Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Treehouses, 2nd edition: Design & Build Your Kids a Treehouse (Black & Decker Complete Guide) Kindle Edition

This is a good basic level book, comprehendible even if you are not a builder or carpenter. There were several unique designs included in the book, and there was good background info included such as selecting an appropriate tree and correctly mounting anchors to a tree. I would say it is mostly focused on building on or around a tree, not free standing platforms.

I actually purchased for my husband as one of his Christmas gifts - as we are thinking about attempting a tree house for our grandsons - 11 and 8 years old. There are GREAT pictures, outlines and ideas. This book is even better than I expected. If you're thinking about it - this is where to start for real. Having said all of this, I never hesitate to update my reviews should new info seem useful.

This is a pretty good book but I think it's a bit dated. It doesn't mention treehouse attachment bolts, which seem to be the best way to attach treehouses to trees and the designs all take a fairly basic approach of creating a foundation and then placing a platform on top of that. It works and is easy to understand but it leads to a less attractive design.

Thick book with ALL the information! Seriously, I got this book for my dad for Father’s Day and he loved it. Even though we have trees picked out, it tells you what to consider when picking a good tree, how to start the base, how to design around multiple trees or just one. It also has how-to’s on fun extras like a water blaster, a talking tube, and a zipline landing. The roof, windows, ladders, and hatch doors were also in there. This book really has way more than you would imagine, and helps you get creative.

Nice selection of options as a function of the trees conditions. However it needs carpentry skills and a good set of tools.

If you are thinking about building a treehouse this book (Black & Decker The Complete Guide to Treehouses (2nd ed.)) is one of the few published resources available. It covers basic information about zoning, how to choose a tree, and safety, how to build treehouse accessories (like ziplines, slides, and swings), and it has plans for 6 different styles of treehouse. Before buying this book, you should know that the plans are really just guidelines, not detailed instructions. The book seems aimed at people with framing carpentry experience (if you are a complete beginner, it is probably better to get some experience building things on the ground before you build things in the air).Even though I am fairly advanced for an amateur, I got bogged down when building one of the projects in the book: a platform using a single tree as a center post. This project involves building diagonal supports called knee braces from the corners of the treehouse platform down to the trunk below. The knee braces transfer the weight on the platform downward and inward to the tree trunk. The book does an adequate job illustrating how to attach the BOTTOMS of the knee braces to the trunk, but it completely glosses over how to attach the TOPS of the knee braces to the platform in a way that is structurally sound. The instructions basically say "attach the knee brace to the the platform with nails and hardware". There are several photos of treehouses built in this way, but none of them shows any detail of the knee-brace to platform connection. The photos seem to show knee braces nailed to an outside corner where the sill joist is butted to joist header, which seems very dangerous. Why? Well, remember that "every force results in an equal and opposite force" so as the knee brace is pushing the tree downward and inward, the tree is pushing the knee brace upward and outward. The outward force is what is most concerning as it would probably result in separation of the header joist from the joists, leading to collapse of the platform.I am still working on how to change the plans to prevent the knee brace from collapsing outward when the platform carries a load. Some other books show examples of knee braces that are only ever joined at the top to a horizontal joist that attaches to the trunk at one end, and to the knee brace at the other end. This horizontal joist is placed under tension when the knee brace is loaded. Another workaround could be to add steel reinforcing to all the corners to prevent separation (in which case the outer sill joists and joist headers are placed under tension.

Really pleased with this purchase.

Thank you for adding an extra helpful priceless book! Quality was great and was much more than I hoped for. Thank you!!!