How to Build a Treehouse

There is much to consider when building a quality treehouse. Location, support, design and safety are all important. Follow these steps to complete this rather complex, but fun and rewarding project that will provide your kids and their friends hours of enjoyment.

Things You'll Need

• Large Beams
• Metal Brackets, Cables and/or Knee Braces
• Large Bolts

Instructions

1. Choose a tree. Consider the height and branch thickness before building your treehouse. You don't want the treehouse too high, especially for children. A good height is 10 feet from the ground. The branches holding the points where you place the supports must be able to bear the weight of the each part of the treehouse it is supporting. If you have four long branch attachments in a strong tree such as oak, maple, fir, hemlock or beech, it will be easier than having a lot of smaller ones.

2. Plan your treehouse. Be sure to consider the practical and legal planning issues that surround your treehouse. The practical planning is about the design of your treehouse. The legal planning concerns the laws that you may need to abide by in the process of building your tree house. Be sure to do some sketches of your treehouse and try to see how you will make it work. As for legal concerns, their may be building codes in your area that will affect your progress.

3. Develop your framing plan. Rigid framed supports are the easiest since movement dilemmas are non-existent. You might try this design for small trees or at the top of trees. Careful attention must be paid towards limiting movement in the branches. Triangles are the strongest building shapes, so incorporate them into your design. The Tree House Guide website offers some framing examples. It would be in your best interest to give the platform a test run by placing sandbags that will be heavier than your expected final load onto the platform for a couple of days to be sure your design is safe.

4. Decide which type of support you will need to keep your floor safely attached to your tree. Depending on your tree, you will either need fixed or flexible support. Fixed joints are used for connections between trees that don't move much and use bolts. Flexible joints are used for connections between trees that do move around a lot. The two main types of flexible support are metal brackets and cables. See the Tree House Guide website for more information.

5. Pick your attachment materials. There are metal brackets, knee braces and cables to choose from. Metal brackets are used for both fixed and flexible joints. Knee braces are frequently used in treehouses, especially for treehouses in single trees. They are strong and can hold heavy loads. Cables offer help in many support situations. They allow beams to be suspended to make floating attachments to the tree. They also give extra support to long spans and they help big overhangs to be braced without needing unattractive and intrusive knee braces.

Tips & Warnings

• Use bolts instead of nails for supports.

• Be simplistic in your design. Too many joints aren't good for the tree.

• Use good quality wood that won't rot quickly. Sealing the wood is recommended.

• You are responsible for keeping the people safe who may visit the treehouse. If at anytime you are unsure of what you are doing, seek professional advice.