Step 0: convince wife I need $10,000 worth of tools before I can build her a proper chicken coop (see recent chicken coop tour video), then rally kiddos to petition for epic treehouse. 😉

haha, most important four holes of the entire project!

Each joist is 16 feet long and made from 1.5” x 9.5” treated pine. The joist is bolted to one tribeam with angle iron that I have cut, drilled, and painted to make brackets. On the opposite tribeam the joist is allowed to move. This will help the longevity of the platform by allowing the trees to move freely while not stressing the platform. The free-floating end is a pretty neat system. 1/2”thick UHMW polyethylene is used to decrease friction and resist wear on the 4x6” support beam. Angle iron is again used, but this time as a guide. There is no wood on wood or metal on wood in this system; only polyethylene rubs against wood or metal. For more pictures I used #wiltziustreehouse on Instagram to tag 100 updates on the build. Hope this helps!

Thanks! There will be at least two more videos with the cat in this build!

There are many reasons to ‘need’ a bunch of tools… that’s why I built my wife a chicken coop first 😉

Yes and no… the floor joists extend under the treehouse and the deck and have to be treated in order to fulfill both tasks. The interior of the treehouse is all rough sawn that I milled and I much preferred the look/smell/feel of non-pressure treated lumber here.

Thanks! I ordered TABs and brackets from www.treehouseparts.com

....thanks for sharing, and again, your approach is simple and very creative!

I used a laser for alignment - this allowed me to drill in line with the laser beam (I had a mark - probably not visible in the video - on the back of the drill to mark center of the bit). The inside bolt (between the trees) was easy. For the outside bolt I set up the laser a ways away and set the beam to kiss the left edge of each tree, measured the offset from the inside bolt tree, then repositioned the laser unit that measurement and centered it on the outside bolt tree. The whole process was time consuming and tedious but exact. This is also one of those cases where close enough is OK - only one beam is bolted to the platform and the other moves freely. Level tri-beams are a must, parallel is simply visually pleasing.

@@samuelwiltzius got it, that makes sense. Appreciate it man!

Thanks! Given the length of the span and the joinery and brackets, 4x4 is plenty strong in my case. Wood is very strong under compression. We get some fierce wind in winter and kids put plenty of stress jumping around the net and I see no warning signs that 4x4 is not enough. Of coarse, if you use different joinery and brackets use your best judgement.

Thanks for the quick response. I am going to have brackets very similar to what you used fabricated. I am pretty solid carpenter, but nowhere near the level of detail you take it to. I really enjoyed watching the video and the level of detail you go do recessing the UHMW sheets and such. Keep up the great work.

The angled brackets are to attach the floor joist to one side permanently (one per joist) and on the free-moving side, to keep everything in position while it moves with the breeze I went with one on each side the joist on either side of the tree (2 per joist) and then one on the outside of the outside joists - I used up the metal I had and so far looks good.

TABs allow movement of the platform along them on eachside, why adding free movement of the joists on one side?

Thanks! The tree attachment bolts (TABs) are designed to accommodate tree growth and not harm the tree.

Actually yes; as the trees grows I can shift the platform to accommodate the growth and keep my beams from being swallowed by the tree.

@@samuelwiltzius awesome...makes perfect sense!!

The TAB is specialized for this purpose. I believe by having three concentric holes and the boss of the TAB snugged down it is stronger than going through the tree because the risk of splitting the trunk is lower when stressed by wind or motion.

Very little. Only the outside layer of the tree is alive, the inside is in a sort of preserved state, protected by the bark. As long as the tree is not split or cracked and the bolt is tightened appropriately there is no loss of strength to the tree. To get a bit more technical; the boss on the TAB has about a 3" diameter and the tree has about a 45" circumference. If unrolled this is a 45" wide living path up and down thee tree - called the cambium. The TAB only interferes with 6-7% of this path and is well within the ability of the tree to compensate and remain completely unaffected from root to leaf.

I used the standard size “Garnier Limb” on the net and the 18” GL for the platform.

This gives me the easiest option for accommodating tree growth - if all is well in 10-20 years and the tree grows I can slide the whole structure a few inches in the same direction without having to change attachment points of the truss to the platform.

There is separation between the structure and the trees, future videos will show how this was done... I'm a better wood worker than video editor so thank you for your patience!

Each bolt, 18" Garnier Limb, was $100 a piece (4 used). Additionally, each beam bracket (2 total) was $60 and one half of the double knee brace (4 total) was $80.

@@samuelwiltzius Where do you buy? The last bolts I bought were $250 each but they are the biggest out from what I was told. Potential 10,000 lb limit per bolt.

@@brianpowell4275 I purchased mine from www.treehouseparts.com - I also looked at Nelson Treehouse for parts before buying the Garnier Limbs.

@@brianpowell4275 Rich man's treehouse. I would make one out of cheap lag bolts and 2x4s if I wasn't actually making a house in a tree.

I have a playlist here kzfaq.info/sun/PLpwMi4wISEYZ9d0-slHvembT7pkeaf5u8

I’ve trained these trees to stay level 😉

Understand the initial concerns BUT healthy trees cn easily handle this. There are too many long term practical examples of treehouses that provenzalisches this;) best attachment technique for heavy treehouses since 25 years now

It’s now survived three windstorms without issue. Careful design has allowed it to move with the trees - it should last a long time