Plywood does not normally look attractive, so wooden cladding boards may be better. It is also very strong due to the alternate direction of the veneers that it is made up of. I use plywood for the walls because it is available in large sheets which can be cut to size with a jigsaw. Treehouse books that will give you inspiration for the look of your treehouse and help complete your plans.This lets you use a house building book to help with the design of your treehouse. Since the frame is built on a flat wooden surface, rules as to its construction are exactly the same as for any ground based wooden house. This creates a very strong and rigid frame before you have even added the walls. However, you may want to cut holes in the floor and attach the uprights of the frame directly to the floor supports. The walls add lots of bracing and will make the frame rigid when they are fitted. This forms a strong joint but it will still be able to move until you put your walls on. I normally use brackets to screw the uprights of the frame to the floor. So long as the floor is big enough, you can make the frame any shape you like and then fasten it to the floor. It is much easier to work when you don't have to worry about falling out of a tree! I always find that pieces of wood that I cut and join together in the treehouse are not as square or accurate. That way you can use vices and power tools in your workshop. It is definitely better to pre-fabricate the frame, or at least parts of it, on the ground. Your plans need to show the height of the treehouse and where you are going to have to deal with obstructions like branches or a curving tree trunk.

Finishing touches Framing the structureĪt this stage you should have a good set of plans to show all parts of the treehouse above floor level.By now you should have a pretty clear idea of how the treehouse should look in the tree, with plans drawn up to guide the build and prepare materials. The actual construction is similar to how you might make a ground based house or playhouse now that you have a solid wooden floor, so you can borrow techniques from other walks of architecture to make your design work. Occasionally this isn't practical, as will be discussed later. The supports should take care of all the tree movement. This prevents the build-up of stresses from parts of the tree moving in different directions. The treehouse should be entirely supported from the floor, with no contact with the rest of the tree. Once the floor is in place and you are convinced everything is secure, you can begin the building of the house itself on top.

Treehouse roof around tree