How About a Floor

Now that the floor frame was complete, it was time to move to the decking. My original plan was to use all pressure treated plywood that was left over from an old deck I disassembled about 6 years back. From my memory I had thought I had all 4 x 8 sheets of plywood to cover the whole deck. I wasn't really concerned about using pressure treated framing as it would have all been shielded from the elements. My memory wasn't as good as I thougth because the pieces were not true 4 x 8 pieces. They ended up being 48" x 90". 6 " shorter than I anticipated. Now I needed to come up with another plan. Let's do the floor of the building out of what little pressure treated plywood I had and do the wraparound decking out of 5/4' decking planks.

Because the frame was not built out of pressure treated lumber, I topped it off with strips of tar paper before laying any of the plywood and 5/4 " planking over it.

As you can see by the picture I scribed around the two trees leaving enough room for growth. I also made a trap door in front of the left tree which will eventually have ladder stairs coming up through.

Bracing

It is important that your platform is braced properly to ensure it will be solid. I had a couple of decisions to make. I could A) run pressure treated 4 x legs to the ground in all 4 corners which would make it plenty stable or B) set up diagonal bracing and lag it into the trees. I decided that option A) would make it into a ground structure instead of a true treehouse so I opted for option B). Remember Ewoks and Swiss Family Robinson...



This picture shows you how I went about stabilizing the platform. Keep in mind, this option does have a little more spring to the step but is more aesthetically pleasing in my opinion. I made sure to lag the diagonal pieces to the tree at the lower intersection as well as the horizontal cross pieces.

How to Make a Platform Hover

Now that the platform dimensions have been figured out, the question arises, how do we get this thing off the ground? With a will and little bit of careful planning there's always a way. Let's start with the cross beam. I started out with a couple of pressure treated 2x6 boards. I lagged them into the trees on both ends tying the two trees together. I only used 1 lag per end and per board to ensure the trees would still have the ability to pivot and flex. This would be the cross beam my platform will rest upon. I made sure to use 2-2 x 6's paralell to eachother as the weight of this platform will start getting heavy with the building and the kids that will be playing on it. These cross beams were made level cross wise as well as perpidicular.

The next step was to build a platform frame. I made the frame out of 2 x 6 lumber. The majority of the frame was made on the ground. I first made the plaform 14 ft long by 8 ft wide. in order to get it up between the two trees the rest of the platform would be built in the air around the trees. I was able to hoist this platform up by myself by using 2 x 6 lumber as ramps. I found the balancing point on the cross beams and put up temporary 2 x bracing.



This is what the platform looks like with the temporary bracing. ...And yes, that is my 3 year old daughter. Don't worry, she was plenty safe.

The fun part was the remaining framing around the trees. I doubled up the outside perimeter with a 14 ft long board and filled in the rest of the floor framing every 2 ft on center. This gave me doubled up 2 x 6's on all 4 sides.

Dimensions

I wanted the house to be built high enough up where it will feel like you are up in the air but not so high that if one fell out that it would be fatal. The height I decided was to be roughly 8 feet. Because the structure was built on a slope this puts the low edge at about 6.5 ft and the opposing end at 14 feet.

The next step was to determine the footprint of the building. With the distance between the two trees being 8.5 ft. that left enough room to make a structure with a foot print of 8 x 8 ft. Of course it has to have a deck of some kind. Let's give it a 3 ft. wraparound. Now it's decided, a platform of 14 x 14 ft. will be necessary!

I wanted the building to be big enough where the kids can sleep out there and have enough room to invite friends out too. I also wanted to make sure it was tall enough where an adult could get in without having to duck their head. I will make the side walls 6 ft and the peak roughly 8 ft. tall.

I'm beginning to think this treehouse is going to look like something out of the Ewok Adventures movie or Disney's Swiss Family Robinson.

The Design is Underway

For me, I got most of my design ideas out of a book;

Treehouses & Playhouses You Can Build by: David and Jeanie Stiles

This has been a great book in showing me the fundamentals to Treehouse design. I knew I had to find a way to put a platform in between two trees that would have the ability to flex with the wind. Once I had that, the rest would be easy.

I started by locating 2 trees down by the small river that runs through our yard. These trees are close to the river yet high enough where they wouldn't get uprooted in the event of a flood (this section of the river can "move" in the spring). One of the trees is an oak tree between 50 and 75 years old and the other I would estimate to be a 30 year old maple.

I pulled out the tape measure and started recording numbers and brainstorming to determine what could be done...

Things to Consider

When building a structure of this type a lot of factors need to be taken into consideration. Careful planning is essential before a hammer is lifted. I tried to answer these questions prior to moving into the design of the structure.

• Site - Do I have a suitable place to build this structure?


• Permit - Do I need to check with the town for permits?
  
• Accessibility - Is this structure in a place where you can easily get materials in and out of and is it close enough where my kids will want to use it. Can we keep an eye or ear out in the event of an emergency?


• Electricity - Will you be wanting to run electricity to your new structure? Do you have electricity to run powertools?


• Safety - Are the trees mature enough to support your structure? How high off the ground are you going? What type of access will you be building to get into the structure? Is this structure appropriate for the ages of your kids?


• Expense - How much money are you willing to spend on your structure. Will your budget be enough to incorporate safety?

The idea

I have mostly completed the construction of a tree/clubhouse. I have decided that I would like to share the steps and progress of this project with others. I am planning to log this in chronological order up to my current point.

The idea is to have an area where my kids can go to play that is a private and peaceful place. It needs to be built strong and apealing to the eye. I decided to build a clubhouse up in the trees as an alternative to buying a premade playhouse as it can be customizable and is less expensive. I had a good start with recycled materials but a lot of the framing lumber had to be purchased.