Thursday, November 15, 2007
Inspiration
When I decided to build the kids a treehouse, I wanted to make it one they would remember. Having done a fair amount of decking, I was happy enough with construction using joists and decks, but had to learn a little about putting one up in a Tree!
The inspiration for my design came from the king of treehouse builders Daniels Woodland.
When we bought the house, I just knew the four trees at the bottom of the garden would make a great spot for a platform, so this is what went up first.
I basically drilled a hole right through the tree trunk and bolted one end of a 6"x2" joist to it. It is really important not to bolt both ends of a plank to two separate trees. The shear force generated by wind blowing the trees will snap just about any fixing! The other end of the joist I nailed and then clamped the ends with a bolt on the other side of the trunk.
The timber I used for the joists was pressure treated Douglas Fir, but most of the structure is constructed from Cedar.
The perpendicular joins were made with joist hangers as these support a little movement of the joist.
The inspiration for my design came from the king of treehouse builders Daniels Woodland.
When we bought the house, I just knew the four trees at the bottom of the garden would make a great spot for a platform, so this is what went up first.
I basically drilled a hole right through the tree trunk and bolted one end of a 6"x2" joist to it. It is really important not to bolt both ends of a plank to two separate trees. The shear force generated by wind blowing the trees will snap just about any fixing! The other end of the joist I nailed and then clamped the ends with a bolt on the other side of the trunk.
The timber I used for the joists was pressure treated Douglas Fir, but most of the structure is constructed from Cedar.
The perpendicular joins were made with joist hangers as these support a little movement of the joist.
Labels: treehouse cedar
# posted by Justin @ 5:37 AM 
