After ripping down the ceiling in the basement, our suspicions were confirmed. Our house, built in 1916, was constructed using Balloon framing - not the platform framing style used today.
What does this mean? (This may sound too technical) The wall studs run all the way from the sill to the top plate in the attic. The second floor joists (our weak 2x6s) are nailed to the sides of the studs, rather than having the studs stop in a top plate and the joists sitting on those as is done today. Balloon framing was used very little after 1930 because of the difficulty of finding good, long old-growth wood pieces and the fact that balloon framing was a fire hazard.
Scott and I tested this open framing style last weekend by going up into the attic and pulling out about 4 inches of insulation on one of the exterior walls. Then, with Scott watching in the basement below, I dropped some plaster pieces down the chasm. "Ouch! Quit throwing things at me!" came floating up to me from below. Sorry Scott :)
Not only did we verify the balloon framing, this test also told us that there is absolutely no insulation between the studs of the exterior walls!! Its amazing our house stays as warm as it does on the first floor. That plaster/lath must be a good insulator (then again, we haven't received our first gas bill yet).
So I did some research on adding insulation and we are thinking about using blown-in cellulose insulation (click for details) which turns out to be:
- great for retro-fitting
- environmentally friendly (made from treated recycled newspaper)
- more effective than traditional insulation
- Most importantly, cheaper! :-)
We'll wait to do this until we start ripping out upstairs though.
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2 comments:
we used blown in paper celluloise and it works great...and deadens the sound as well
great choice!1
Ive been trying to figure out how my house was built in England in 1840 only to come across your video and its American!!! Youve produced some very rare and excellent work indeed. Here are some links that ive pondered: http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140225141917AAInmHL and http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140212030746AAAJ0wb and http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20140210195221AAB6BPE
Basically i have a Lath and plaster cavity wall on each side of the stair well which runs up through the middle of the house to the attic. Either side of this stair well is a room on each side (1st floor). These rooms are supported by this stairwell which is made of Lath and plaster walls with the wooden studs about 12-20" on centre. These internal walls have a large cavity as you know, and to the life of me i can't figure out how the attic floor joists are supported on such a frame as seen in the link/pic. The attic floor joists run TOWARDS and are somehow resting in this lath wall with no beam. At the other end, the joists are resting on the outer brick walls (Rat trap) of the house. So these joists basically start at the outer brick work and run across to the internal lath wall. Under the ground floor is a cellar which one of these walls is resting over with a main beam in the cellar. It all seems strong and has stood for nearly 200 years with no internal problems.
So it seems that the joists are resting on a ledge which in turn is notched in to the studs.
Any advice on this would be much appreciated.
Thanks...
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