1920s Balloon frame house - Need to Knows, tips, advice, warnings

[Matt Williams]

Just got to the point in the demo of this 1920s 1.5 story house, where I into the walls enough to see that this is a balloon framed house. My knowledge of house framing is based on how we do things today. I had never really needed to know anything other then that, until now.

Before I started the demo, I did some light homework on how things were done back in the 20s, but without knowing which I would find of the framing options, I just hit the bullet points on each, until I knew which one I would find.

The first thing the owner/investor asked was " is that safe" referring to the wall studs going from basement to roof, without much between. Since the only things I have seen so far that weren't holding up are those they have been done in the last decade, I would have to lean way towards the 93 yr old parts being much safer than the 13 yr old crap.

Of course, I had to mention the whole part about it being a fire trap, which seems to be what helped burn Chicago down back in the day, But with modern tech, that shouldn't be as worrisome as back then.

Anyone with anything you think I should know, need to , or what to know about balloon framed houses.  

Does this way of framing avoid having load-bearing walls, or does it make more of them, just different then what we think of today?

Due to removing the orig, wood windows, casing, door jambs, the plan turned into removing all the plaster walls on the 1st floor and insulating and drywalling. Which I already know is going to be fun due to the uneven walls, and true measurements of the studs.

Here to learn, and avoid costing time or money on something someone already had the answers too.

[Aaron McGinnis]

Balloon framing does not mean that there are not interior load walls. If you're unconfident of identifying them, bring in an engineer.

One of the biggest issues you'll run into is fire blocking. Expect for there to be a lot of additional work involved in it - you basically have to block the top and bottom of every stud bay. Ask your local code inspector if you can use Rockwool, it's a huge time saver if you can.

If you're building new walls, expect to have to order your lumber a bit long and scribe each one of them. 

If you're adding load to the second floor, it's not a bad idea to get an engineer's recommendation on the structure first.

[Around here] Batt insulation needs to fill the stud bay cavity. This is a pain in the butt with hewn lumber because R-13 won't get it done. Expect to go to R-19 or switch to foam. 

If you're dealing with a house that you've unclad and will be reinsulating, and the house doesn't have exterior sheathing or some kind of weather resistant barrier (most houses around here just had siding tacked straight to the stud), you're going to have a huge problem. Green building advisor has a lengthy article on the topic.

https://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/article/insul...

Old house insulation strategy is where I see most contractors really screw the pooch. The temptation is to just start stuffing insulation in there, and it won't work long-term.