Abstract: Five gabled frames with hinges are analyzed by the equilibrium methodand the effective length factors of coulumns are determined by solving stabilityequations, theoretical analysis andcodes for design or technical specifications. The calculation results showthat the results of the equilibrium method and the finite element method areconsistent; the effective length factors of leaning columns are equla to one bycodes for design or technical specifications, but greater than one bythe equilibrium method; for frame columns, the calculation results of codes fordesign or technical specifications are different from those obtained byequilibrium method. It is shown that the code method is not suitable toanalyze the frame stability, the effective length factors of the framecolumns should be obtained by the second order analysis.