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Comment by legitster | Hacker News Reader

This... isn't quite right. Balloon framing as traditionally defined is all but non-existent anymore. The author is smooshing concepts together.

Balloon framing was purely a method of convenience back when consumers were able to get their hands on 30-40 foot framing timber. As such, it was only popular during a limited window when sawmills were popping up across the West and virgin old-growth forests were being clear cut.

The author is using "balloon framing" to describe the entire concept of modern framing. But if you start throwing around "balloon framing" to describe modern houses you will at best get weird looks from contractors and at worse draw the eye of fire inspectors.

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It’s completely wrong. Balloon framing was eliminated because the voids extending between floors are fire hazards. Modern homes usually use platform framing… each section of the house is essentially and independently framed box that’s bolted together.

My dad was a firefighter and later a chief who served on a state codes commission. He dealt with hundreds of fires in homes built this way, they were destructive only secondarily to “cock loft” rowhouses with shared attics.

We happen to live in a house built this way - whenever we renovate a section of the house we have modifications done to exterior walls to reduce the risk, which is that a fire, say one originating in an electrical outlet, can travel up to the roof in <7m. Once the roof is involved, the house is toast in as little as 15m.

Building codes allow balloon framing. It is required to be fire blocked (just like platform framing but there’s more of it).

This is a lot of additional fiddly labor and labor drives construction practice in the US.

There's plenty of modern balloon framed houses still built. Tim Uhler is a Instagram-famous framer (https://www.instagram.com/awesomeframers/) working in the PNW and builds very high-performance homes, many of which are balloon framed. He's written for Fine Homebuilding about his technique and why it saves labor and reduces fall risk since they can frame, sheath, and often side the walls while they're flat on the ground and then lift them into place.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220327025123/https://www.fineh...

He's also got a series of Youtube videos explaining the process step-by-step:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_jmNLNnqSM

Dude is super sharp, plus wants to make sure he and his team all can work into their 50s, so they spend money on lifts and tools that make their jobs safer.

> It’s completely wrong. Balloon framing was eliminated because the voids extending between floors are fire hazards. Modern homes usually use platform framing… each section of the house is essentially and independently framed box that’s bolted together.

That's explained in the article, with a drawing even.

The author was actually looking for "stick framing", of which balloon framing is a particular technique. (The term was originally derogatory, coming from the perspective of the timber framers.)

The image comparing balloon and platform techniques should probably have suggested the existence of a broader term.

This is what the author says:

> Today in the US, most houses and apartments are built using light framed wood construction.

> This system is a variant of a framing style known as balloon framed construction

Also, to the guy sidethread, the distinction between balloon framing and platform framing is the subject of several paragraphs, with illustrations.

Balloon framing has a specific legally binding definition as described in building codes.

In the building codes it is a method of light wood framing (not the other way round).

It can also be a method of light metal framing…in practice this is probably more common in the wild (in the US), because long light metal studs are straight and lightweight and hence more “wieldy.”

This is a bit though like saying "LCD screens as a variation of plasma screens" because they both share a lot of parts and look similar.

They came about at the same time, and shared many of the same concepts, but they are completely different technologies, and one didn't necessarily come from the other.

The author talks about this:

"Today, balloon framing (mostly in the form of platform framing) remains the default construction method"

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