How To Roof A Treehouse

The ideal roof is impervious to water but also needs to rapidly shed water so there is no chance of pools or damp patches building up.

How to roof a treehouse.

Which would put the center of our roof right at 7 feet. I have worked with tar and gravel shingles before but never wood. Allow a two inch gap around the tree if it passes through the floor and a three inch gap if it passes through the roof see photo. Building the roof was one of the most challenging parts of this treehouse build.

String a bungee cord between the two hooks and slip a tarp overhead. Add a simple roof to your treehouse. Remember our walls are at 5 feet so we have a 2 rise a 6 12 pitch will give us a 26 5 degree slope on our roof. To keep a large tree house stable center the load over the trunk and spread the weight among several branches.

For our hideaway we went simple and used a 6 12 pitch. Roof pitch can be a bit confusing but i will tell you how we did it and please know that you can modify to what suits your treehouse best. This was quite challenging because i had to figure out how to properly attach them as well as work from a high and dangerous height. In other words our roof rises 6 inches for every 12 inches of run.

Drive one hook into both trunks about 8 feet 2 4 m above the bottom of the platform. A properly sloped or pitched roof is much superior. If your design calls for a flat roof try to introduce even a small slope of 3 5 so water cannot sit there. I used shingles cut in half to seal around the tree and shingled the rest of the roof like normal.

This roof is made from a simple tarp although you can also get more elaborate in designing and constructing your roof. When your rafters are all on lay down the plywood for the roof an leave a good 2 and 1 2 space around the tree so it can sway in the wind without hitting the roof.