History of Stud Framing

Today, the prevalent method of home building in the United States is stud framing, alternatively known as balloon framing. This was not always the case, however, and the history of how this came to be is both an interesting and insightful tale. The building of homes with 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 studded walls and roof rafters, all 16 inches on center, is an American innovation of considerable import.

The story began in Chicago, Illinois in the year 1833. At that time, the U.S. Calvary maintained their foothold in the region through their presence at Fort Dearborn, located on the banks of the Chicago River just west of Lake Michigan. The civilian population at the time was a mere 150 people; though small, the settlement clearly had potential, as it possessed access to the eastern seaboard via the Great Lakes, a deep harbor and proximity to a number of natural resources, including vast strands of virgin timber and the booming lead mines of northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, all of which augured well for future growth. The prospects for Chicago’s growth were reflected in land prices. For example, a man named George Hubbard purchased a riverfront parcel in 1831 for the not insignificant sum of $1500 and sold it in 1836 for $80,000!

But in 1833 the settlement consisted of nothing more than log huts and stick shanties. There were three post and beam timber framed buildings in town: one community hall and two stores. In older communities of the eastern and southern U.S., most buildings were built with post and beam timber framed construction, a long and laborious building process. A team of 10 to 12 experienced joiners and carpenters, equipped with augers, chisels planes and saws, could erect a post and beam home in two seasons. First milled wood was cured one to two years, allowing the timbers to dry and wind (the tendency for wood to twist once it has been squared); only then could construction begin, utilizing pegs and mortise and tenons to join the various structural elements together. With a shortage of both existing housing stock and experienced craftsmen and a population that was doubling annually, seasoning lumber for a year prior to beginning construction was not a practical solution to Chicago’s building needs.

Necessity being the mother of invention, a Chicagoan devised an alternative method of building that took advantage of improvements in the affordability of milled lumber and the advent of readily available and inexpensive nails. The new building system processed two important advantages relative to timber framing. First, a structure could be built in far less time and required less skilled manpower. Heavy timbers no longer needed to be cured, transported and manipulated and a home could be build by a small group of handy individuals. Second, the new method did not require a master carpenter or joiner. Lighter architectural members coupled with readily available and affordable nails enabled builders to eliminate the use of pegs, mortise and tenon.

The new technology was stud framing, which utilized 2 inch wide dimensional lumber of varying depths that were nailed together to form a skeletal wall and roof structure. The stud framed building envelope was typically sheathed with clapboard or planks and finished on the interior with plaster applied to rough cut wood lath. Sixteen inch on center became the customary stud spacing because wood lath, already in common use at the time, was cut to a standardized length of forty-eight inches; forty-eight divided by three equals sixteen.

Augustine Taylor, a master carpenter, arrived in Chicago in June of 1833 and shortly thereafter was hired to build St. Mary’s Catholic Church on a budget of $400, a sum insufficient for the 24 by 36 foot structure to be timber framed in the traditional manner. Letters from parishioners describe the church as being built from “scantling and sidling”; a “frame” is mentioned which was later “enclosed”; another letter states that the church was “going up rapidly”. More telling, yet another missive states that “the ancient builders prophesied its destruction in the first gale, but it withstood the winds and proved the theory of the master workman correct”. Finally, historical records show that the church was moved three times in ten years as the fledging city grew, an easy task for a stud framed building of that size but a highly impractical feat for a timber framed structure. While some historians credit George W. Snow as the inventor of stud framing, construction of the building on which his claim to authorship lies commenced after work began on Taylor’s Church. While it is entirely plausible that in a settlement of the size of Chicago the two men were acquaintances and perhaps shared ideas regarding a novel approach to building, the surviving evidence suggests that St. Mary’s Church, under Taylor’s direction, was the first recorded structure built with stud framing.

Early detractors of the method claimed it was no stronger than a balloon of hot air held tenuously in place by a webbing of ropes, and that like the balloon, would blow away at the first sign of wind. In short order the new building technique became known as balloon framing. While the dismissive name stuck, the criticism did not dampen the spread of the technology’s use and popularity. The mid-eighteen hundreds in the United States were characterized by a rapid push westward and a chronic shortage of skilled labor. Additionally, a stud framed building required less lumber and the building materials were easier to transport; as a consequence, the advantages of stud framing led to the rapid spread of this methodology and contributed significantly to the swift settlement of the lands west of the Mississippi.

Stud framing, while still widely practiced today, is a building technique that is now characterized by a number of important drawbacks that did not exist when the system was initially devised. First, dimensional lumber in today’s market is vastly inferior to the lumber milled from the seemingly endless old growth forests prevalent during the eighteen-hundreds. Today, lumber companies farm trees that are harvested 6 to 10 years after planting. The tree rings of these fast growing trees are widely spaced and lack the strength of the lumber milled from massive, old growth trees, which are characterized by tighter spacing and reduced curvature of the hard tree rings. Building codes were based upon the old, stronger lumber have never been revised to account for the diminished strength of the lumber available today.

Second, the widely spaced tree rings of today’s farmed trees are sharply curved due to the small diameter of the harvested trees. The lumber derived from these trees cannot be dried as easily without warping to an unacceptable degree, and after partial drying, readily re-absorb water because of the greater mass of the softer, more absorbent membrane in the wider spaces between the relatively harder, less absorbent ring membrane. As the wetter studs dry within the walls of a building, they tend to twist and warp, damaging walls, popping nails and generally compromising the structural integrity of the building. Third, the increased propensity of the lumber to absorb water renders today’s lumber more susceptible to the occurrence of mold problems.

Innovation in the workplace is a long standing American tradition, and Taylor and/or Snow’s invention of stud framing should rightly be numbered among the most significant technical advances in our country’s history. However, just as circumstances conspired to supplant post and beam construction with stud framing a century and a half ago, structured insulated panels are rapidly gaining acceptance today due to the many important advantages they offer in the building process. Superior structural characteristics, uniformity and durability of the finished surfaces, environmental sustainability and significant improvements in thermal performance are among the factors prompting the continuing evolution of the building process.

Adapted and published with permission by RABS from “An American Revolution” written by Warren Ashworth, Architect, for Early American Life.