Treehouse Design (literally a small house in the trees)

[waytsh]

Hi All,

Just got a request from a client to provide some engineering on a treehouse from a treehouse company here in the States. Curious if any of you have ever worked on anything like this. Seems like a lot of risk for very little $. Obvious concerns are the fact that it is going to be supported off living, growing, moving trees. If any of you have been involved in a project like this what kind language did you use in your contract? How did the process go? Curious to hear your thoughts before I respectfully decline the project.

Thanks!

 

[MRob909]

This sounds pretty interesting!
It's not something I've put any formal design numbers to and would anticipate there to be a lot of nuance with the design approach. From memory, I've seen a TV or YT video showing the build of a large treehouse, they used special engineered bracketry to attach to the tree itself, something like these.

If it appeals to you, it would be worth a discussion with someone from the Company before you decline - at the least to understad their budget and see if you could upskill accordingly, it might be a nice specialism to be involved with going forwards.

 

[LittleInch]

So what exactly does the specialist company in tree house construction need?

If it involves more than one tree then clearly need to allow quite a lot of flexibility and room to adjust the connections on a regular basis

 

[KootK]

Were I in your shoes, I probably would turn this down. Lousy $$/risk ratio as you say. That, particularly for me as a sole practitioner.

Every couple of years, I have to fill out a form telling my insurer what kind of work I've been doing. I would not relish having to explain: 12% Tree Houses. Heck, my insurer isn't particularly fond of my doing regular houses. Insurers, like everyone, fear what they don't understand. I could see my insurer dealing with that buy just throwing money at the problem. My money.

The closest analog that I can think of where live trees get engineered and used structurally would be zip lines. And those are a bit easier because:

a) Not really any serviceability requirements and;

b) They have (or should have) routine inspection programs in effect.

For a treehouse, you'd almost want an arborist performing a similar function to a geotechnical engineer on a conventional project. Not that I foresee any arborists lining up to take structural responsibility for the trees. But I would think that a tree house inspection by an arborist at regular intervals would be prudent. Beyond that, I guess just keep th stresses vary low and set things up to minimize differential settlement potential.

 

[waytsh]

Looks like it would involve determining the climatic loading and sizing rafters, joists, carry beams, etc. I did run this by my insurer and as expected they were less than thrilled. Sounds like I may need to decline on that basis alone. It is a shame, would be fun to work on something a little different.

 

[dvd]

If you get involved in this project, this may be of interest -
Tree Anchorage & Root Strength Manual