My brother recently mentioned that his colleague had spent the last year building a treehouse for his kids.
This is the sort of information that lodges itself in your brain and undermines everything you thought you were doing right as a father.
In my eyes, this man hadn’t just built a treehouse: he’d performed the ultimate dad manoeuvre. The kind that makes other dads glance at their hands for splinters and briefly wonder if their children deserve better. I imagine he’s the type who bakes his own sourdough and fixes the dishwasher without YouTube.
Are petals now scattered beneath his feet as he moves through the house? Does he speak only in wise nods from the elevated tree position while his children gather below?
Regardless, I needed to understand how this actually happened. So I got in touch with Fergus and asked him to talk me through the how, the why, and the moments where he nearly gave up.
What followed was reassuring, grounding…and far more achievable than I expected.
What actually made you decide to build a treehouse, and why now? Was there a moment where it tipped from “nice idea” to “right, let’s bloody do this”?
The lightbulb moment happened when I took the kids to one of those Go Ape treetop adventure playgrounds.
I was standing on the ground looking up at them crossing wobbly rope ladders when I noticed something interesting: the platforms built around the trees were remarkably simple. No supports from above or below, just two thick wooden joists strapped to the tree trunk using long metal bolts. I remember thinking, “That looks simple…I could do that.”
Several months later, when the lower branches of a tree in my parents’ garden had to be cut down after a storm, the perfect opportunity presented itself and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head.
Be honest: before you started, how “handy” were you really? What made you realise this was more achievable than you’d imagined?
Honestly, the only formal carpentry teaching I’ve ever had was DT (Design Technology) classes at school and that was 25 years ago. If you can use a hand saw, a drill, a screwdriver and a tape measure, then you can do this. I promise.
The hardest part wasn’t the technicality, it was the physicality. Endless painting of decking boards with creosote, sawing 30 planks to identical lengths, lots of hand-screwing. It’s physical work and you’ll earn a few blisters.
You do need to know how to make a straight cut, drill pilot holes, and use the right drill bits, but all of that is readily available online. YouTube is your best friend.
You built it with your own dad - what was that actually like? Were there any moments of friction, surprise, nostalgia or magic that caught you off guard?
Haha, good question!
It was extremely bonding. That kind of time together is hard to come by once you have your own kids. Dad is good at carpentry and really enjoyed passing on his knowledge; I did more of the physical work. It was a genuinely joint endeavour, and we’re both very proud of it.
That said, there were differences of opinion, arguments, and raised voices. By the end, Dad was calling me “Caleb” and I was calling him “Jeremy” (from Clarkson’s Farm).
After one disagreement about the roof, I ended up doing that part solo. But because we did it ourselves, and together, it will always be far more than just a treehouse.
If another dad wanted to do something similar, what’s the very first step you’d tell him to take?
First: buy this book: How to Build a Treehouse by Christopher Richter. It explains, very simply, how to build different styles of treehouse to suit various tree shapes and sizes.
Second: find a local builders’ merchant (Travis Perkins, Selco, Wickes) or order materials online and get them delivered. I used Ruby Group.
(Worth noting: finding the right tree is often the biggest hurdle: sturdy, healthy, accessible, and ideally not controversial with neighbours.)
Roughly what did you use, what did it cost, and what would you do differently next time?
Basic tools: A sharp hand saw, an electric drill/screwdriver (with a spare battery is vital), a tape measure, a set square, and a large box of long screws. That’s really it.
Structure:
4 hardwood joists for the load-bearing section (important: this is where strength matters).
2 long steel bolts to clamp the joists to the tree.
Frame:
4 joists for the perimeter
~6 joists for the floor structure
Pressure-treated softwood (C24) is fine here, much cheaper than hardwood but do treat it with preservative such as creosote.
Flooring: standard decking boards
Cost: We already had the tools. Materials came to around £1,500 all-in.
How long did it actually take around work, kids and life?
Full disclosure: one year, or two whole summers.
But the tree was at my parents’ house, two hours away, and we only visited about once a month. In reality, it was roughly 10 weekends, about 3-4 hours a day. So call it 30-40 hours total.
That’s not even a full week in the office.
Was there a moment you thought, “I’ve massively overcommitted here”?
Yes, when my wife told me I’d built it too high and that the kids weren’t allowed up there.
The kids disagreed.
They now scramble up the ladder like monkeys.
What happened when they first climbed into it, and how do they use it now?
Honestly? Their first reaction was underwhelming, but that probably says more about my expectations. They were only five and three when it was finished.
We built it high on purpose so they’d use it for the next ten years (and so my dad had somewhere to hide with a cigar and a G&T).
Now they use it constantly: picnics, water-bomb attacks, and they even insist on sleeping in it.
What were your non-negotiables around safety?
Guard rails. Strong and high enough to prevent falling.
And a trap door, so there’s no gaping hole to disappear through.
If you could say one thing to a dad staring at his garden thinking “this isn’t for people like me”…
Do it.
You’ll surprise yourself. And I promise you’ll get more joy from building it - and watching it being used - than your kids will from playing in it.
