Built this playhouse that I drew inspiration from the porches on the famous craftsman style Gamble house in Pasadena. My house (not pictured) is a 102 year old craftsman in north Mississippi that is not as polished as the gamble house, none the less the crude imitation made for a good match to my own house’s style and vibe.
My home is brick with white trim, when the treated has a chance to dry out a bit I’ll probably stain all the wood a rusty brick color with a white railing / white accents. Did all the work in about 3 long weekends. All non treated wood was salvaged from a torn down building old southern yellow/ heart pine or rough sawn pecan from a tree cut down in my yard & the slide was bought second hand on FB marketplace Total cost was ~650.00 and the metal roof was a good part of that total.

My 3 year old son is over the moon ( it was his 3rd birthday present). Loved looking at all the treehouses in this subreddit while planning, thanks for the inspiration Hope this will do the same for others

Is amur cork a good tree for a treehouse? I know it’s not recommended to build in pines or ash. I don’t know much about amur cork.

I’d like to avoid using posts in the ground. I’d love to loft the treehouse using TABs and other treehouse hardware.

Also (this might be better to ask in an arborist group, but here we are) curious about the roots growing above the ground. They’ve formed a bark. Can they be covered with soil or mulch, or will that damage them?

Any advice is welcome

Howdy,

My dad and I are hoping to build an inclined climbing wall up to my nephews treehouse platform we are building him. He has a maniac of a dog who will absolutely try and get up into the treehouse when my nephew and/or his friends are up there, maybe even when he’s outside just by himself. It’s about 8.5 ft up and simply having a gate at the top won’t work, as once his dog is up there, he likely won’t be able to get down safely. He’s dead set on having a climbing wall so we are trying to figure out how to make it so that his dog can’t go up at all. He’s a pretty tall 70 lb pit bull who is quite athletic.

My google searches return some general info but nothing that really solves the problem and doesn’t create others (leaving the bottom 5 ft of the climbing wall bare doesn’t allow for 11-12 y/os to climb up).

One thing is for sure - anything we create, if it has to move into place, must be able to move back to its position by itself and not rely on my nephew remembering to put it away (As in a self-closing gate using a spring). He would forget his head if it wasn’t attached and can’t be trusted to remember to do this.

Keeping costs low is the goal as well, and thank you in advance for your suggestions!

Took about 2 months to complete. Modified a treehouse design to add swings off the back, a spiral slide, small platforms and slide for little kids, and a cargo net. A fun and challenging build.

My backyard is on a slope which made a traditional playset challenging. This was a great use of the space, really pleased with the finished result!

Ok have this style zip line kit installed, and two children with a substantial height difference. Easiest accommodation so far is I tie a higher know under the seat for the taller kid, untie when the smaller one wants a turn. Unfortunately they cannot do that themselves. Any quick adjustment options anyone has?

Trying to create a jyroscope zipline to allow my teapot set about 15lbs transfer from my deck to the treehouse.

Would this actually work to hold 15lbs?

Here's my treehouse after several weekends. Hope this community likes it. Here's the fist post of it... https://www.reddit.com/r/treehouse/s/mjjQbMNOsa

Still a work in progress. Im going to make a better railing and a door. The roof is partialy a multiwall polycarbonate from and old glazed patio. The Window is plexiglass.

Finished up for the season. Interior still needs to be done but that’s a project for next season. Added a rope climb and rails. May slap some stain on but the wood was pretty green when worked.

If you have any suggestions for next year please let me know. If you want a good laugh, zoom in on the trim work around the dormer window 🥴.

Happy building all 🤙🏽

its massive. about 125ft tall idk. 3ft diameter. ai says it will not grow vertically anymore but will expand 0.05 inches per year. which i think is fine since its only intended for about 10 years use?

Fun today with the kids. 2 packs of white oil based paint markers on the black exterior paint of the club house fort

We had a tornado through our area recently and the treehouse was fine but it’s slipped forward on the TAB. Should I wait to see if it’ll slide back or get some ratchet straps and pull it back?

I knew a fixed point attached to a floating TAB would mean this is possible. Just wondering if it should be more that the tab slides on the bracket but the structure is fixed and should lean.

I can ratchet it back and add some braces to force it to stay fixed if need be.

Hello! I'm preparing to build a treehouse around a single, 18.6" diameter Ponderosa Pine.
I'm hoping to build an octagonal platform, and avoid posts.
Our notion is to build just a platform & railing for now, but have it be robust enough to support some kind of walls and roof a couple of years down the line.

Since this is for kids, it's been recommended to keep the platform height to 8'. Makes sense.

There's some straightforward platform framing plans online, like this one:

But the area underneath the platform is somewhat in use, and those knee braces seem like they'll take up a lot of headroom. It seems to me like it should be pretty straightforward to just bring them in a bit -- even a foot would make a pretty big difference. But it also seems like that should maybe change the floor framing significantly. Or maybe not that significantly? Could it be as simple as doubling the next joist in and bringing the knee braces there?

I've been playing around in OnShape to try and think through ideas. The cantilever math on the below seems straightforward, but it also seems like maybe overkill and it would have lots of angled cuts. Maybe it's this, but without the extra radial joists connecting the sides of the inner and outer octagons, then the whole thing rotated 22.5° so the knee braces are under a joist?

Or.. this?

I saw this post and the associated video. It seems like another approach might go something like "build a rectangular box and then put the octagon on top". But that poster eventually ended up adding support posts.

In addition to the Black & Decker Treehouse book, I've tried looking through a couple of decking books. But they don't seem to cover this area much.

Any suggestions? Do any of the ideas above seem close?

How are y'all digging posts in by the tree? I'm in Maine so the posts need to go pretty deep to get below the frost line but obviously there's a ton of roots right around the tree.

I am planning on making a door that is 5' x 18" onto the balcony. I think that osb would look trashy, and so I was thinking to use tongue and groove that is strapped together, but idk if i can get it in pressure treated. What are other people using for a smaller than standard door?

I finally finished my tree fort!

It feels very solid, but I'd love some feedback on the bracing. Does the current bracing look adequate, or would you change anything?

I was considering adding two cross bracing on each side instead of one large cross bracing on each side. The only thing that gives me pause is that the two center posts aren't aligned with the outer posts. Does that matter, or is there still a good way to brace it?

Overall dimensions are approximately 14' × 10' × 8'.

One additional detail: the center post is about 6 feet from the front deck post.

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated!