Balloon-frame stairwell
Since the last time I posted, we framed the bathroom on the second story. That was the last of the upstairs walls and was just simple construction — two of the walls don’t even have windows (the only window in the bathroom is a big one on the back wall facing north).
More interesting is the balloon-framed stairwell that we’ve also completed. As many of you know, platform-framing is the typical method used today. In platform-framing, the first story walls are erected, the second story floor is installed, and the second story walls are built on the platform of the second story floor. We couldn’t do that in the stairwell because there’s no second story floor in there. So we “balloon framed” 17-foot tall walls that reach from the first floor platform to the top of the second story. Here’s the process in pictures:
The walls were built flat on the stairwell floor and temporary piers. That’s Marshall nailing a stud. (You can also see the completed bathroom walls in this photo.
One 17′ wall raised and swung into place. We used cable and a hand-crank winch to raise the wall up against the existing walls, then we carefully swung one corner out where it belonged. It really wasn’t too hard once we figured out how.
Two walls up. We raised both of these walls on Wednesday.
The third and final stairwell wall went up on Thursday. You can see that it has two windows in the east side. Steel spiral stairs will be installed in the stairwell later. I think it will be pretty cool, if I do say so myself. Next step: second story porch.
3 comments May 25th, 2006
