Treehouse scaffolding challenge ! (1 Viewer)

teegee

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An unusual challenge for this forum?
Any help very gratefully received.

It comes down to this: how would you go about fixing a scaffolding pole to a tree, to get a permanent fix?
I am building a tree house in a tree which overhangs a pond. Yes yes, it's folly, but please bear with me.

I need to add some support to the relevant branch, and thus to the tree-house base. This will have to involve sitting some structural uprights on the bottom of the pond, then fixing them to the branch higher up.
Timber will rot (or, if treated, kill all the fish), so I plan to use (quite a few) scaffolding tubes instead.
They could stand on base plates on the bottom of the pond.
I would then fix them to a diagonal branch about 6 feet above the water.
The question is, what is the best way to fix the tubes to the branch. it needs to be a basically permanent, structurally sound fix.
The relevant branch is big (about 1m radius), and can very easily take very long screws/bolts.
Is there a scaffolding fitting which can be fixed to the tubes and also screwed into the branch, for a strong, permanent fix?
Or can you think of a better way of doing this ?
So there's the challenge!
What do you reckon ?
Cheers
 
Lash the tubes to the tree or build a frame underneath the branch to support it. Is this a wind up?
 
Definitely not a wind-up. I'm just an amateur.
You'd immediately understand the problem if you could see the location.
I need vertical supports which will stand in the water, then fix to the branch 6 ft above the water, then fix to the treehouse base a couple of feet higher than that.
The fix to the tree needs to be permanent, so I cant see that lashing the tubes to the branch would work.
Thanks very much for your input.
 
Lashing would work but when the branches grow it would drag the tubes with it.
Build a three or four legged frame under the branch to support it and fix these to your tree house.
 
I thought that the idea of a Tree House was that the tree could independently support the imposed load.

Swifty is right but you could also Box Tie around the branch in question.



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Can I just follow up your lashing suggestion. The problems I foresee are:
(1) I don't see how lashing a vertical pole to a side of a (near) horizontal branch can create a permanent fix; surely the tube will just slide vertically through the once there is weight on it?
(2) the rope will rot.
I've done a quick sketch to show the situation, but I don't think I can upload it?
 
Band and plate would screw into the tree.
I would tend to agree that the problems will come when the tree is growing and i also think this is a piiss take ;)
 
Box framework underneath & use 9 inch u-heads underneath branches as support ... Lift when needed + branches can grow & slid through progressive growth rate ... Good pi.s take ;)

---------- Post added at 03:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:44 PM ----------

Just branching out innit!
 
This post just goes to show how far Britain has sunk over the years. Does the nation that invented and engineered so many amazing things over the years and without whom the Industrial Revolution would probably never happened really have people who can't build a treehouse without having to ask questions about how to support a branch etc? A treehouse is exactly that an effing house in a tree.
If you can't build it in the tree using tree products such as wood and hemp lashing then don't build it at all.

---------- Post added at 02:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:45 PM ----------

And if you are thinking of making it permanent then make sure you get planning permission!
 
Form the original post, it's mentioned that this branch has a 1m radius. Thats a whopper! You could just put a shed on that and call it a day.
 
This is definitely not a **** take. I just want to build something, and scaffolding poles ought to be the answer for the particular situation, IF I can fix them to the branch (which, yes, is probably more like half a metre across).
Anyway, we are definitely making progress now.
I have learned some new insights into the Industrial Revolution, and it also seems that the answer to my original question is that each scaffolding pole could be fixed to the tree with a band and plate. I am presuming that this can be done laterally.
Shout if I'm wrong.
Thank you all for your input so far.
I am changing my profile / avatar picture thing to a diagram showing the problem. If you have brilliant eyesight or a very, very good magnifying glass, and are still interested, this may help clarify the issue.

(Incidentally, thanks even to the splendid man who seems to claim personal responsible for the Industrial Revolution and thinks I am a disgrace to British engineering! To him I say - you're right, of course, I have no engineering qualification, and nothing more relevant than a very ancient physics O-level, never deployed since. But I am at least imaginative enough to dare to dream that a scaffolding pole or two might reasonably be incorporated into a tree house ! I apologise if this offends by falling outside the limits of the great British engineering tradition. Somehow, though, I doubt that it does.)
 
Where are you based? Sounds like an interesting Saturday shift? Never mind the grumpy old man, he gets like that. He's old. :laugh:
 
I don't think you are a disgrace to British Engineering. I think you are a disgrace to the BATHS which is the British Association of Tree House Specialists. The British have been building and living in tree houses for thousands of years without ever having had to use a steel scaffolding pole.
 
HSWT - wind ur neck in & stpp acting like a know it all prick!!

Where abouts in hampshire are u & can you put a pic on here it may make for a better response. I love shiiit like this we did 1 for a m8 many years ago
But 4get about a base plate it wont work youd be better off with a 5' tube fixed @ 90dg about 1'from the bottom - this allows the tube to settle accross the base of the pond & use a screw u head to support the bough...but tbh u could prob do it all in timber, spuring or pulling back..keep us updated lol
 
What I was thinking about was the standards in the water. Surely the best course of action there would be to dam off the area, dig several feet into the bed, erect the standards and concrete them into place. Don't think floating a sole pad on the surface before spearing it to the depths would cut it.
 
All sized branches will always move in the wind so securing them to standards will invariably become loose during windy days, if the tree is big enough could it not be supported from higher up the tree and then tied back to strong lower branches like a cantilever drop. I don't think you'll ever get a standard to support the branch as you'll have a job to take the "belly out" to stop it floating.
If that makes sense, lol.
 
why not throw some wire slings over the branch,and do a slung scaffold,and go from there.
 
That's the thing, the tree is a living organism that's going to keep growing. I saw a picture in the paper once of a bike that had been rested against a tree years before and the tree grew around it, effectively eating it so that the bike was embedded in the trunk.
 
A 1m diameter branch? sling some hiltis into the coont and box tie around as an insurance. A 1m diameter branch is not going to change shape anytime soon...
 
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