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Big, Bad Treehouse

Bad picture of me cause I was wearing my baggy jeans, but it shows the baby wrap pretty well.

2011-09-04_vacuuming.jpg
 
Re: tree sway, 2 questions come to mind looking at this pic:
tzrider said:
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Is there enough room for movement in the plane of the stairs (if the tree sways in to the stairs specifically). The top of the steps looks almost touching the platform.

Also, do you think there's enough slack in the bridge and handrails if the trees sway in opposite directions?

Pretty thick trees and not too terribly high up, so they probably won't sway that much I guess.
 
Traq, as usual, you've got great questions.

Traq said:
Re: tree sway, 2 questions come to mind looking at this pic:


Is there enough room for movement in the plane of the stairs (if the tree sways in to the stairs specifically). The top of the steps looks almost touching the platform.
Click to expand...

There is room for about two inches of movement in any direction at the coupling. It's hard to say if this is enough, but as you point out below, the trees are stout and the structures aren't very high as a percentage of the trees' height. From what I have observed over time, I think this is enough clearance, but don't know for sure.

It would have been better to have a design that allowed for more movement, but there were some other constraints, like not allowing gaps to open and close where people might get pinched if they placed a body part in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Along the line of that concern, the top step will not be attached to the stair stringers, but will be attached to the deck instead. It will cantilever over the stringer and also rest upon the top portion of the stringer. This should allow the stringers to move under that stair tread without there being places to get pinched.

The direction you mentioned specifically -- the tree swaying towards the stairs -- is my biggest concern too. It not only has limited movement, but is the most rigid, if the two surfaces were to collide. In the other direction there is more clearance and side to side, the stair can flex. This may be mitigated by the fact that we seldom get wind directly out of the north or south, which is the axis the tree would have to sway on to make head on contact with the stairs.

In the end, I have based my guesses on a finger in the wind, so to speak, and we'll see how my bet pays off.

Traq said:
Also, do you think there's enough slack in the bridge and handrails if the trees sway in opposite directions?

Pretty thick trees and not too terribly high up, so they probably won't sway that much I guess.
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The slack in the bridge allows about four inches of movement before it comes tight. Once tight, there is some lateral flex in the main platform that might comfortably give another couple of inches. I could increase the slack, but am trying to strike a balance between enough slack to accommodate movement and not so much that the sag in the bridge freaks people out. Because the span is short, it doesn't take much extra slack to result in a lot of sag.

While four inches is more than the two that the stairs have, this coupling has the possibility of both trees moving out of phase with respect to one another. If I've guessed correctly that each tree will move no more than two inches at this height, all will be well. If I'm wrong, it will be interesting to see what I find next spring, as the most viscous winds we get there are in the winter.
 
wow...so when are you installing the AC and cable?
That's a house with a tree in it.
The staircase makes going up the tree house way too easy
 
tzrider said:
The direction you mentioned specifically -- the tree swaying towards the stairs -- is my biggest concern too. It not only has limited movement, but is the most rigid, if the two surfaces were to collide. In the other direction there is more clearance and side to side, the stair can flex. This may be mitigated by the fact that we seldom get wind directly out of the north or south, which is the axis the tree would have to sway on to make head on contact with the stairs.
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You could always slot the bolted connections at the lower stair platform to give it a couple more inches of movement in that direction specifically. Probably not necessary from what you've said though.
 
^^^ :laughing

Dale and I were talking about that the other day. I do have to admit that some of what you see now wasn't in my original plan for this year. We had talked about the second platform and a bridge "at some point," but once everyone saw how high the first platform was and experienced trying to climb the ladder, my wife asked if I could build a staircase instead. It was a more reasonable proposition if the staircase started farther uphill, so you can see what developed.
 
Traq said:
Pretty thick trees and not too terribly high up, so they probably won't sway that much I guess.[/QUOTE It's the thick smaller tree's, and general "ladder fuel", that scares me. Not knowing all the factors, but lightning started fires, are no joke, in places that look like that.
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