Even the custom of calling in the neighbors and feasting them when a
house-raising was celebrated came directly from English traditions. The
old post-and-truss construction of the early English houses required
framing on the ground and then lifting into position afterward. Records
show that the people from the surrounding countryside were called in to
help, and their wages of hire were paid by the house owner with a huge
feast. In early Colonial days the nearest neighbors were likewise
called in to help raise the frame, and the host was supposed to feed
the gathering, after the work was finished, and make a jolly party of
eating and drinking—a sort of social debt, but not looked upon as
wages, as in older days.
The hard climate which the earliest American colonists had to face and
also the abundant supply of wood which lay at their very doors were
factors which slightly altered the traditions of building. After the
house had been framed and the spaces between the timbers filled with
plaster or masonry, the exterior was covered over with clapboards
or shingles as an extra covering against the weather. The use of
clapboards or shingles as an exterior covering of course was not new,
for many English farmhouses show that it was used in that country. But
with this difference in exterior appearance, the framing underneath was
the same as shown in Fig. 7.
_Revolt against New England Traditions_
It was only a matter of time when the thinning-down process began to
make itself evident in the traditions of Colonial carpentry, and from
its clumsy beginnings it evolved into the more or less standard form of
construction which we call the brace-frame.
The difficulty of securing good labor in the West, and also the
increasing use of the power sawmill, made it possible and necessary to
standardize a quick and easy method of building which would meet the
great demand for houses in rapidly growing communities.
Quoting from the New York _Tribune_ of January 18, 1855, we have a
very interesting account of the conditions which were then prevalent
that brought about this later variation of the wooden frame structure.
The conditions there described seem almost like our modern difficulties
with labor and materials.
“Mr. Robinson said: ... I would saw all my timbers for a frame house,
or ordinary frame outbuilding, of the following dimensions: 2 × 8
inches; 2 × 4; 2 × 1. I have, however, built them, when I lived on
the Grand Prairie of Indiana, many miles from sawmills, nearly all of
split and hewed stuff, making use of rails or round poles, reduced to
straight lines and even thickness on two sides, for studs and rafters.
But sawed stuff is much the easiest, though in a timber country the
other is far the cheapest. First, level your foundation, and lay down
two of the 2 × 8 pieces, flatwise, for side-walls. Upon these set the
floor-sleepers, on edge, 32 inches apart. Fasten one at each end, and
perhaps one or two in the middle, if the building is large, with a
wooden pin. These end-sleepers are the end-sills. Now lay the floor,
unless you design to have one that would be likely to be injured by
the weather before you get on the roof. It is a great saving, though,
of labor to begin at the bottom of a house and build up. In laying the
floor first, you have no studs to cut and fit around, and can let your
boards run out over the ends, just as it happens, and afterward saw
them off smooth by the sill. Now set up a corner-post, which is nothing
but one of the 2 × 4 studs, fastening the bottom by four nails; make it
plumb, and stay it each way. Set another at the other corner, and then
mark off your door and window places and set up the side-studs and put
in the frames. Fill up with studs between, 16 inches apart, supporting
the top by a line or strip of board from corner to corner, or stayed
studs between. Now cover that side with rough sheeting boards, unless
you intend to side-up with clapboards on the studs, which I never would
do, except for a small, common building. Make no calculation about the
top of your studs; wait till you get up that high. You may use them of
any length, with broken or stub-shot ends, no matter. When you have got
this side boarded as high as you can reach, proceed to set up another.
In the meantime other workmen can be lathing the first side. When you
have got the sides all up, fix upon the height of your upper floor, and
strike a line upon the studs for the under side of the joist. Cut out a
joist 4 inches wide, half inch deep, and nail on firmly one of the inch
strips. Upon these strips rest the chamber floor-joist. Cut out a joist
1 inch deep, in the lower edge, and lock it on the strip, and nail each
joist to each stud. Now lay this floor, and go on to build the upper
story, as you did the lower one; splicing on and lengthening out studs
wherever needed, until you get high enough for the plate. Splice studs
or joists by simply butting the ends together, and nailing strips on
each side. Strike a line and saw off the top of the studs even upon
each side—not the ends—and nail on one of the inch strips. That is
the plate. Cut the ends of the upper joist the bevel of the pitch of
the roof, and nail them fast to the plate, placing the end ones inside
the studs, which you will let run up promiscuously, to be cut off by
the rafter. Now lay the garret floor by all means before you put on
the roof, and you will find that you have saved 50 per cent of hard
labor. The rafters, if supported so as not to be over 10 feet long,
will be strong enough of the 2 × 4 stuff. Bevel the ends and nail fast
to the joist. Then there is no strain upon the sides by the weight of
the roof, which may be covered with shingles or other materials—the
cheapest being composition or cement roofs. To make one of this kind,
take soft, spongy, thick paper, and tack it upon the boards in courses
like shingles. Commence at the top with hot tar and saturate the paper,
upon which sift evenly fine gravel, pressing it in while hot—that is,
while tar and gravel are both hot. One coat will make a tight roof; two
coats will make it more durable. Put up your partitions of stuff 1 × 4,
unless where you want to support the upper joist—then use stuff 2 × 4,
with strips nailed on top, for the joist to rest upon, fastening all
together by nails, wherever timbers touch. Thus you will have a frame
without a tenon or mortise, or brace, and yet it is far cheaper, and
incalculably stronger when finished, than though it were composed of
timbers 10 inches square, with a thousand auger holes and a hundred
days’ work with the chisel and adze, making holes and pins to fill them.
“To lay out and frame a building so that all its parts will come
together requires the skill of a master mechanic, and a host of men and
a deal of hard work to lift the great sticks of timber into position.
To erect a balloon building requires about as much mechanical skill as
it does to build a board fence. Any farmer who is handy with the saw,
iron square, and hammer, with one of his boys or a common laborer to
assist him, can go to work and put up a frame for an outbuilding, and
finish it off with his own labor, just as well as to hire a carpenter
to score and hew great oak sticks and fill them full of mortises, all
by the science of the ‘square rule.’ It is a waste of labor that we
should all lend our aid to put a stop to. Besides, it will enable many
a farmer to improve his place with new buildings, who, though he has
long needed them, has shuddered at the thought of cutting down half of
the best trees in his wood-lot, and then giving half a year’s work to
hauling it home and paying for what I do know is the wholly useless
labor of framing. If it had not been for the knowledge of balloon
frames, Chicago and San Francisco could never have arisen, as they did,
from little villages to great cities in a single year. It is not alone
city buildings, which are supported by one another, that may be thus
erected, but those upon the open prairie, where the wind has a sweep
from Mackinaw to the Mississippi, for there they are built, and stand
as firm as any of the old frames of New England, with posts and beams
16 inches square.”
The above address, which was delivered before the American Institute
Farmers’ Club, has been quoted in detail because of the interesting
point of view of the days of 1855 which it reveals. When Mr. Robinson
had finished there were other comments, especially one by Mr. Youmans,
in which he described early conditions of building in San Francisco.
He also said that he had adopted this plan of building on his farm in
Saratoga County, where he found great difficulty in getting carpenters
that would do as he wished. They could not give up tenons and mortises,
and braces and big timbers, for the light ribs, 2 by 4 inches, of a
balloon frame. Does this not remind the modern reader of comments he
has heard upon all sides these days concerning labor which will not do
what is wanted but insists on doing things in the old way?
Some pertinent remarks were also made by a Mr. Stillman, who testified
that he had seen whole blocks of houses built in two weeks at San
Francisco, and better frames he never saw. He said they were put up a
story at a time, the first two floors often being framed and sided in
and lived in before the upper part of the house was up. Have we any
such housing crisis as this, in these days, or did we do any quicker
building of war villages than that described above?
And now we read from the Preliminary Report on the Building Code
Committee of the United States Department of Commerce the crystallized
tradition of this system of wooden frame construction which was evolved
so many years ago that we sometimes forget the conditions of its making:
“_Exterior Walls._—1. Wood studding shall be 2 × 4
inches nominal size or larger, and spaced not to
exceed 16 inches on centres. All walls shall be
securely braced at corners. The minimum sizes
specified in these requirements shall in all cases
be understood as referring to nominal sizes of
such timbers.
2. Exterior walls, except those of dwellings or parts
thereof not more than one story high, shall be
sheathed with boards not less than ⅞ inch thick.
Sheathing-boards shall be laid tight and properly
nailed to each stud with not less than 2 tenpenny
nails. Where the sheathing is omitted all corners
shall be diagonally braced and such other measures
taken to secure rigidity as may be necessary.
3. Wood sheathing may be omitted when other types of
construction are used that are proven of adequate
strength and stability by tests conducted by
recognized authorities.
4. When joists are supported on ledger or ribbon
boards, such boards shall not be less than 1 × 4
inches, shall be laid into the studs and securely
nailed with not less than 2 nails to each stud.
The floor-joists shall be well spiked to the sides
of the studs.”