
You can order floating brackets and tree house fasteners from specialty suppliers such as or or special-order them from home centers. This gives the tree room to move and grow.Įven for smaller, lighter tree houses where the load is spread over three or four attachment points, consider using 1-in.- or 1-1/4-in.-diameter lag bolts. Whenever possible, perch your tree house on top of fasteners rather than pinning beams to the tree. You get the same strength but with fewer puncture wounds to the tree. One large bolt is better than many screws or nails. Lag bolts cause less tree damage than through bolts.ĭon’t use too many fasteners. Final assembly took place in the trees.”ĭon’t run bolts through the tree. An extra set of hands was needed only to raise the four walls and two roof sections. After attaching the supports to the trees, I lifted the platform piece by piece and assembled it on the supports. We served breakfast and coffee in the driveway for people who came to watch.”Īnd from another: “I assembled the platform and house on the ground, then disassembled them. The morning of ‘the big lift’ was quite exciting. “I built it in my driveway and used a friend’s backhoe to lift it up on the joists I’d hung in the trees. Run the beams between trunks of different trees.Ĭantilever the beams out from a single trunk and support them from above or below.īuilding Tip 5: Build sections on the ground and hoist them into position Lay beams across the branches and shim until level. Consider these tree house building tips and plans method: It’s much easier to build the rest of the structure if the floor is level and can support the entire weight of the tree house. gap around the tree if it passes through the floor and a 3-in. This leaves most of the shaft exposed so you can mount items on the ends and lets the tree grow over the shaft.Īllow a 2-in. This can strangle the tree.Īdd spacers between the beams and the tree to allow movement.
TREE HOUSE SKETCH PRO
They drew the wall design on regular paper, and we transferred the pictures to the walls, using Cad Pro drafting software.īuilding Tip 3: Don’t Restrict Tree Growthĭon’t constrict branches with rope, straps or wire.

It was tricky getting the roof in place and, of course, nothing is square. One I built a tree house for my kids in our backyard.

In high-wind areas, build your tree house in the lower third of the tree. Put the load over the base of the tree, not on one side.įor heavy tree houses, consider spreading the weight among several trees.Ī tree house will act as a sail in strong winds, which can add a large load to the tree’s roots. You don’t have to build it very high, just high enough so nobody gets a bump on the head when walking underneath it.īuilding Tip 2: Keep weight and stability in mindīuild the platform as close to the trunk as possible and add diagonal bracing for extra strength to support uneven loads. The best trees include maple, oak, fir, beech and hemlock. in diameter (larger if the species is a softwood). Now open your scanned sketch in CAD Pro and it becomes a traceable template that you can easily modify for your specific needs.Ĭhoose a healthy, long-lived hardwood for maximum support, with load-bearing branches at least 8 in. Sketch your tree house ideas on a piece of paper, and then scan it.
TREE HOUSE SKETCH SOFTWARE
Tree house design software with sketch tracing features.
