tree house/ platform suspension techniques

[Dean O]

What would be the best way to suspend a tree house/ platform in a tree.

 

I was considering a cable brace style of support - rather than drilling for eyebolts.

 

but weighing up the pros of not drilling against the pressure of the suspension of the platform weight on the cambium has left me wondering what would be less harmfull.

 

any thoughts appreciated

 

Dean

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I would go for the drill option, these old style methods I have been removing from felled trees and have found them to be well occluded and not a problem with regards decay instigation, in fact the tree just seems to grow over them and make them stronger bonds.

[DrewB]

i recently stayed in a big tree house that had eye bolts and also had suspension sections. from purely looking at the limbs, the suspension option seemed to be choking the stems and being worse for the tree than the bolts.

[monkeybusiness]

Drill with stainless hardware ideally, and think about how you load your fixings (ie don't straight pull on coach screws as they will rip out, load them at 90 degrees). Also make sure you have decent distance between your fixings so the tree doesn't treat them as 1 wound and codit everything in between them (reducing the strength of the timber you need to hold your fixings). As Hama said, long term well placed drill fixings should get stronger as the tree grows around them.

Be clever with the amount of support you need - minimise the mounting points where possible to reduce damage to the tree and remember that trees move in every direction at the same time - don't try and rigidly secure 2 ends of a beam to separate parts of a tree (or trees) as it will probably fail. The tree will grow around drilled fixings, but make sure you don't choke the tree with ropes etc, and allow space around trunks and branches for decking/roof structures (can be sealed with neoprene) as tree growth will damage these.

Cobra etc are great for tree bracing but I personally wouldn't try to amalgamate them into treehouse builds - use steel cable with wire rope grips and either eye bolts or threaded bar all the way through the tree with eye nuts. I have seen Cobra/Boa work loose, and I wouldn't want to be near/on a treehouse supported by that!

Get it built and show us some photos!!!

[DrewB]

this is where i stayed for a couple of days. zipline down to the kitchen in thmorning which was a converted shipping container. Custom Treehouses

[gibbon]

For temporary platforms a suspended cable system on slings and wire rope works well, you can always use untreated timber or pieces of tyre to spread the load where the platform contacts the tree. For a permanent fixture bolts would be better.

 

For the tree house can you build off a timber sub-frame? You will probably get a much stronger tree house that can support a bigger load this way.