Balloon Framing

Balloon framing is a light timber-framing construction method, developed in the United States in the 1830s, in which closely spaced, uniformly sized studs run continuously as single lengths from the sill at the foundation to the roof plate, spanning multiple floors in one piece rather than being framed floor by floor, with floor joists nailed to the sides of the studs. Faster and cheaper to build than traditional heavy timber framing because it used mass-produced, standardized lumber and machine-made nails rather than hand-cut joinery, balloon framing enabled the rapid construction of American frame houses through the nineteenth century, before being largely superseded in the twentieth century by platform framing, which frames and floors one story at a time for better fire-stopping between floors.