ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Knob and Tube Advice?

You guys make me feel old. Ballon framing goes from the first floor deck to the top plate of the second or third floor. There is no need for cross bracing as they used material called tounge and grooves boards to hold the walls together. This was before that pink stuff or wood chip siding. It wasn't very enviromentally friendly but there wern't many 6000 square foot homes in those days either. I think we've all cursed fire bracing, which was supposed to be installed. But only seemed to be in the stud bay I wanted to use that bay or install a switch on the other side of the fire stop, no matter which direction I tried to run wire.

The Ca D Zan (Ringling bros) mansion in Sarasota similar to this balloon except the outside walls are masonry with a 12" air space and a stick frame house inside that. This is 4 stories. The air space breathes all the way from the basement to the attic. Wind whistles up those walls and gives a primative air conditioning for the turn of the century builders.
When we were retro fitting MC cable in there the EC was flying a skinny helper down that gap to fish the ceilings. I didn't want to know how they did it.

Paul,
Many of the old Vic's of SF are baloon framed like this: 2X4R(Not 1 1/2X3 1/2), or 2X6R studs are stood up on end, toe nailed on the sill/mud plate for the full building hieght. Then they put a temporary strap to keep them parralel at each floor. Then laid the floor joist on that, nailed to the side of the stud with 2~3 30d nails. The outside was sheathed in 1X8, and subfloor in 1X6. (Against another building like many are here the sheathing whent on first, and jacked into place. A whole wall 30~40') The sheathing and subfloor locked the stud movement. Add lathe and plaster, and it was primative shear wall. Believe it or not, many of those buildings made it through several major quakes here in the last hundred years. And the air movement in the studs has detered rot as well. The fire hazard comes from the chiminey effect obtained due to the cavity from sill plate to the top plate at the roof of the building. Remodels here just add blocking at the top, mid and bottom.


http://uoregon.edu/~histpres/Courses/Lecture6_Handout.pdf

Something I have trouble trying to imagine is the shipping and handling of 2X(z)X30'+ of rough mill cut redwood. This was before trucks and cranes. I guess it showed up on a 4~6 HP cart (Real horses ), and man-handled with the lost arte of rigging.


The electricians of the day must have started the day by sharpening the drill bits. They have some of the cleanest cut holes... One wire per hole with a brace/crank style auger, all day by hand!



[This message has been edited by e57 (edited 09-11-2005).]

Very nice 'e'

I've worked on remodels of some of these houses. An 'old-timer' told me that the wood came to the area by train.

Bill

Ah, now it makes sense! Thanks.

In Britain, timber buildings using the old post-&-beam style construction (with absolutely huge timbers, often 12" square or more) were common in Tudor times (1600s), but then timber construction fell right out of favor for a very long time, with brick and stone becoming the norm.

Timber framing returned for internal partition walls (lathe & plaster), but it's really only in the latter part of the 20th century that full timber-frame construction has started to enjoy something of a revival.

Even so, many people over here still regard timber construction with suspicion. (No, not me, I love timber!)