Balloon frame: light framing with continuous studs
Balloon frame: entramado ligero de montantes continuos
- Date
- 1832-1833 · confidence medium
- Place
- Chicago, Illinois, United States
- Credited to
- George W. Snow and Augustine D. Taylor (attribution disputed)
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A frame of slim sawn timber studs, fixed with factory-made nails and without joinery, running the full height of the building. It cut the time and cost of houses and allowed unskilled labourers to raise them.
Attribution is disputed between Snow (a warehouse in 1832) and Taylor (St Mary's Church in 1833); the name, coined derisively, came later. There are antecedents of light framing in Europe.
What it led to
- rapid settlement of the American Midwest
- platform framing and today's timber house building
- sawmill industry and standardised lumber dimensions