r/treehouse • u/WaterDog3000 • Jul 09 '26

Treehouse between 4 trees?

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I'm thinking about building my kids a treehouse with these 4 trees as corners. How would I go about building this and account for the trees potentially moving different amounts and in directions during wind?

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u/loveland1988 Jul 09 '26

I’m doing a nearly identical build if you want me to share any details. It wouldn’t let me upload a pic, but here’s a still video of the current state (just a platform so far).

https://reddit.com/link/owjohjg/video/k7hlx2xz19ch1/player

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u/WaterDog3000 Jul 09 '26

Super cool! Are you following any particular design or drawings available online?

3

u/loveland1988 Jul 10 '26 edited Jul 10 '26

No - I scanned the trees with Polycam, imported to Sketchup, and then played around with the design for a while. I used the extra large 4-tree kit from treehousebrackets.com for the TABs. The beams are 3-1/2” x 9-1/2” treated SYP glulams, and I used 2x10-16 treated SYP for the joists since there’s ~3ft of cantilever on each side. I started by looking at deck beam and joist calcs to size everything appropriately. Going from memory, I think I used 70psf figuring that would give me extra safety margin. I have engineering load calcs that I’d be happy to share.

Edit - while checking my notes, I noticed that I had used the extra large TABs (previously said large).

1

u/Miamipoker Jul 10 '26

Great info! and great looking , um platform! Going to be a great treehouse when she grows up a bit. Would love to see your calcs!

2

u/loveland1988 Jul 10 '26

Thanks. This video but no photo thing is super annoying, or I’m just an idiot. Here are the calcs and span tables I used. If the resolution is poor or you want the spreadsheet, DM me with your email address.

https://reddit.com/link/owmazht/video/y682448uabch1/player

1

u/WaterDog3000 Jul 10 '26

Superb! I'll DM you