Tree House

A few years ago I thought I would take advantage of the large sissoo (dalbergia sissoo) tree that we planted in our back yard. Commonly referred to as a rosewood tree, these trees are drought resistant and fast growing. Sissoos are native to India and one of their main sources of lumber. For more information on sissoos click here.

Having never built a tree house before I did a Google search for "backyard tree house" (click here) to get some inspiration. Since I was under a tight budget I wanted to keep it simple. I also studied some deck designs to understand how I would create the platform for the tree house.

One of the first things I decided was how to support the tree house in the tree. The basic designs require either raising the tree house on stilts or attaching it to the tree. Since we were not planning to be in our house long-term we wanted to keep from damaging the tree so determined to put the platform on stilts. Here are a few of my first design ideas:

Design Phase 1

The basic design would be four 8 foot pressure treated 4x4s with 2x6 joists attached with joist hangers Simpson Strong-Tie Z-MAX 2 in. x 6 in. Galvanized Double Shear Face Mount Joist Hanger (Model # LUS26/Internet #100375105/Store SKU #865827/Store SO SKU #592854). Then I would use planks to form the flooring. As you can see from the picture I found some concrete pier blocks with metal brackets from Home Depot (Model # 10000271/Internet #100321949/Store SKU #619310). This would make it so I didn't have to fuss with pouring my own concrete and setting the 4x4s and they are fairly inexpensive too. After doing some more research I determined that I would use redwood lumber instead of pressure treated lumber. I didn't want to deal with the chemicals since my kids would be playing on it and there are also some other things to consider when it comes to the hardware used. After a few more design tweaks (see "Design Phase 2") I bought the materials and started to build.

Design Phase 2

I figured I could use some redwood 2x4s for the railings and then use the western red cedar french Gothic fence pickets (Model # 23462/Internet #206436178) from Home Depot to enclose it. Here is how it ended up looking after I framed it and added the rail (sorry, no pictures during the process):

Tree House - Front View

Tree House - Bottom View

Since I did not know that I would be blogging about this later (😓) I did not take many picture during the build process so I will describe in a bit more detail what I did:

1. Measured distance around tree to determine where to place concrete footings. I then dug the holes, put the footings in, and checked for distance and level.

2. I attached the 4x4s to the top of the concrete footings and then attached 2x6s on the outside of the 4x4s.

Tree House - Beginning

3. I attached the joist hangers (see "Tree House - Bottom View" photo above) and then hung the remaining 2x6s. You can also see that I added some 2x4s in between the 2x6s directly next to the tree. Don't remember exactly why I did this but I know it made it helpful when adding the planks around the tree.

4. Next I installed the floor panels. I thought I bought what was a 1x6 cedar tongue and groove panel (Model # 60443/Internet #100028238/Store SKU #604437) but when I went to cut the board I smelt pine. The employee at Home Depot recommended this board to me because he said that cedar holds up very nicely (😮). I made mistakes on some of the cuts for the flooring and brought back what I couldn't use. The customer service was great and said that because they had sold me the wrong type of wood that I could exchange it for new boards. I was very happy with that. I picked up some Thompson's Clear Multi-Surface Waterproofer (Model # 241/Internet #100549802/Store SKU #429856) and added some coats to flooring protect it from the elements. Here is what it looked like when I was done:

Tree House - Floor

5. For the railings I attached 2x4s to the top of the 4x4 posts and then halfway down from the top of the posts and the tree house platform. If I needed to create an opening along the rail I would attached the top rail and then added a horizontal 2x4 from the top rail down to the 2x6 platform and then added the middle rail to this horizontal 2x4 (see "Tree House - Front View" above).

6. I then added the fence pickets. I attached it to the top rail, middle rail, and the 2x6 along the bottom of the platform.

7. I also decided to go with a ladder instead of a trap door to reduce the amount of material required and eliminate the complexity related to designing the trap door. You can also see that I got a metal threshold to attached to the edge of the platform so it could hold up better to the wear. Here is how it ended up.

Tree House - Ladder

8. One of my friends had an old slide they weren't using and donated it to the cause. Only issue with the slide was that it was designed for platforms only 48" or 4 feet tall. My platform was designed to be 60" or 5 feet tall. To compensate I added legs to the front of the slide and built up the dirt where the legs rested on the ground. I did add some addition 2x4s under the platform between the 2x6s to provide more support when attaching the slide. Here is how it looks:

Tree House - Slide 1

Tree House - Slide 2

Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I plan on posting one project each week that I have worked on. I have several from the past that I would like to share so I plan on putting them up before I move onto my next projects. Also, if you have any ideas for projects please share.