Building a Treehouse

There are several items / toys that are must to have in the childhood, among them is a toy table train and a treehouse. The article reviews different interesting and useful facts about treehouses. Here you will also find the step by step instructions on how to build a treehouse yourself.

Of course a self-made treehouse will be of special attraction for your kid. Knowing that your dad and mom did it with their hands and with love will make the toy house one of the central episodes of your kid’s childhood.

Normally treehouses are built on a tree (or trees), however, nowadays special treehouse kits are available on the market. The interesting point about the kit is that it works without a real tree. Such a tree house is free standing but, nevertheless, is of no less fun for the kids. Below we provide instructions on how to build a treehouse in traditional style.

The central moments when building a treehouse would be: safety, support, location, and design. The treehouse construction project is not quite easy a task but doing the job with the whole family may be real fun. First of all make sure you have all necessary items: large beams, knee braces and cables, metal brackets, large bolts, and tools.

Instructions:

Step 1. Choose the right tree / trees. Although the tree should be big, with thick trunk and benches – it should not be too high; 10′ will be just as good. The tree branches should be strong enough to hold the treehouse with kids in it. The best trees for that are: maple, oak, hemlock, beech, and fir. Look for 4 key supporting branches on the tree.

Step 2. Make an overall treehouse design on the paper. Try to consider all functional and practical aspects. How the treehouse will affect the territory round the tree. Also there may be some legal issues involved. Make sure you will not violate any legal regulation with the treehouse construction.

Step 3. Make all measurements for the tree framing. Draw the plan on the paper. Consider rigid frames, movement limitation in and on the branches. Triangle-shaped constructions have proved most effective – consider this aspect as well. Study all possible designs and nuances and compare to your needs and requirements. To check how firm and safe your designed treehouse base would be place weight (for example sandbags) on it for a couple of days. The load should slightly exceed the estimated house and kids weights.

Step 4. Depending on many factors you will need either flexible or fixed house base support. Fixed joints are used for solid trees, whereas the flexible (such as cables and metal brackets) for “moving” trees.

Step 5. Use knee braces for extra fixing the house if built on a single tree. Use cables where needed as they are effective for extra support.

Note: It is strongly recommended to use large bolts instead of nails for support. Try to make the treehouse design simple. Use wood that is not subject to easy rotting; seal it.

That is all important that we wanted to tell you about how to build a treehouse for your kids.