Brandon Treehouse project

A Brandon resident asked Three Oaks Construction to build a treehouse for his nephews, nieces, and grandkids. After plenty of discussion, this is what we came up with.

Left to right: Kurtis O'Connell (Three Oaks Construction), Steve Fitzgerald (treehouse owner), and Nicholas Audet (Three Oaks Construction)

The Construction:

In order to construct the 13' x 15' rectangle deck, we began by building a large triangle platform, supported by the three oak trees that the homeowner had selected. One of the homeowner's stated goals was to minimize the amount of fasteners directly into the tree. One of our goals was to ensure that the trees did not pull the treehouse apart. To accomplish this, we created a bracket to allow the trees to move back and forth on the platform frame.

The initial platform.

Notice the brackets on the frame.

We added knee braces for an extra measure of protection.

When we framed the hut, we used the least amount of lumber possible in order to keep the whole structure as light as we could.

In addition to all the other safety measures, we added choke chains to the supports. In the rare event that a support should fail, the chains will allow plenty of time for any body to get off.

We used spruce siding to help keep the structure light.

The Features:

We finished the interior of the main hut with 1 x 8 tongue and groove pine, coated with Minwax polyurethane. The homeowner wanted the grandkids to be able to do a little work on it, so we left the casings unfinished and the tongue and groove is only partly nailed.

1 x 8 tongue and groove pine interior, finished with polyurethane

The owner also provided an eighty foot Alien Flyer zipline with a safety harness. We attached it to the deck and an outlying tree.

The treehouse featured an 80 foot zipline approximately 20 feet off the ground.