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Big, Bad Treehouse

tzrider said:
It's a 12 foot diameter octagon. The tree is 32 inches in diameter at the deck level.
Click to expand...

If it is an octagon that fits perfectly within' a 12' circle: 101.823 SF

If it an octagon 12' across: 119.294 SF

-5.585 SF for the tree.

:cool

That would cost like $1800/month to rent in the City. :laughing
 
Eldritch said:
Sure, I'm just very curious to see how. The rigging I can imagine to do that would still be a nightmare for one guy to manage while bolting it in. Very Interesting.
Click to expand...

You have good insight on which puzzle pieces were some of the more awkward to install. :laughing In addition to the things you've mentioned, the tree trunk is neither perfectly vertical nor symmetrical, which meant that each brace had to be treated as a unique thing from a dimension standpoint. Here is what I did:

I knew that I wanted each brace to project down and inward towards the tree at 45 degrees. I also wanted each brace to be plumb with the center line of the structure, without too much regard for where it happened to intersect the tree. With that in mind, I snapped a chalk line on the tree with the top end being on the center of the structure on that side. I then got my tape measure and attached the free end to the underside of the floor where I wanted to attach the top end of the brace. Then, standing on the ladder below, I pulled in the tape measure and used an angle gauge to determine when the tape was at 45 degrees. I projected that line to the tree, measured the span and than became the lower dimension of the beam.

Once the beam was cut to size, I pre-drilled it for the bracket and temporarily mounted the bracket with through bolts. The tree was rigged with two sets of lines, one for holding a work piece and one for holding me. I attached a sling to the balance point of the beam, hauled it up to the approximate height and locked it off with a knot.

I was clipped in to my own belay line with a mechanical ascender, so I could climb to any position and secure myself there. Once in place, I manipulated the beam until it was oriented correctly and hauled it the rest of the way into position, locking it off with another ascender. I backed up the ascender with a ratchet strap to put more tension on the piece and hold both ends securely in place.

The mounting bracket attached to the tree has three holes, arranged vertically. With the beam in place, I could drill the topmost hole in the tree through the hole in the bracket. I placed a lag screw in that hole and loosely attached the bracket. Once secure, I removed the beam from the bracket to make room for drilling the other holes. The bracket hung plumb from the top hole, so I drilled the bottom hole and secured it with a lag screw. Then I drilled and secured the middle hole, finally torquing all the lag screws down.

Now that the bracket was secure, I rebolted the beam to the bracket and torqued the through bolts down. The bracket and the rigging were holding the beam in place, but the top end needed fine tuning, so I climbed the ladder higher, locked the ascender onto the rope, leaned back and pushed away from the ladder onto the underside of the structure. From there, I wrapped my legs around whatever beams would keep me in place and used a clamp to align the top of the brace. Finally, I tacked the brace with a nail gun, which kept it in position so I could get on top of the structure and install the Simpson steel from above.

All told, it wasn't exactly difficult, but it was time consuming.
 
Tomorrow morning I'll resume work on the tree house. After a few visits to the chiropractor this week, the symptoms in my neck and arm are going in the right direction, albeit slowly. The chiropractor didn't freak out when I told him I planned to spend the weekend hauling lumber up into a tree, so I'll take that to be as good a sign as I'm going to get. :laughing

Look for a progress report on Monday. :)
 
Good luck with the body... hope it delivers like the tree mansion will for your boys!!
 
tzrider said:
You have good insight on which puzzle pieces were some of the more awkward to install. :laughing In addition to the things you've mentioned, the tree trunk is neither perfectly vertical nor symmetrical, which meant that each brace had to be treated as a unique thing from a dimension standpoint. Here is what I did:

I knew that I wanted each brace to project down and inward towards the tree at 45 degrees. I also wanted each brace to be plumb with the center line of the structure, without too much regard for where it happened to intersect the tree. With that in mind, I snapped a chalk line on the tree with the top end being on the center of the structure on that side. I then got my tape measure and attached the free end to the underside of the floor where I wanted to attach the top end of the brace. Then, standing on the ladder below, I pulled in the tape measure and used an angle gauge to determine when the tape was at 45 degrees. I projected that line to the tree, measured the span and than became the lower dimension of the beam.

Once the beam was cut to size, I pre-drilled it for the bracket and temporarily mounted the bracket with through bolts. The tree was rigged with two sets of lines, one for holding a work piece and one for holding me. I attached a sling to the balance point of the beam, hauled it up to the approximate height and locked it off with a knot.

I was clipped in to my own belay line with a mechanical ascender, so I could climb to any position and secure myself there. Once in place, I manipulated the beam until it was oriented correctly and hauled it the rest of the way into position, locking it off with another ascender. I backed up the ascender with a ratchet strap to put more tension on the piece and hold both ends securely in place.

The mounting bracket attached to the tree has three holes, arranged vertically. With the beam in place, I could drill the topmost hole in the tree through the hole in the bracket. I placed a lag screw in that hole and loosely attached the bracket. Once secure, I removed the beam from the bracket to make room for drilling the other holes. The bracket hung plumb from the top hole, so I drilled the bottom hole and secured it with a lag screw. Then I drilled and secured the middle hole, finally torquing all the lag screws down.

Now that the bracket was secure, I rebolted the beam to the bracket and torqued the through bolts down. The bracket and the rigging were holding the beam in place, but the top end needed fine tuning, so I climbed the ladder higher, locked the ascender onto the rope, leaned back and pushed away from the ladder onto the underside of the structure. From there, I wrapped my legs around whatever beams would keep me in place and used a clamp to align the top of the brace. Finally, I tacked the brace with a nail gun, which kept it in position so I could get on top of the structure and install the Simpson steel from above.

All told, it wasn't exactly difficult, but it was time consuming.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I like building stuff. Sounds like you're doing a hell of a thing out there. Well done. ;)
 
Chet said:
Looking forward to any updates Andy :thumbup
Click to expand...

mikev said:
HEY DAD lS IT DONE YET?!?!?!?!
Click to expand...

Tharkûn said:
Seriously, I need more pictures to live vicariously through while I sit in my reclincer
Click to expand...

:laughing Glad you're still with me.

This weekend saw good progress and was the first time that the kids were able to help in the construction. The deck floor was completed last weekend, so Friday morning I went up the tree to install the 8 foot vertical posts at each corner. These posts would be the supports for the railing as well as for a roof, which I don't plan to add this year.

You could make the case that the thing doesn't need a roof at all, the tree canopy being quite protective. I wanted to get the thing usable this summer, providing a sound structure and safe access. The roof will probably be quite awkward to build, so for now the posts are a provision to add a roof later.

Bolting long posts to the outside of a structure that is high off the ground is also potentially awkward, especially with one person doing the work. I cut 1" of material out of the bottom 7" of each post, creating a small shelf that would overlap the deck edges, allowing me to balance the post on the edge of the deck while I shot bolts in with an impact driver. I'd been wondering all week how this was going to go and it was easier than expected. By noon, this is what I had:

IMG_1043.JPG


IMG_1042.JPG
 
This might not be a bad time to post one of my original sketches of this thing before I drew a plan for it:

IMAGE_DCE3EE4A-80DB-4702-9117-95F750CFCB3F.JPG
 
So COOL! Andy you are amazing. Its coming together very nicely :applause
 
For the rest of Friday afternoon, the boys and I measured the rail spans, cut the horizontal sections and laid out the rail pieces for assembly on the ground. We knew we wanted the rail slats to be on 6" centers, so we laid a couple out that way, measured the gap between them and cut a couple of blocks to use as spacers to lay out each rail more quickly.

The guys were finally being included in the process in a much more concrete way and were really into it. They reacted to these little time saving shortcuts as if they were a big revelation and profoundly clever. Not being one to burst anyone's bubble, I just puffed out my chest and smiled.

The following morning, I hauled the assembled rails up the tree and installed them. The thing was really starting to take shape. We don't have photos of the rail installation in progress; this is what it looked like after the rails were installed and the cap boards put on:

IMG_1049.JPG
 
The aforementioned rail caps were some of the fussy detail work that took more time than one might think. Sunday was dedicated to that task, as well as making and installing a gate.

IMG_1050.JPG


IMG_1051.JPG
 
On one of the hundreds of trips up and down the ladder, it finally dawned on me that this view shows a lot about how this whole thing is attached to the tree:

IMG_1056.JPG
 
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