Balloon Framing... and Why You Should Care What That Means

I've spent the last few days at the house learning about something I previously knew nothing about: how buildings are framed.  The reason this is coming up now is because we are getting ready to start framing the new dining room.  But before that starts, the existing dining room exterior wall has to be removed.  And here is where it becomes important that, in this case, I've been learning about the difference between how most houses are framed versus how Delta Gamma is framed - because of course DG just had to be different!  

Today, most houses are framed in such a way that the weight of the each story sits on the ceiling/floor that divides it from the story below.  In this situation (we'll call it "standard" framing), the four exterior walls of the house are built, then the ceiling is built on top of those walls.  If you want to build another story above, the four walls of the second story are built on top of the ceiling of the story below it, distributing the weight from the second story walls to the floor below them, not to the walls below them.  I've drawn a rough little sketch for you (below) so you can see what I mean.  Standard framing is outlined in the top half of the sketch.  Basically, as you travel up the framing of the house, you would see a pattern of wall, floor, wall, floor, wall, floor, etc.

However, DG wasn't framed using this standard practice.  Delta Gamma was framed in a style called "balloon framing,"  In this case, the second story walls were built on top of the first story walls, then the floor/ceiling in between the stories was built inside.  (See the bottom half of the sketch above.)  What this means is that the weight of the second story sits entirely on the walls of the story below.  In the case of DG, the weight from the roof, third story, second story, and first story is all transferred to the cinderblock walls in the basement and the foundation below.  Obviously, this presents a significant problem when you're talking about removing a wall, since all the exterior walls of the house, regardless of the story, are supporting all the walls above.  

Once the dining room wall is removed, a large beam and a column will be able to support the house above.  However, in order to remove the dining room wall and install the beam, a large section of scaffolding will need to be built inside the house to hold it up while the existing wall is removed.  In DG's case, due to the balloon framing, scaffolding will also need to be built in the second story rooms to support the third floor and roof.  I'll make sure to post pictures of the scaffolding in the next day or two.  For now, here are some pics related to the structural design of the house and the dining room wall:

Here you can see that the french doors, windows, and any construction not actively involved in supporting the house were removed in preparation for the demolition of the dining room exterior wall.

This is the area where one dining room ceiling beam (left) meets the beam running across the exterior dining room wall (top left to right). 

This is a picture of the wall in a second story student room.  The drywall above the window and the ceiling drywall were removed to see how the support scaffolding will need to be built.  Here you can see where the roof meets the second story wall (balloon framing).