Design

From tree to tree house - the tree house design and building process.

The first step in planning your treehouse is to acquire a vision. Tree houses can have different meanings to different people, so it is always ideal to start with a feeling that you want to have when you see and start enjoying your new tree house. Your vision will be the driving force behind planning, designing and building your tree house.

Once you have a vision for your treehouse, you need a list of requirements. What features and accessories does the tree house need to have? Will a ladder or a wheelchair accessible ramp work best? What size, shape, and color should it be? Should it be 5 feet or 50 feet off the ground? Take a look at pictures of tree houses and see which tree house accessories you like. Start brainstorming and write everything down. Take a look at our FAQ for a list of common questions on tree houses.

Along with your vision and requirements for your tree house project, you will need to select the most suitable location. This may involve the help of tree house experts such as arborists and planners who can assess the tree(s) health and suitability, while at the same time planning for safety, longevity, and maximum fulfillment of your vision and requirements. Taking the time up front to plan your tree house will save time when it comes to building your tree house.

Of course it's not necessary to go through all of these steps in this order, but if you don't know where to start planning for your tree house, this process will work. Once you have a basic idea of what you want your tree house to look like, it's time to consider tree house design and ultimately tree house construction.

Two Approaches to Tree House Design

Of the various schools of thought in tree house planning theory, perhaps the most environmentally friendly one is to start with the tree. Some even ask the tree for permission to build the tree house in a small ceremony before beginning construction. No matter how much of a personal connection you feel with your tree, it is alive and should be treated with utmost respect. The treehouse should be built in a natural way that flows with the structure of the tree, where loading is balanced over its base, and where the tree will be permitted to grow and move in the wind. Try to imagine a treehouse in the tree. What do the shape of the tree and the layout of branches suggest to you about the tree house design? How can the tree house design work around or incorporate existing branches rather than view them as obstacles to work around or cut off?

A "tree centric" tree house design approach should never be used as an excuse to skip proper design work. A complete tree house design should include the number and kind of tree house fasteners that will be used to support the treehouse, a close approximation of where the walls and roof will be in relation to major branches and trunks, and what sizes of lumber are necessary. Anything less than that minimum is unsafe and not acceptable; you are rolling the dice with the success of your tree house project. Why do we emphasize this? Let's just say that when tree house design work is done poorly, we are called in to fix things that would have been cheaper and better for the trees had they been designed and built right the first time. Let the tree be your guide, but don't just start nailing up boards before you have properly designed your tree house.

The other major approach to tree house design is to start with the project requirements. Who is the end user? Is it a "kids treehouse" or an adult treehouse? Is it for visitors to a township or state park? Is it a clubhouse for your kids and their friends in the neighborhood? Is it an office or a quiet place for you to read or watch birds? Is it where the guys go to play poker late at night? The first step is to create the tree house concept and a list of requirements. Then you can begin to find trees to put it in. If you take this approach to the extreme, you may find yourself trying to force your tree house requirements onto trees that are not suitable for that purpose. So of course, balance is necessary. Whether you start with the tree or whether you start with your requirements, good tree house planning overlays both perspectives equally which keeps both the trees and the end users happy in the end.

Choosing a Site: Where to Build your Tree House

If you have several areas with trees to choose from, then start by asking which part of the property is the best place for building tree houses. The suitability of the site must include consideration of the health of the trees and the impact that the environment and the treehouse will have on each other. Here are some things to consider:

Healthy Trees: The presence of a disease or an injury does not disqualify a tree as a location to build your tree house, but it might mean that the tree warrants further investigation and possible treatment before, during, or after building the treehouse.
Hardwood Trees: Modern professional tree house fasteners are so strong that they don't bend or break, but under high loads, they can still compress the wood tissue of the tree, which we call failure even though the treehouse may not appear to be sinking or falling from a distance. Because the crushing strength of the wood is the limiting factor, a hardwood tree like an oak, hickory, walnut, or cherry will support more than a pine, spruce, yellow poplar, cedar, or redwood. This doesn't mean you can't build your treehouse in a tulip poplar: it just means that you should choose the right tree house fasteners or perhaps design a lighter weight tree house or even just a tree platform.
Your Favorite Tree: Our favorite tree house consulting arborist likes to say that if you have a beautiful specimen tree that you love, don't build the treehouse in it; build the treehouse in the next tree over with a view of your favorite tree. It makes a lot of sense, when you think about it. Building tree houses and environmental side effects do damage and stress trees, no matter how much we work to minimize that damage, so perhaps for a kids treehouse with only a 15-20 year lifespan might be better put in some of your least favorite trees.
Environmental Impact: Your tree house is going to introduce several environmental changes that will affect your trees. Perhaps the most important to prevent is foot traffic. Foot traffic will compact soil and should be confined to a few well travelled paths if possible, with barriers and wood chips spread around if possible. Please remind children and guests that the tree is the giving host for their tree house and activities such as peeling bark, carving initials, smacking the tree with sticks, etc is not respectful or kind to the tree. Very large treehouses with roofs will redirect water away from the base of the tree. In extreme cases, we should consider a gutter system to catch roof water and spread it underneath.

Plan the Tree House Construction

Whether you are hiring Tree Top Builders to guide you through these planning steps or doing them yourself will depend on which version of our tree house design service you select. But this should give you an idea of what needs to happen to get started.

When you want to plan and design the tree house, the first step is to measure and map the trees. Mapping the trees is simply wrapping a measuring tape around the circumference of the tree and writing the number inside a small circle on a piece of paper. Repeat for all trees that could be close enough to be part of the tree house. Once you have all of these circles on the paper, start measuring the distances between each pair of trees and write them down. If the tree house has 4 trees, you need 6 measurements. If the tree house has 5 trees, then you may need 10 measurements. The measurements should ideally be taken at the desired floor for the tree house, but if that's high and you aren't comfortable on ladders, ask a friend, hire Tree Top Builders to come do it, or just measure at head height and make a note of it. Just to clarify, we want the measurement in between the trunks, so from the inside point to inside point. Once we finish the tree house site map, we can make copies and start to draw different suggestions for the tree house platform support and size to see which one best takes advantage of the trees' natural suggestions and best meets your requirements for the tree house.

The next step is making lists of all materials for building the treehouse from the professional grade tree house fasteners to the beams, joists, flooring, studs & sheathing, windows, siding, rafters, roofing, railings, stairs, and tree house accessories such as rope bridges, zip lines, and climbing walls, to name a few. We try to plan for some extra so that we don't run out, especially if the material is hard to acquire more of quickly, so as not to put the tree house project on hold. Some parts, such as long slides, nets, and high end windows, can take 1-3 months to make and ship, so that may impact the starting and finishing date for the tree house. Write all of that down in the plan.

Lastly, it is always a good idea to have a reasonable budget set aside, allowing for overages. Modern tree houses are not exactly what you built out of stolen lumber as a kid, and even if you are building a small kids tree house without our help, you should make sure that you can afford to finish the tree house once you start it, both in terms of your money for the materials and your time which is likely to be longer than you think... trust us on this one. If you are hiring us to design and build your tree house, this is the point where we give you a firm building quote or a time & materials based estimate for you to consider.

Tree House Design Service

You have three different levels of tree house design service to choose from when hiring Tree Top Builders. Of course any of the individual tree house design services may be performed ala carte, per your request. After reading through the options, please contact us and let us know how we can help you plan, design and/or build your treehouse.

Full Tree House Design Service: The highest level of design service for tree houses - best for commercial tree houses and elaborate or luxury residential tree houses.

Standard Tree House Design Services: A more thoroughly designed tree house at moderate cost. These often include custom residential tree houses with multiple tree house accessories.

Basic Tree House Design Services: The most affordable way to design your custom treehouse - great for basic or simple kids tree houses.

What do Tree House Design Services Cost?

You should be prepared for anything from "Free" to over $10,000 depending on what kind of tree house and what level of service. Your location matters if we and/or other professionals are going to visit your tree house site prior to construction. In general, please call for an estimate of which tree house design services will be necessary or recommended and what that will likely cost. If you are just interested in a kids tree house in your back yard, then you should expect much less than if it is a fully finished adults tree house with plumbing, electric, stereo system, hot tub, and water slide into your pool. You should expect that commercial tree houses will cost more to design and get approved than residential tree houses. Call us to discuss your tree house aspirations!