Work / elevated-timber

Elevated timber structure

Film

Two-level timber platform built into a standing dead tree. Highest treehouse I've ever seen. A place to read and be offline.

Heights below are approximate, from the build, not a survey. No span ratings or structural calculations on this page.

Role: Design and build, mostly solo
Timeframe: Independent build
Stack: Steel brackets into the trunk, timber joists, boarded walls, roof membrane, hoist
Status: Built

Problem

A standing dead tree, tall enough that a deck in it is a long way off the ground, and nothing there to start from. I wanted a quiet place up in the canopy, offline, carried by the trunk rather than stood beside it.

What I Built

A two-level timber platform in the snag, mostly solo, from scratch. The deck is about 15–20 m up. Standing on the upper level, the working height is about 20–25 m. The load path is steel brackets into the trunk, then joists, two floors, and a hatch between them. Walls are boarded. The roof has a weatherproof membrane. A hoist and pulley lifted materials. A fold-down table on the upper deck makes the space livable.

Hard Part

Landing a straight frame on a trunk that is not straight, at height, mostly alone. A friend helped once, to bring the joists up. Every board still has to come up before it can be fixed, and each bracket has to actually bear. The dead wood is both the structure and the constraint. Making it secure was most of the work.

Result

Both levels are usable. The bottom floor is closed in enough to store things (pillows and the like) and to sit out of the weather. The upper floor came second: a comfortable place to sit and read.

Media

Raimon in sunglasses inside the timber structure, pointing at a wooden window frame

Standing dead tree with a two-level timber platform seen from the ground through spring branches — From the ground: both levels set into the standing dead tree, with a ladder at the base.

Galvanized steel bracket fixed to a tree trunk holding the end of a timber joist — Steel bracket bolted to the trunk, with a joist sitting in the shoe.

Person in a grey sweatshirt drilling timber against the trunk beside steel brackets and joists — Driving fixings at the trunk. Brackets and new joists on the level above the road.

Person fitting vertical timber boards on an elevated platform between two trunks — Boarding the upper wall. The top plate is tied back into the trunk with steel brackets.

Interior corner with reclaimed timber walls and a wooden window opening — Lower level: boarded walls in mixed timber and a window opening, trunk left in the corner.

Underside of an upper timber floor with joists and plywood — Joists and plywood under the upper floor, seen from the lower level next to the opening.

View down between timber levels past a boarded panel to a lower deck and the trunk — Looking down from the upper level past a boarded panel to the deck below.

Two-level timber structure built among dead tree trunks — Both levels from below: boarded enclosure and roof above, opening on the lower floor.

Fold-down wooden table hinged to a tongue-and-groove wall under a timber roof — Fold-down table on the upper wall, tongue-and-groove boards, and the roof soffit overhead.