Tag Archives: jack

Uncategorized

oh nothing, just jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck, as one does.

Leave a comment

oh nothing, just jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck, as one does.

some might recall two years ago when i wrote a PSA on how to avoid needing to check your underpants while jacking up a treehouse deck. as a result of that incident the treehouse deck as been juuuuuust slightly off center of the supports.

it was only a few inches off center which not enough for anyone to notice but me to notice, but it’s been annoying me for two years so today i jacked up the deck again very carefully and with odin’s help ever so carefully shifted it back and lowered it down.

now it’s perfect! though it’s never not disconcerting to but under the deck when it’s jacked up. i hope i don’t have to do it again!

Uncategorized

a psa for anyone thinking about jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck.

Leave a comment

a psa for anyone thinking about jacking up a 2,000 pound treehouse deck.

say you’re trying to jack your really heavy treehouse deck that’s 15 feet off the ground. you’ve already done it once without anything too terribly terrible happening and you’re feeling confident.

when you get to raise the other side of the deck to jack up the deck to remove the support you notice the ground is much more sloped and soft directly under the middle of the deck. not ideal conditions. so decide to go a little “off center” on more solid ground without also triple checking to make sure the 4×4 post your using is as close to perfectly vertical as humanly possible.

because guess what happens when you jack up the deck that floats on top of the supports 6 inches and things are leaning a bit?

that’s right! gravity takes over and the 2,000 pound deck falls 6 inches very quickly and shifts over a few inches off center of the supports as it pivots on the 4×4 post and the post falls over almost knocking you cold.

and that’s a check your underpants moment.

so take a little extra time and build up a nice level and solid foundation before jacking up your treehouse deck. you’ll be happy you did.

Uncategorized

making some modifications to the treehouse deck.

2 Comments

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. I.

at the end of last summer, after camping in the trees and watching movies treehouse movie theater i was excited to kick off weekly movie screenings and having all sorts of fun up in the trees this summer.

but after spending the winter looking at the 14’x16′ deck over the winter, i couldn’t stop wondering if the supports for the deck needed to more, well, more supportive. it’s not that i think it’s dangerous now, but thinking out a few years when wear and tear starts taking its toll, i decided i needed to bolster the supports and strengthen some potential points of failure. and in order to do that, i need to take down the supports, which is extra challenging since there are no posts running to the ground.

first things first – i needed to jack up one end of the deck. a 1.5 ton bottle jack and a 4″x4″ post were the right tools for the job though they were a wee bit prone to falling over so having a second post ready was important. i’m glad i thought of that ahead of time 🙂

odin helped crank up the end of the deck a few inches while i put the second post in place.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. II.

next, i secured some shims in place on the second support on the same tree so the support could take some of the load off the 4″x4″ post.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. III.

with the 4″x4″ post secured and the shims in place, now it’s time to take down the rightmost support down.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. IV.

i have to add a bit of leverage in the form of a copper pipe to wrench out the 12″ lag bolt at the base of the support. every creak and groan in the deck is a bit nerve wracking.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. V.

with the lag bolt out, then i attack the support to a pulley and knock it off the 3/4″ threaded rod that’s holding the top of the support on the tree. standing on a ladder holding a sledge hammer while knocking the support off the rod and holding the pulley rope is trickier than you might think.

making some modifications to the treehouse deck. VI.

and then it’s time to start making the support more supportive! i’m going to lengthen the horizontal section of the support so it runs the entire length of the deck, “sister” a second set of boards to the support to make it twice as thick and attach 3/8″ 12″x12″ steel plates to both sides of the support where the lag bolt goes into the tree. the bottom of the support is the key failure point so reinforcing it with over a half inch of steel will go a long way to ease my mind.

and no, i didn’t really need to use a 2 foot bit to work on the supports, but if you’ve got a big bit, baby you should use it when you get the chance.

onward!