Choosing the Best Tree House Tree

The tips and other information we offer here is not intended as a comprehensive guide to building a tree house, but a guide on how to choose the best tree for your tree house. It does, however, address the most common concerns of anyone contemplating or planning to build a tree house and how to choose the best tree for building a tree house in.

Tree houses have been around for a long, long time. Many of us have memories of almost magical times spent in tree houses while growing up. Later in our lives, some of us have even lived in them.

Trees grow and move throughout their lives. Like humans, trees can be healthy or riddled with disease. And, also like humans, it is not always easy to know if a tree is healthy or ill. Never forget that they are alive. Almost any tree that is healthy, mature and sturdy is fine to build a tree house in, but there are some things to look for in particular when you’re assessing one and thinking about building on and in one.

 Here are some tips on how to go about picking a suitable tree:

• How do you know if a tree is healthy or not?
  Some signs of disease are: spotty presence of leaves on branches especially near the ends of branches,faded or discolored leaves on branches, sap or other liquid coming from gaps in tree bark or through tree bark itself.

• When you should call in a professional arborist?
  When you are deciding whether or not a tree would be a good one to build a house on, keep in mind that signs of disease or damage to a tree do not necessarily mean the tree is not capable of supporting a structure. You should have such signs in a tree assessed by a professional arborist before you build on such a tree. A professional arborist’s assessment could save you a lot of time and money, and even protect you and your family from injury.

• What species of trees are good to use?
  Some particularly popular, durable, and abundant species used for tree houses are oak, maple, ash, cedar, and Douglas Fir. Deciduous, leaf-bearing trees generally have denser wood, denser is better than conifers, with cones and needles. Deciduous trees are able to support heavier loads, both wind loads and the load from the tree house itself.

• Assessing the tree’s environment
  Don’t forget to also assess the environment of a tree that you would like to build on and in. As stationary as trees are, and as invisible as much of trees are, we often forget that the good health of a tree is dependent on the quality and consistency of the tree’s environment, including and especially its underground environment. Trees are, in some respects, are very responsive and even highly vulnerable to changes, changes that we humans are often little concerned about and hardly ever notice in trees.

• A tree’s underground environment is especially important
  A large part of your concern regarding a tree’s environment should be addressed to what is underground. Not many people realize just how far the roots of trees extend. Tree roots often extend as much as three times as far from the tree’s trunk as the tree’s branches do! Digging around a tree, or even daily foot traffic, can severely damage a tree’s roots and compromise the entire tree along with the safety of the tree house built on it. Paths should not be constructed near trees and especially not surrounding trees. The presence of any paths in proximity to the tree’s trunk should be kept to the minimum possible.

• What size tree you need?
  The size of the tree or trees you need depends on the size and weight of the tree house to be built, as well as on the planned position of the tree house on the tree, or trees.

• What kind of fasteners you should use
  Using bolts, nails and screws to build a tree house can cause problems for your trees if such fasteners are not correctly fastened in them. Bolts should be used as fasteners in preference to nails and screws whenever possible. Nails, especially, and even screws tend to loosen easily in living trees due to the almost constant movement of trees. Remember, trees are alive, and although they move very slowly, they are always moving.

Shed Windows and More has the best selection of tree house windows for the DIY builder at great prices. Be sure to share your finished tree house photos with us at Shed Windows and More, we enjoy seeing what you create. Remember the tree you choose to build your tree house in, is like the foundation of your house; think sturdy, that it will stand the test of time, and it has the strength to withstand children playing in the tree house for years.