Just make sure you don’t injure to much bark on the tree. Generally, you can wound it and it can heal, but if an entire ring of bark is missing from a trunk, that’s tree death for sure.
So, if you are wrapping anything around a trunk, do everything you can to protect the bark. Missing bark = death, especially a full ring of damaged or missing bark, which is common when people try to attach structures to trunks.
Good luck. I’m jealous!
Be sure to use PVC (contrary to what Maryefoo said) so you won`t have to worry about bonding the metal pipe or the pipe becoming “hot” (electrically). And the 10/3 wire that you want to use is called UF cable (Underground Feeder). Make sure to leave enough slack in the line for tree growth.
The other stuff ** Nutmagnet** said is right on, especially the part about not bonding the sub-panel and installing the GFCI`s. He may have been an electrician in his previous life.
Belrix 220 volts is the voltage measured from one hot leg to the other. You still get 120 volts from hot to ground or hot to nuetral. So, a step down XFMR is not needed.
If you have any NEC code questions I have the NEC right in front of me. I would also be willing to help you figure out any other electrical problems you may come across. (IAAE)
Good luck. And remember to let the cat out of the washer before the wife gets home.
Philster - thats what the rubber bricks are for. Have you ever seen the rubber ‘barrels’ as I call them on dump-truck shocks? Really thick heavy duty rubber? I have ten of those. Elongated ones. 4x4X12 inches. They are attached to the tree by the weight of the floor frame. So that part doesn’t go into the tree. We do have two large eye screws in the tree. They are on opposite sides and go in about 4 inches. They are for tension support for the roof when we put it on. But essentiall that is the only thing going into the tree. Four 6x6 supports will extend down to the ground. Similar to this . Except there wil be no stairs and it is about ten feet higher. The stilts allow us to do the least amount of damage to the tree. Trust me I don’t want to harm the tree. It’s probably 250 years old. It’s close to 4 foot in diameter. For a white Oak thats huge. It really is the defining characteristic in my back yard.
Whuckfistle - We are using PVC for the UF cable. thats all set. He’s not going to work on the board until we have the walls up and roof. He’s bringing over the windows today (those were an arma and a leg) and we are assembling them on the ground.
And yes we will use the slack in the line for tree grouth.
One question. How many outlets to have when running 220v up there? It’s a 12x12 room
Phlosphr,
Where do you live? Are you treating the posts like any other deck posts would be treated…setting deep enough footings past the frost line?
Connecticut. And yes. They were put in yesterday. We had to constently change the location of them because we kept running into roots. But they are in and set. We have the structure up there but the leggings are not attached as the settings are not done settling yet. But the plateform is up there and free standing. We have three walls all set we just need to put the windows on. It’s a little bit cooler here today than I thought it would be.
Phlosphr, I think I can safely speak for everyone when I say that our curiosity is piqued. We are all really eager to see the progress you’re making.
I’ve got some webspace that came with my ISP. If you want, just email some pictures, I’ll upload them and then post them here. Send as many as you can!
Alternatively, I’ll give you the login/pass and you can upload them yourself with an FTP client.
“One question. How many outlets to have when running 220v up there? It’s a 12x12 room”
The minimums are;
Three feet from any break in the wall and no more than twelve feet between outlets. This is because most appliances have at least a six foot cord on them.
Of course you can space them closer if you like.
For your 12x12 room, I would put one on each side of the door (about three feet from the door) and one outlet two feet from each corner (so basically two near each corner). Try to avoid placing them under the windows.
/ / / * / / / / / * / /
d… /
o…*
o…/
r…/
/…/
/…/
*…/
/…/
/…/
…
/…/
/ / * / / / / / / / */ /
where the asterisk is an outlet and the slash is app. one foot.
Will you keep running water to it during the winter, or have you thought of a way of keeping the pipes going to it from freezing?
Ok, I’m mildly fuming right now because the hampsters desided to take my excruciatingly long post and eat it.
You want photo’s here are some photo’s. A buddy of mine on the west coast helped me with the design of the tree house. I am going to detail in this post the design aspects people are asking about. I am using my wifes canon rebel ti to photograph the process. I want the proofs so I’m using a regular 35mm. The photo’s I show will be of the designs I’m working off. most are quite impressive.
Though we would all want one of these , they take a lot of work and are very expensive. I’m working on a home office with a bridge.
Tree attachment looks similar to this , but with a metal bracket like this further supported with rubber against the tree. The design itself will be a one tree design. There is a twelve foot plateform assembled aound the tree using the bracket you saw earlier. This design is a favorite of mine and is what I based my drawings off of. The only difference would be mine is square, and that one is circular. Plus mine is going to have a bridge and floor braces. Speaking of the bridge I decided on this design. Here’s a look from the Other side.
Once the walls and wondows are up, I’ve decided on a waterheater design like this one.
The interior is going to be fun, I want to be able to be in there in the winter and summer. Today is a depressing washout. Damn Bill!! but our siding and windows are pretty much done. My buddy and his friend did a lot o work off site today with the windows, I’m most grateful! Just think, he’s do’in most of this work for a case of beer!
incredible…
Not at all. You just take a regular rectangular window, and put some sort of round opaque frame up against it. Matter of fact, you could probably still do this with your shed, provided you put (rectangular) windows in it.
Well actually there already are rectangular windows in the shed. And you know something Chronos, it’s good to think outside the box…I’m up this morning at O’Dark-Thirty, maybe I’ll go down to the garage and see what I can fashion together. Opaque framing you say…Hmmm
Without re-reading the entire post. how far off the ground did you say it was? Thats an impressive design in the photo’s you showed. I’d love to build somthing like that in VT but our winters are waaay too long. Good luck and nice pics.
I can only say one word…
Wow!
OK, I can say more than one word. Philosphr, we’d love to share in your journey so be sure to post your pics when you can. And btw, has the Mrs. gotten home yet?
I would say, Yes, she has. Since he hasnt posted in a while. I recon hes trying to return most of the stuff that doesn`t have too many nail holes in it back to HD.
Of course -
Hey Philosphr, how’s your tree house working out, now that it’s the dead of winter?
Yeah, where`s the update? (I suspect my last post is accurate)
Awww. I just remembered this thread and did a search, hoping for photos of life in the finished tree house.
Did the plan fall through? 
I think the coke wore off.
