Who hasn’t dreamed of the most grand tree house imaginable? Trap door, zip line, bucket on a pulley to get your stuff up. Well, for a few lucky kids their dream came true. And, their dad cared enough about the tree to call me in for advice. He didn’t want the dream tree house to be the demise of the tree. There are techniques to employ to minimize the damage to your tree when building a tree house.
The most important thing to do is inspect the tree to make sure it is structurally sound enough to support a tree house. The next most important thing to consider is the attachment to the tree. Best case scenario for the tree is to drill pins into the tree to attach your structure to. If you butt the structure right up against the trunk/limbs future growth in girth of the tree will be deformed and could cause health or structural problems for the tree.
Also, be sure to allow room between the deck and the trunk and frame around limbs in the guard railing.
You’ll probably wind up using cables for additional support, and you should definitely string up at least one cable for a zip line. It is critically important that you don’t wrap the cable around the limb or trunk of the tree. Not even if you use garden hose or lumber between the cable and the tree. This WILL girdle the tree and eventually kill or severely damage the limb. Instead do one of two things:
- drill a hole through the tree 1/16″larger that the diameter of the cable;run the cable through the tree;and install a u-bolt or compression clamp to prevent the cable from slipping through the hole, or
- pre-drill and install a forged eye lag with wood threads and attach the cable to the eye with a thimble and u-bolts or compression clamps.
This was definitely one of my top favorite projects this year. Rob Soluri of Heritage Home Builders constructed this masterpiece.
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