Treehouse Platform

Always thought it'd be fun to have a treehouse. I also thought it'd be a cool place for my kids to go and brainstorm ideas for creative writing projects or art ideas when they're a bit older and need a place they can unplug from the world and just think quietly. I'm also looking forward to camping out up on the platform some night and hearing owls!

It's a deck suspended between an oak tree and a hickory tree in our yard. I followed the general instructions and used hardware from Nelson Treehouse (https://nelsontreehouse.com/ ). They have plans for many different layouts, but given the trees available in our yard and my lack of experience in building treehouses (or anything), I went for their simple 2-tree design. The design calls for a yoke to be attached to each of the two trees, facing each other. Then beams are placed on the yokes. A joist structure is built on the beams, and then deck boards are screwed down to the joists. I added a cargo net and playground handles for the kids to climb up to reach the platform. Finally, I added some posts and cable railings. Thanks to... My dad who helped me build the yokes and beams. My wife, kids, sister-in-law, and nieces all helped with the painting (one of my least favorite jobs!). Ben loaned me his high-powered drill, without which, I couldn't install the tree attachment bolts.

1. My regular drill was not sufficient to bore out the holes you need for the tree attachment bolts. The tree attachment bolts I used have a 2" boss that needs to go 3" into the tree (https://store.beinatree.com/collections/diy-hardware/products/diy-tab). So I needed to borrow a much more powerful drill. 2. I should have asked for help getting the beams up into place -- they were almost 200 lbs. each and the lift to get them into place was awkward and physically painful. 3. Make sure your tree attachment bolt holes are both going to fit neatly into the center of the tree before you drill either of them. The design I used required two tree attachment bolts per tree and they should be exactly aligned vertically. I just assumed that one of the trees was growing straight up from the earth, but its very slight lean caused a bit of a problem with a slightly tilted yoke and a less-than-ideal fix.