removing interior boards baloon framing
Hi,
I am renovating my old 1880 farm house which has a baloon framing contruction, this consist of 12 inch boards horizontal on the inside and outside of the studs then it it faced with double brick with tie in,
My question is, I have to remove the interior boards to run electric and I will spray foam the walls as I have no house wrap or insulation, do I need to put the interior boards back on, doing some research their are mixed views some say it offers no structure only the exterior boards do others say it helps with fraking or twisting.
Thx
Replies
First things first.
In working on a stick framed house of that vintage the first thing you need to do is determine if the ceiling joists and roof rafters are parallel. If they are then you can go on with other work. If they are not, you need to install collar ties before any thing else is done.
I'll defer your question on the interior boards to someone else.
dave
I have not seen that type of construction with sheathing inside/out. But, I would think no problem removing the interior except if the joists above don't have a let in ledger. If not, let one in.
You don't have anything that's providing sheer strength - which is why so many old houses twisted in strange ways. I'd say you should be installing ply on the interior to provide sheer.
No info on your location, but if you are in any type of sesmic zone, absolutely do what Don suggested, plywood shear panels on the inside, at least a 4x8 on both wall of all the corners, even junctions of interior wall with exterior.
Hold downs
If you're going to go to the trouble of stripping the walls and installing shear panels, please install some hold downs while the wall is open.
Thank you so much for the replys, sorry for the delay in responding.
I will give a little more detail. The original farm house is 1880 about 1500 square feet, then in the 70s an addition was put on around the same size. I am in northern Canada so snow load is an issue, we have the same boards on the exterior of the studs giving structual support it also is double brick and you can see tye ins.
Most of the boards that came off were in bad shape lots of dry rot due to a leaky roof and bad window cills, some were 20ft long so a real pain to remove. Now everything is removed we have started scabing some 2-4s onto the exsisting studs, electrician is doing all new wiring this week and we have spray foam coming in 2 weeks or so. I have asked all the guys who come here for their opinion on the interior planking and I would say it's 50,50 if the interior boards had any real support.
I have put up a ledger plate to support the floor joyce, I do also have old hardwood flooring that looks to be holding most of the floor really well, shame we cannot resuse this but without a subfloor it's a little to soft.
I like the idea of sheets of ply, I think this idea was spoken about when we first removed the boards so probally go with this option 5/8ths probally the best.
We have opened up a wall and put a 12inch steel beam in looks great gives huge extra support and a nice open floor plan.
Structually the old part looks well supported, however it's not winter yet and no snow load.
Again thx so much for taking the time to respond any more bits of advice are very welcome.
Dave