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Big, Bad Treehouse

tzrider

tzrider

Write Only User
Joined
Feb 20, 2003
Location
Pleasanton, CA
Moto(s)
Kaw N1K
Name
Andy
We've been toying with the idea of building a treehouse for the boys (and me, who's kidding who?) for a while and decided this would be the summer.

I don't generally do things halfway. When I was a kid, I built a treehouse out of a few poles lashed together and a scrap of plywood set on top. It was fun, but that's not what I had in mind for this thing. We chose the tree and I set about researching how best to attach a structure to a tree without killing it. There has been a fair amount of work done developing specialized tree anchors, essentially massive bolts that you screw into the tree. The idea is that you want to drill as few holes as possible to reduce compartmentalization in the tree, which cuts off the flow of nutrients in the cambium layer to the upper portion of the tree. These fasteners are expensive though, at $85 a piece.

In the end, I decided to use more fasteners, but array them so that they didn't encircle the tree. They are arranged at four points of the compass, with several bolts placed in a vertical line in each of the four compass points. To give a sense for the scale of the thing, I bought the wood and loaded it into the back of my Yukon. Friend Ritch had offered the use of his nail gun, so I drove to his house with my truck loaded with wood.

Ritch about died laughing when I pulled onto his street with my rear springs sagged out to the bushings and my front tires barely touching the ground (I'm not kidding). He very generously offered the use of his pickup, which was much better suited to carrying this load. He was pretty insistent about this because he didn't want for me to die driving all this stuff over Sonora Pass.

Friend Mike was also on hand, having offered the use of a portable table saw. He too can vouch for having seen occasional glimpses of daylight under my front wheels.

The truck proved to be the right tool for the job of transporting the material and the following day the lumber was onsite:

IMG_0976.jpg


I began by prepping the tree, trimming dead branches that would be in the way:

IMG_0978.jpg
 
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:subscribed
 
So this tree, is it just some random tree in the forest? Because that looks nothing like Pleasanton.
 
I remember when I was young my father built a treehouse for me. The neighbors complained to the city that we could see into their backyard. I loved that treehouse till the city made us take it down. :thumbdown

I love this thread!
 
I had a plan for how to attach four diagonal braces for support from underneath, but my friend Robert, who does a lot of steel work had a better idea. We decided to make a set of 45 degree brackets to form J-hooks that would be bolted to the tree and then though-bolted to the beams. We were in a remote location, where you don't just run downtown for a quantity of 1/4" plate steel, so I called Dale in Gardnerville to see if he knew where I might find steel there. He came up with a place, so I went up and got two six foot, 4 inch wide by 1/4" thick straps.

Robert had an acetylene torch, which he used to heat the steel to a dull orange. When it was the right temperature, I grabbed the end of the bar and bent it over to 45 degrees. We had scribed a 45 degree angle on a plank, which I used to compare the angle as I bent the steel. Once cool, I cut the sections to length, drilled the bolt holes and painted the brackets:

IMG_0970.jpg


The long sides are 2 feet long.
 
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Andy you are THE coolest dad! :love Cant wait to see the finished product. :thumbup
 
mcarb said:
So this tree, is it just some random tree in the forest? Because that looks nothing like Pleasanton.
Click to expand...

The tree is on some property we have in the eastern Sierra. We chose a fir for a couple of reasons. This tree is in a good location for a few views, but is also fairly secluded. Of all of the trees in the area, the firs are the ones I consider the most expendable. My goal is to do this without killing the tree, but if I have misjudged, I'd rather kill a fir than a Jeffrey pine.
 
tzrider said:
Robert had an acetylene torch, which he used to heat the steel to a dull orange. when it was the right temperature, I grabbed the end of the bar and bent it over to 45 degrees.
Click to expand...

With his bare hands, because that's how much of a goddamn MAN Andy is. :love

and yes... seeing that Yukon doing wheelies every time the throttle was chopped was quite the sight :rofl
 
With all of the material on hand, the tree prepped and the beams cut, it was time to go up the tree. I rigged a block and tackle and hauled the first beam up:

IMG_0988.jpg


Then I went up and bolted the beam in place, using a 1/4" right angle bracket. It's spaced about 3/4" from the tree trunk to allow a few years' worth of growth before the tree begins to encroach on the beams.

IMG_0989.jpg


With only the one bracket in place, the attachment was plenty strong, but shook like a mother when I stood on it. Creepy.

IMG_0990.jpg
 
I absolutely love this thread. Treehouses were the ultimate fun thing when I was a kid and I regretted not having a place or tree to have one for my boys. Even a humble plywood platform only 10 feet up was a "fort."

GOOD SHOW!!!!
 
It took a fair amount of fooling around to get the second beam installed at the same height, exactly on the opposite side of an asymmetrical tree trunk and level. I am fussing with it here:

IMG_0993.jpg
 
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