Treehouse

A big old-growth redwood stump had steps carved into it when we bought the place. Visions of a fabulous tree deck danced in our heads...

Step 1: Build the framework

We used the trees around the stump (the fairy ring) as the main supports for the very sturdy framing. Our research showed that drilling ALL the way through each tree was the best way to not injure them permanently.

Comments

[doctressjulia]

I made a treehouse almost exactly like this when I was about 9... in the woods in Connecticut... I saw 3 trees close together and thought, "triangle shape frame and platform! It was so cool all the kids thought I was cool after that. ;)

[Legend]

Aww :-)

[doctressjulia]

:3

[doctressjulia]

Well, it's me again... I still love this treehouse; may I move in? ;)

[Broncobogger]

right?!?!

[Broncobogger]

thats a cool and pretty simple tree house if you would rise the tree house a liitle higher and made more you could connect them.

[ferbettes]

stuck in that treehouse for 6 months.

[ferbettes]

hang like a spider in that spider web support.

[ddarkeststar]

Very cool.

[Ghost Wolf]

Nice place to chill put a BBQ up there and and lawn chair and it would be cool!

[Dr. Pepper]

Spectacular!

[legomman200]

That is awesome!!!!:):):):):)

[kahunagrande]

Hi Shawn, Do you get any stress on the bolts or hardware when the trees sway in the wind? How did you account for this in your design? We live in an area with Redwoods (Northern California) and have similar groupings of trees. I've been thinking about building a similar structure but have not yet to figure out if the wind will cause problems, snap boards or bolts. 

[pjp15]

what are the dimensions of the wood you used for the frame work.

[DannytheGreat]

on youtube.com search brian's treehouse

[chazman2]

my tree house is way better that that its at the very top of a sicmore tree and you can live into

[killer wasp]

hello oh and the id i messed up it is did not id

[killer wasp]

but i live in hawaii can you post a ezer 1 plz. o and make it have a trap door an rope swing.id you know you can snow bord in hawaii,yes you can,on our extinct volcaneo,Manua Kea.

[Tom Buckey]

does it get slippy when its wet?

[shawnconna]

No, because the flooring is old salvaged redwood planks, which are a little rough to begin with.

[Tom Buckey]

oh becuase im building one with the same flooring as decking and it gets slippy so do you know what i do to stop this?

[geekazoid]

very nice. Love the idea of using the stump as steps, Cheers GEEkazoid

[SoapyHollow]

This is so fantastic! I wish I lived somewhere with trees where we could do that. I'm so jealous!

[grantylala]

This is cool

[Branman]

Beautiful! Now all u need is some walls and a roof and, presto, u have a second home. lol

[shawnconna]

It's built to code so that it will hold up a 2-story house. We've definitely thought about adding walls and a roof as an extra room!

[xander86]

This is a marvelous blend of green architecture, and organic design. I love this.

[20fredie]

what size of screws did u use to go all the way though them?

[shawnconna]

probably 3/4" but maybe 7/8" or 1" - not larger than 1" and not smaller than 3/4".

[berserk]

Where does the cargo net come in?

[shawnconna]

It's on the back side, directly behind the pole in this picture. The kids climb up and down it as they wish, and it's plenty strong enough to hold large grown-ups as well. On that side, it's only about 5 or 6 feet off the ground, so not too dangerous if someone fell while climbing. But it would still sting!

[Mr.Devious]

Here's a good idea, what if your house was made where it looked down a hill right? Not a too steap one, but steap enough to make it awesome. Then have a group of trees exactly like that, and build a treehouse similar to that, but roofed and weather sealed. Then, say it was about 10 feet or so away from your deck coming out the backside of the house (this is just imaginary) then build a rope or wire bridge with rails of course that went from the deck into the weather proof tree house. This would be very very cool as you could sit out there on a rainy day and read a book without getting wet, but still enjoy the atmospehere. When I get out in the world and looking for a place, and I see something like this or a similar setup, as far as a house and having trees right behind it, I'm gonna buy it. ;-)

[AndyHope]

sounds like the tree house from "home alone" except it was just a zip line running from his attic to the tree house

[ILikeScience]

No wonder you call yourself Mr.Devious, lol.

[kickslop]

It doesn't look like you treated the wood at all. Is that true? If so, was there a reason for it? Neat.

[SWV1787]

Do you think the banasters would be strong enough to support a couple people in a hammock? I have forty acers of woods up north that might just need something like this

[howboutitbru]

if you want a hammock just screw two hooks into the trees and attach the chain or wahtever from the hammock to that

[threecheersfornick]

If only I had a few trees...

[pachanka]

im now going to make the ultimate tree house instead of buying a car.

[robonut625]

Sweet! I wish I had one of those when I was a kid!