Customer Reviews

Treehouses & Playhouses You Can Build

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the latest installment in a long string of wonderful books from David and Jeanie Stiles. Inside you won't find glossy, double page spreads of extravagant treehouses ... this is not a coffee table book. Rather, it is a how-to book, and the best one available for those that want to build their own whimsical play structure. Inside you will find excellent line drawings and readable explanations of intelligent, creative, and well though-out designs.

David starts with the basics: tools. From there you follow a complete and logical progression to completed treehouse. In between you'll get solid building advice. David has built his designs. He knows how to make life easier for you by using common materials and minimizing cuts. The building advice is spot on throughout.

The huge, huge, huge problem with this book is the 20 or so options David gives you for connecting lumber to tree. They are almost all bad. Never girdle a growing limb with rope or cable. Never use nails. This leaves you with only lag bolting. To be sure, there are other ways. But the only safe and tree-friendly way presented in this book (and any of his other works) is to use lags.

This is the by far the best book to give to a young builder and is probably a treasure to any 8 or 9 year old lucky enough to have a copy. It will get their mind working. The crazy schemes they come up with will amaze you.

The ideas inside this book are great. Fun, imaginative, unique. If you know a young boy (or girl) with a tree, get him this book. And when it comes time to actually build their creation, call an arborist and he'll set you straight about properly attaching it to a tree.

This book is a wonderful how-to book for those who need all the help they can get on building a treehouse. The plans are great and we are building the basic treehouse which is perfect for our 8 and 5 year old kids. Lots of ideas on everything from picking trees, buying lumber, safety tips, to flexible extras. We bought all three of David Stiles treehouse books and this was by far the best and we could have just bought this one and been happy but are glad to have them all. Would highly recommend to parents contemplating building a treehouse or for kids who want to dream of one.

This book is a must-have for anybody interested in building treehouses, sheds or small out-buildings of any kind! It is filled with all the information an amateur would need with step-by-step instructions on the building process, tools and materials and inspirational photographs of projects by other amateur builders that will inspire and motivate anybody interested in trying a building project in their backyard. The authors have provided clear, concise instructions and have taken the intimidation out of building. The authors are clearly interested in the reader having a joyful, successful building experience. Our own building projects have all been inspired by Jeanie and David Stiles' encouraging books. Thank you!

This book is great. Lots of great ideas and detailed explanation on how to build a treehouse/playhouse. From how to choose the best tree to many different house plans. We just finished building a treehouse and this was the only guide we used.

Plenty of home handyman titles include kids' playhouses as an aside to a larger garden project; but where else will you find a construction kit entirely devoted to such? Here's something the average 'do it yourself' worker with kids can easily and affordably accomplish - and as an added take, it offers 'themes' for playhouses and treehouses, too. The entire family is encouraged to work together on these projects; not just the husband - making them wonderful picks for families who would join forces to get the job done. Step-by-step easy directions are accompanied by diagrams, patterns and photos throughout.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I bought three different books on building tree houses. I have absolutely ZERO experience in building anything. I simple used the plans in this book for a basic tree house and just modified it a little bit. If I had only bought the other two books I would have probably given up on the idea. This book made it so easy that now my kids have the coolest tree house in the neighborhood. In fact, if I took a picture of this thing and sent it to the author he would probably include the picture in the next edition. The only advice I can give you is, buy this book and plan on spending double whatever you are planning to spend and you will be the coolest dad in the world.

This book is a good one if you want to get visual information and ideas what tree houses could be. Excellent to obtain new ideas.

While it does contain some plans I found the best thing about this book is the large volume of carefully explained details you can incorporate into your very own design. Whether you are an engineer or an artist this book probably has the information or inspiration you need to get your build started. Once you do you may reach the same conclusion I came to that a treehouse is never actually 'finished'.

This book is very thorough and do-able for the average person. There are many ideas in the book that can be incorporated in many different ways to make a kids dream place house.

I looked at about ten books on constructing tree houses (via inter-library loan) and then bought this one, which was the best of the group I looked at. I built a 10x10' tree house for my kids using it as my only reference work. This was my first large carpentry project (larger than a birdhouse, that is!)

Our treehouse is basically "the Hobbit treehouse" but as a platform. The rope lacing pattern is much easier to figure out if you do it with a couple of pieces of string and some sticks first.