It's a well known fact that people with beards know more about building treehouses than those
without.
So before we get started let's take care of first things first.
There, that's better.
There's something about a treehouse that sparks within us a sense of adventure.
Being in the trees, connected to nature in a way that only a treehouse can, it’s a
delightful feeling that we can all relate to.
Most children dream of having their own treehouse and if we're honest many of us don't outgrow
that dream.
Putting all the concepts and pieces together to build your own can be a daunting task.
But thanks to the modern treehouse movement there's never been a better time to build
a treehouse.
In this video series we'll go through the most important elements of building a treehouse
that's safe for your family and the trees.
From the hardware, to special techniques, and lessons learned, we'll show you how to
bring it all together to make your dream a reality.
I'm not taking credit for any of these ideas but rather am just consolidating all the information
I've learned over the years of planning to build my own treehouse.
Most of what I learned came from two sources.
Pete Nelson’s Treehouse Masters and Nelson Treehouse and Supply and Treehouses.com, home
of one of the pioneers of treehouse building Michael Garnier.
I'm not affiliated or sponsored by either of these companies but have benefited greatly
by all the information they've made available as well as personal advice I've received from
them along the way.
For this first video in the series we're going to look at the most important aspect, how
you connect your structure to the trees.
If you only get one thing out of these videos, let it be this.
You need to use specialized hardware to connect to the trees and not lag bolts, screws, or
nails.
This hardware is known as a treehouse attachment bolt, or TAB for short.
They’re also called GLs for Garnier Limb, named after one of the main creators Michael
Garnier.
I’ll use those two terms interchangeably throughout these videos.
These bolts can hold more than twice the weight of a Lag bolt and are safer for the trees
as well.
At first glance these bolts look massive and they are.
The standard size TAB consists of a 1” main section and a 3” collar known as the boss.
The surface area of this boss is one of the main reasons the TAB is so strong.
Consider a 1” lag bolt installed in a tree with a downward load.
The main two points of force and located at the end of the bolt and where the bolt exits
the tree.
You have a pretty small surface to bear the weight of that load.
With a TAB however there’s a lot more surfaces making contact with the tree.
You still have the same surface at the end of the bolt, but you now have a much larger
portion where the bolt exits the tree.
Not to mention you also have the back surface area of the boss applying pressure inward
on the tree as well.
They’ve also reduced the weakness of a threaded rod in sheer by flaring out the bolt just
before it transitions to the boss.
If you’re thinking you can substitute using a TAB by using a lag bolt then check out this
video of someone who tried just that and learned the hard way.
This design has been perfected over the years and is what most professional treehouse builders
are using today.
There are some slight variations on this design depending on your trees and your structure
but for my purposes I went with the standard GL.
Another benefit of the TAB is it allows you to perch your supporting beams on this artificial
limb you’ve created versus pinning your beams directly to the tree.
As a kid you might have taken a board and nailed it into a tree with a few nails to
create a treehouse.
As an adult you decide to strengthen this design by installing multiple lag bolts.
There are a few problems with this design though.
First the board is pinned against the tree, blocking airflow and creating an opportunity
for disease and infection.
Secondly, the tree may treat each of these lag bolts as a separate wound and end up killing
off a large section of the tree.
With a TAB you have only one wound which the tree can easily react to and support.
The beams are kept away from the tree allowing for proper airflow.
Over time the tree will grow around the TAB engulfing it and making it even stronger.
To perch your beams on the TABs you’ll need some brackets and there are a few different
types.
The two primary types are a fixed, static bracket and a sliding, dynamic bracket.
The fixed bracket attaches your beam statically to the TAB.
Meaning when the tree moves so will your beam.
The second bracket allows the tree to move independently of your treehouse in all directions.
A crucial element to supporting a treehouse is tree movement.
If you fix your beams to two or more trees then the movement of those trees during a
strong wind will rip your treehouse apart.
The average treehouse isn’t more than 10-15’ off the ground and the trees don’t move
very much at that height.
However, the small amount they do move is extremely powerful.
Consider a car jack.
The end of the handle moves a great deal with very little effort exerted.
The other end moves a much smaller amount and is able to produce a lot more force because
of the leverage gained by the jack handle.
The same concept applies to the trees but at a much greater magnitude.
You must design your structure to allow for this tree movement.
I’ll cover this in more detail in a later video in the series.
Now that you’re convinced you need specialized hardware, how do you get this hardware in
the trees.
With a specialized drill bit of course.
You could use multiple drill bits and manually create the hole for your TAB, but it makes
a lot more sense to use a drill bit that handles all three dimensions of the TAB at once.
I bought all the hardware for my treehouse and rented the bit at the time of the build,
but Treehouses.com was kind enough to loan me the GL you saw earlier as well as this
drill bit for the purposes of this video.
These drill bits are very expensive and unless you’re going to build more than one treehouse
you’d be better off renting it from them.
This drill bit will take care of the 1” portion, the flare between the two sections,
and the 3” boss.
You will need an incredibly strong drill to turn this bit though.
A right angle drill similar to a Milwaukee Hole Hawg works best.
You can rent these from some rental companies and if you know a plumber or an electrician
they may have one you can borrow.
If they don’t warn you that the drill can break your wrists, then it probably isn’t
strong enough.
When drilling for the GL be patience and take your time.
Keeping your drill level and perpendicular to the tree is crucial.
Clearing out the shavings on a regular basis helps a lot as well.
Once your hole is drilled you’ll start your GL by hand and quickly switch to a pipe wrench.
It’s helpful to have someone on the ground with a rope connected to the end of the pipe
wrench to help with the effort.
You’ll feel the GL bottom out when the boss hits the tree in the back of the hole.
There’s a lot more to be known about installing TABs but I was purposely vague since the experts
already have a lot of great videos on this subject.
Click the i or check the description below to see those.
This concludes our first treehouse video.
Be sure to click subscribe so you don’t miss out on the other videos in the series.
There’s more helpful tips and tricks to come.
If you have any questions I didn’t cover leave those in the comments.
If you’ve enjoyed this video or found it helpful please give it a thumbs up.
And as always, thanks for watching.