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My 1923 Denver bungalow had balloon framing, who knew?
Tore into a wall last month to run some electrical and found the studs run straight from the basement to the roof, no fire stops at all. I looked it up and apparently that's balloon framing, super common in Denver houses built before 1930, and it's why drafts travel upstairs so bad. I'm in the Virginia Village area and my place was built in 1923, so it makes sense now. Has anyone else dealt with adding fire blocking to an old balloon frame, and did you hire it out or DIY it?
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felix_lane996d ago
A buddy of mine went through this exact thing in his Wash Park place, same era. He DIY'd the fire blocking at first and it turned into a mess because you have to cut blocks for every single stud bay between floors. We're talking dozens of little pieces, and each one has to fit tight or it does nothing. He ended up hiring a guy after two weekends of that, and the guy knocked it out in a day, though he did have to open up some ceiling to get at it. Cost him around $1,500 but he said it was worth it just for the drafts going away, let alone the safety part.
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