Construction tutorial - Examples

Four trees

Building a treehouse that can accommodate movement in four trees is quite difficult. The hardest way to go about things is to use a bracket system such as that shown in the diagram on the right.

A cable system could work in combination with a couple of metal brackets to take the best from both worlds. Remember that brackets are good for stability, and cables are good for awkward trees and points that move around a lot. Don't let things get too complicated or you increase the likely amount of maintenance further down the line. You may also decide to avoid one or more of the trees and opt for a simpler support method instead.

Bracket system explanation

In the bracket system (left) the main floor is a rigid frame of joists, reinforced with a diagonal brace. The beam spanning the gap between the right hand trees is underneath the two 'arms' that extend from the support. This allows the framework to take up movement from left to right (in the diagram). For movement in the up and down plane, each main beam has one end fixed to a tree, and the other end in a bracket, allowing the trees to move independently. Altogether, this combination of flexible joints allows the framework to stay a fixed shape, but still move around with the trees.