BALLOON FRAMING

BALLOON FRAMING. (Defined as the exterior studs running from the sill plate all the way to the top plate of the 2nd story) In the mid to late 1800s, the nationwide expanse of the railroad enabled sawmills to ship dimensional lumber across the country. For the first time ever, treeless places could build with lumber, and the days of rural carpenters milling their own lumber to locally accepted dimensions gave way to the first somewhat nationally accepted lumber standards. This streamlined the construction process, enabling carpenters from all over the country to build to the same plans and to similar standards. There was a massive influx of population as people were moving west and the east coast was filling with immigrants, this was the first true housing boom and the slow, tedious process of mortise & tenon joinery which required tremendous skill and a tremendous amount of large material could not keep with the demand. Thus balloon framing took the nation by storm. Now, it didn’t take a master carpenter to build a house, it didn’t take great number of people or pulley systems, a family could now build their own house out of 2x4’s and nails. It’s no accident that the complexity of Victorian homes took off in this era. These types of complex and intricate frames could not be built without dimensional lumber and the newer methods of framing. Although balloon framing is seen as a derogatory term, no one knows for sure exactly what the term means. Whether it’s a hit at the incredible lightness of the frame compared to timber frames, or some other suggested meaning, this method of construction has clearly stood the test of time. From the mid 1800s to to the early 1900s it was the standard of building, until the birth of platform framing which is still in use today. One method of balloon framing still in use today would be rake walls.

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