How You Shouldn't Build a Tree House - Part 1

Building a treehouse begins with a foundation assessment. What is the tree type? Where is the tree in its life cycle? Is the tree free of disease, decay, and defects? You may not need an arborist to inspect the tree if you understand the basics or do online research of your tree type.

But first, think of the level of investment you are making in the treehouse before avoiding this step to save some money. How much money and time will you spend on the tree house? What is the fundamental value of your tree? Every tree house begins with an inspection and then construction. Each tree house begins with a tree’s health, essential integrity, and structural grounding.

Not having a basic tree house plan
Building your own tree house can be cool. But you should know how not to make a tree house as well.

Most people make some common mistakes. When there are many trunks or limbs, your eye-balling way may mislead you. You may find that to put a tree house beam where you feel you could, you might need to chop a significant limb. Next, most individuals have trouble sighting level, particularly when their yard is sloped. You should know that a tree house platform built impeccably level won’t automatically be parallel with the ground.

This is important because you may find that what you thought was a 12’ span may be 14′, which would entail more support and a harder beam. This means that you have to go back to the store and return materials and buying more.

If you can sight level and your beams work out, you might still have to improvise more tree house attachments on the fly, leading to less than ideal results for your tree and tree house. Our suggestion: climb the tree, write down the measurements, mark each beam, sketch the tree house platform on paper, and do all you can to eliminate any surprises once you begin building your tree house.

Climbing a tree not your thing? Reach out to a Buffalo tree service company.​

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