I consulted various span charts online, spoke to the team at treehouses.com, and spoke to various friends with construction experience. In the end, I have an engineering background and tend to overbuild things a bit just to be extra cautious. The best thing to do is to get a qualified engineer to help you size things appropriately. At the time I was building my treehouse, if you bought your hardware from treehouses.com they’d include a consultation where they’d go over your plans with you. I’d definitely leverage them if they still do that.
I'm partway through a "treehouse" build. The bulk of the structure is supported by 6x6s arranged in a square with 2 pairs of 2x12 beams. The joists are extending past the foot print of that square to make a cantilevered deck. I will be connecting the deck to a tri-beam on a tree for additional support. Because the joists are rigidly connected to posts can I attach tri-beam with a floating bracket instead of pipe bracket? I'd prefer to avoid having joists float on beams with or without HDPE. Thanks in advance!
Great job man- i'm very surprised you have so few views- got some great stuff in this series. I love the idea of giving hardware as a gift... and of course involving kids. We did that with the grandparents gift money for several seasons until we had 400 for a trampoline, then recorded ourselves putting it together and sent it to the grandparents. I especially loved how you included (in earlier videos) the nice angle video of the wind moving the structure. Might i suggest that on the plate under your top stairs you chamfer the edge a bit, or put another under it to deal with the slight angle that's digging into the wood? As i'm going thru this process (most of the 7 kids are up and out now, so it's more for me and the missus) i'm curious about a few things: - did you consider chains instead of GL brackets? I keep thinking that things could go a lot easier/cheaper that way and keep the forces in tight to the tree ... recently saw someone has a great timelapse of a hex or oct house supported by those instead of knee braces- though they did use something like TAB's to bring it all together. - could you not have compromised a bit on the steps- maybe a simple spiral staircase or narrower set? - if you had to pay, would you buy the three bits or rent the single unit for the TABs? i'm really feeling like there ought to be a way to go cheaper... i cringe at the cost of all that stainless hardware, even with a good local supplier! I've done a lot of zipline research and experimentation - for prototyping those same tiedowns you used to truck up your knee joints do a great job for attaching on each end. I used a big box cable that already had a loop on one end ( 100? biggest they had) and tested with myself (250#) - Sag allows for less tension, fast acceleration with easy ending. Easily adjusted and removed and not too much ring stress on the trees since the tension is minimal on a couple loops of 2" webbing. A cyclone (trust me- only game in town for a round seat) swing seat on a thick rope with some knots provides some solid support and can go between the legs (and be sat upon) before falling becomes a risk. Does great as a rope swing as well. I got my pulley from CMI- but if you go petzl they have one that's integrated with a biner and safety clip. CMI allows removal/replacement of bearings.
Thanks so much for the kind words and detailed comment. I definitely could use a little wedge under the stairs. Just goes to show how my cuts and measurements weren't as precise as they could have been. I didn't consider chains. Although the guys from treehouses.com have lots of plans where they use cables going back up to the GL/TAB higher up in the tree. I could have built a little cheaper steps. I tend to err on the side of overbuilding than underbuilding though. I've been really happy with the stairs since they make it really safe and easy for people of all ages to go into the treehouse. I would definitely rent the bit again. I paid for the bit when I did my install. They were just willing to send it back out again for free so I could show it in the video. I think having the one bit makes lining things up so much easier. I'm really looking forward to adding a zipline one day. I'm leaning toward using a harness since the tree house is so high up, but the extra work to put that on each time would be a pain. I wouldn't want to risk a little kid getting scared though and letting go and falling. Hopefully there will be a new video one day of a new zipline once I figure out everything I want to do and save up for the equipment! Thanks again for the great questions and comment.
Question. Who was the arborist that came to inspect? I live in NC and saw your Duck Donuts shirt. Assuming y’all are close by and may have some local suggestions to help with my tree house build.
I realize that this was years ago and it looks like you don’t put up any new content, but if you happen to see this comment…Do you have a supplies list somewhere? That would be great! Thank you!
Brilliant!
Thank you for your advice. I will take it to heart. Good man.
Wonderful series! I wish there were more!
Thanks! It was a lot of fun to build the treehouse and the series.
Hey man, how did you calculate the size of lumber you needed for all your support?
I consulted various span charts online, spoke to the team at treehouses.com, and spoke to various friends with construction experience. In the end, I have an engineering background and tend to overbuild things a bit just to be extra cautious. The best thing to do is to get a qualified engineer to help you size things appropriately. At the time I was building my treehouse, if you bought your hardware from treehouses.com they’d include a consultation where they’d go over your plans with you. I’d definitely leverage them if they still do that.
I'm partway through a "treehouse" build. The bulk of the structure is supported by 6x6s arranged in a square with 2 pairs of 2x12 beams. The joists are extending past the foot print of that square to make a cantilevered deck. I will be connecting the deck to a tri-beam on a tree for additional support. Because the joists are rigidly connected to posts can I attach tri-beam with a floating bracket instead of pipe bracket? I'd prefer to avoid having joists float on beams with or without HDPE. Thanks in advance!
GREAT series.
Thanks!
Great job man- i'm very surprised you have so few views- got some great stuff in this series. I love the idea of giving hardware as a gift... and of course involving kids. We did that with the grandparents gift money for several seasons until we had 400 for a trampoline, then recorded ourselves putting it together and sent it to the grandparents.
I especially loved how you included (in earlier videos) the nice angle video of the wind moving the structure. Might i suggest that on the plate under your top stairs you chamfer the edge a bit, or put another under it to deal with the slight angle that's digging into the wood?
As i'm going thru this process (most of the 7 kids are up and out now, so it's more for me and the missus) i'm curious about a few things:
- did you consider chains instead of GL brackets? I keep thinking that things could go a lot easier/cheaper that way and keep the forces in tight to the tree ... recently saw someone has a great timelapse of a hex or oct house supported by those instead of knee braces- though they did use something like TAB's to bring it all together.
- could you not have compromised a bit on the steps- maybe a simple spiral staircase or narrower set?
- if you had to pay, would you buy the three bits or rent the single unit for the TABs?
i'm really feeling like there ought to be a way to go cheaper... i cringe at the cost of all that stainless hardware, even with a good local supplier!
I've done a lot of zipline research and experimentation - for prototyping those same tiedowns you used to truck up your knee joints do a great job for attaching on each end. I used a big box cable that already had a loop on one end ( 100? biggest they had) and tested with myself (250#) - Sag allows for less tension, fast acceleration with easy ending. Easily adjusted and removed and not too much ring stress on the trees since the tension is minimal on a couple loops of 2" webbing. A cyclone (trust me- only game in town for a round seat) swing seat on a thick rope with some knots provides some solid support and can go between the legs (and be sat upon) before falling becomes a risk. Does great as a rope swing as well. I got my pulley from CMI- but if you go petzl they have one that's integrated with a biner and safety clip. CMI allows removal/replacement of bearings.
Thanks so much for the kind words and detailed comment. I definitely could use a little wedge under the stairs. Just goes to show how my cuts and measurements weren't as precise as they could have been.
I didn't consider chains. Although the guys from treehouses.com have lots of plans where they use cables going back up to the GL/TAB higher up in the tree.
I could have built a little cheaper steps. I tend to err on the side of overbuilding than underbuilding though. I've been really happy with the stairs since they make it really safe and easy for people of all ages to go into the treehouse.
I would definitely rent the bit again. I paid for the bit when I did my install. They were just willing to send it back out again for free so I could show it in the video. I think having the one bit makes lining things up so much easier.
I'm really looking forward to adding a zipline one day. I'm leaning toward using a harness since the tree house is so high up, but the extra work to put that on each time would be a pain. I wouldn't want to risk a little kid getting scared though and letting go and falling. Hopefully there will be a new video one day of a new zipline once I figure out everything I want to do and save up for the equipment!
Thanks again for the great questions and comment.
Question. Who was the arborist that came to inspect? I live in NC and saw your Duck Donuts shirt. Assuming y’all are close by and may have some local suggestions to help with my tree house build.
I used Bartlett. You can contact them at www.Bartlett.com. I was really happy with my interaction with them.
Impressive job!
Thanks man!
I realize that this was years ago and it looks like you don’t put up any new content, but if you happen to see this comment…Do you have a supplies list somewhere? That would be great! Thank you!
Just spend more time with your kids and less making videos .