Balloon frame

Between 11am and 3pm children can visit the Rock Decorating Station to decorate a rock for mum, take part in a rock hunt in St John's Gardens and pose for photos in a flower and balloon frame.

"It's actually a balloon frame house, so the fire spreads very quickly," said Hinsdale Fire Chief John Giannelli.

"We knocked down the fire in the first floor but because of the balloon frame the fire made its way into the third floor and into the attic and went right across the third floor into the attic on the other side of building.''

Deputy Chief Kirouac said the building had a balloon frame, which means there are open channels along the sides of the house.

Homes in the heartland; balloon frame farmhouses of the upper Midwest.

If you live in or travel through the upper Midwest, you've seen hundreds of balloon frame houses--you just may not have known that's what they were called.

Peterson presents Homes in the Heartland: Balloon Frame Farmhouses of the Upper Midwest, the true story of the architectural phenomenon of balloon frame house construction that pervaded Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin from 1850 to 1920, which allowed settlers to establish affordable permanent frontier homes.

In the mid-1800s the invention of the balloon frame, held together with nails instead of complexjoints, virtually ended timber framing.

Each level must be framed separately, platform style, or by using full-length panels and hanging the floor framing, balloon frame style.

Though the 1885 Victorian above needed a complete energy overhaul, it had a major built-in asset: its balloon frame. In this common framing system of late 19th-century wood houses, the wall studs run as continuous strips from the foundation to the attic, so there's continuous air space between them.