The tree house is great fun for children and an asset to your garden. How stable you build it will determine how long you will enjoy it.
What you need:
- boards
- Kanthölzer
- Square bars
- wood saw
- jigsaw
- drilling machine
- Hammer
- nails
- screws
How to build a stable tree house
Like any other building, a tree house depends on its statics. If you build a tree house, you have to anchor a stable base frame firmly in the ground and attach it to the tree.
- Find an appropriately sized tree that is not overgrown. The trunk should be stable and ideally forked at a height of up to 2 m. The trunk should be at least 30 to 40 cm in diameter and at least the thickness of an adult thigh from the fork.
- Build a square right-angled frame for the floor of the treehouse from at least 2-by-2-inch square timber. You have to reinforce the angles with cross pieces or you install screwable metal angles that have to be attached to the square timbers with wood screws.
- Put in a floor of sturdy tongue and groove planks that you nail to the square frames.
- When constructing the tree house, make sure that it fits as symmetrically as possible between the tree forks. If necessary, saw slight curves in the frame at the support points without jeopardizing its stability.
- Carefully attach strong linen fabric between the tree trunk and the floor of the treehouse so as not to damage the bark too much, as you would risk with sharp edges.
- Fasten the structure to the corners on studs, which should be anchored up to 50 cm deep in the ground and be about 10 by 10 cm thick.
- Bolt the base and pillars firmly together and attach the tree house base to the trunk with rope and sailor’s knots. For this purpose, pre-drill holes in the frame.
- Cut cross braces and angle pieces to screw the pillars to the tree house floor on two sides.
- Build a cabin as you wish and also anchor this to the floor of the tree house and to stable branches that are at least 6 cm thick so that it is windproof.
- You can build a roof the same way you build the floor of the tree house, only with weaker square timber and attached at an angle so that rainwater can run off. Seal your tree house roof with roofing felt or ask about alternative materials at the hardware store.
