Awesome! I'm pretty sure that's built better than this house and it's about 100x better than our big outbuilding.
It's built better than my own house too Christine Other than the siding and window frames, there's not a nail in the entire structure; every single piece is glued and screwed together.
The tree house is amazing, but the memories built are priceless. Father of the year material right there! Well done.
Fletch, that's why the pic with both my Dad and boys in it is so meaningful... Three generations getting together one day to work on a project that could potentially last three more generations.
The last step in Phase I of my project was to build a bridge across the creek separating the corner of our property from the main yard our house was on; I wanted to use it to hide the conduit I wanted to run beneath it to get my electric across. I thought this was going to be a simple task, and didn't even start it until a month or so ago... Boy, was I wrong. I have ZERO background in physics, mechanical engineering, advanced math ... zilch. My degrees are in journalism and English. I chose them to avoid such subjects. I started with the idea of connecting my 6x6 posts with chain, and laying planking across those. I could drill a hole down between the links and secure with bolts and washers beneath the bridge. When I got half my planks installed, my connecting hardware all started failing. It was zinc-plated at first. I stepped up to stainless steel; it failed as well. I eventually had to move to forged everything... but now my connecting hardware was too big to connect the 1/4" chain I had. I moved to 3/8" galvenized cable, with hardware that was rated for a minimum of 4,500 lbs of load limit. It held, but this time when I got half my planking installed my posts started pulling inward. I dug out everything and poured more concrete... it failed again. Finally, I dug a six-foot wide, two-foot thick concrete wall that was four feet deep (I dug the hole 5' deep but left room to cover the wall with a foot of dirt) and filled it with 4,500 lbs of concrete and over 200' of rebar. I sank two forged bolts within that which would withstand 10,000 lbs of side working pressure which I ordered in from Virginia, the only place in the country which carried such bolts. I bought three at once, using two in the concrete wall and the third as another TAB of sorts in a 3'-diameter tree on the other side of the bridge to anchor another support post. I removed and repoured my 6x6 posts yet again, placing one in 1,000 lbs of concrete and the other in 1,200 lbs. Combined with the wall anchoring that end, there's almost 7,000 lbs. of concrete anchoring it in place -- all carried over 60-lb. bag at a time and mixed in a wheelbarrow. It was a good core workout those couple days. A view of the bridge from the treehouse. The board lying on the ground is just there because of all the people coming through during our "reveal" party. It rained all day long, and the ground was muddy: A closeup of the bridge. It's 34' from first to last plank: My youngest holding up one of the two bolts before sinking them in the concrete: All the concrete bags are carried over and stacked, and the rebar is wired together and lowered in the hole: This was a long day creating the wall because I wanted it all poured at once, so it would dry all at once. The fact I had to do it across the creek by hand in a wheelbarrow made it fun. It's six foot wide, two foot thick and four foot deep: 4,500 lbs. The two trenches going back are for the cables coming from my 6x6 posts to anchor it to the bolts sank in concrete. It's all underground so no one trips over the guy wires, and people can come off the bridge and make an immediate right to go to the treehouse. The third bolt going into the tree at the top of the creek which we anchored the opposite post to. I was able to drill through a small tree about 10" in diameter and use it for the fourth post: Building the treehouse was fun... The bridge? Maybe the first or second try. I was pretty frustrated by the end ... but like the treehouse, it'll now hold as many people that care to be on it at once. The weakest component of the system is rated to almost 4,000 lbs and I doubt that many people can even fit on it within its 34' span.
Dude, that is friggin AMAZING!! Glad you brought this to my attention. God willing, I'll have something similar one of these days!
