the vertical stud walls became a
requirement as a safety measure against rapidly spreading
fires.
Balloon
construction is still around today. The technique is used to
build tall foyers in central
hallways. Modern construction
of upper level floors involves platform construction whereby
the floor joists rest on the first story wall to form a
platform for the upper story walls.
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