Tree houses are no longer legal!

I over heard this story today about a family in Washington State.

Turns out, they built a tree house for their twin boys, who like most of us boys, just wanted a place to stay and kick it with their friends in private... as we all did growing up.

Well, the county came out and shut the tree house down. They ordered the family to tear down a tree house that they had built upon their OWN property. What???? Do they actually want permits for this??

I remember my first tree house. My father and I built the ladder by the board... nailed to the tree to go up approximately 20' and into my domain for my buddies and I. Yeah, the boards on the way up may have been wobbly... so we added a nail or two... the tree house was planted upon a perch of 12, 5 inch think cedar branches, less than a third of the way up the tree. (Believe me... the top was awesome!... And was about 120ft up!). Well, myself, my buddies (except one who was killed in a car crash. Miss you budd) .. we are all alive and well...

Listen to this story...Lame butt over controlling gov.

Wait for it... about 10 minutes in there is an extremely good point made.... just listen ;-)

Also.... the following segment is pretty funny too. Seattle is a lazy place... people think everything should be given to them. Of course, I can't blame anyone since the cost of living is SO high that people out here can work 70 hour weeks and just barely get by...

Since a tree house isn't exactly a public thing, I don't think the county can really do that, considering their jurisdiction ends at the private property line. If I were the family, I'd personally keep the tree house up and dare them to come onto my property.

YOUR property... which is what you pay to live on... Is (by their definition) their LAND..... that my friend, is what I cannot tolorate...

i know exactly how it feels to have your tree house taken away by authority. when i was younger i had a very nice tree house in my aunts yard.. long story short a bank bought her land and down came the tree house. sad day for the neighborhood kids and myself but in the end it was they're land.

nothing ever stopped us from building more club/tree house's and i hope nothing stops them. one of our tree houses still stands 10+ years later about 100 feet up the tree. its a sight, a glimpse back in time for us when we drive by to see it.

The nanny state in full throttle.

Kids are no longer allowed to be kids because they might hurt themselves.



[insert slap forehead here]

No American owns land.

Doubt it ?

Try not paying your taxes for a couple years and see how quick
the Government takes it away.

Land is leased, you just purchase the right to live on it and if you
do not pay your lease to the Government you will lose every cent
you paid to live there.

reply to post by forall2see
Was it an enviromental thing because the nails hurt the tree, or a complaint from some lame neighbour who didn't like the view.

reply to post by forall2see


Possession is 9/10ths the law my friend. Have that fight in court and the land owner will win that battle. The government may be leasing it to you, but you are the rightful owner of that property and you have a deed that says so. You would win a battle in court against anyone on "your" property.

Yes treehouses can be illegal.

It used to be a board on a tree in the backwoods, but I have seen people build cabins in the single tree on a townhouse property.

If it prevents utilities from reach their lines, or from police or firefighters from being able to reach your house, it is an issue.

reply to post by forall2see


It all depends on where you live and zoning codes. In Radcliff Kentucky you can't put a small pole for small bird house in your yard without a permit. You can't install a broken window without a permit. That was back in 1980"s I can imagine how draconian it is by now. Thats one reason I left the state.

reply to post by Version100


I agree with you there. The ownership of land is just an illusion. My grandmother used to gripe about having to save up hundreds of dollars a month from her social security JUST to make property taxes at the end of the year. And her house was bought and paid for before I was even born!

It's a sham!

reply to post by acrux


In the broadcast they emphasize that the father who helped the boys build the tree house is a landscape professional who understood the dangers to the tree. Therefore he took great care in not fastening any portion of the fort to the tree.

reply to post by nixie_nox



I'm going to look for a picture of said tree house. I can understand your point there. I REALLY think that it's more about the money that can be made from the permitting process, and then taxes added to the property's yearly.

I have been in business as a general contractor for almost 10 years now. In that time I have learned that you almost have to get a permit these days just to wash your windows! It's getting more and more ridiculous every year.

Like to vid...

This gives a visual of the tree house, which doesn't appear to be new.

A lowly neighbor, probably looking out their window on a commercial break during a CNN broadcast, must have decided that the kids were just having too much fun.

The county did NOT order the treehouse torn down. That is false information. The county DOES have building code jurisdiction over the treehouse. The reason this happened is because of a busy body neighbor.

I don't know what your negative comments about Seattle have to do with the story since the treehouse is located in an entirely different county. Whether people in Seattle expect everything to be given to them is hardly relevant.

Here is a local story with a picture if the treehouse. Please do read some of the comments. This thing is far from over.

reply to post by nixie_nox


If a utility company needs to put power lines, water lines,whatever, through your property, they need an easement or permission. I lived in a home where there was a trail that went through the side of the house down behind the back of the house. The land was part of the deed to the property but there was an easement for the power company, so nothing could be built on or obstruct this path. It would be included in the deed to the home. No easement, no access.

Some of these agencies have too much damn time on their hand and nothing better to do than harass people. My mother owns 5 acres and about 2 feet in from one side of the border to her property, an underground spring pops up and there is a trench that extends the length of the property and at the end, it was pooling into a big swampy mess. She brought in a backhoe to dig out the end and build up the walls with dirt to make a pond. She also had severe flooding issues in her basement (I nearly got electrocuted one day.. there was over 8 inches of water down there.) due to the massive amounts of groundwater because the spring was not free-flowing adequately. So she had a guy dig out the trench deeper and put in a pipe, opening up the area where the spring came up from underground and she hasn't had flooding issues since.

It's absolutely beautiful today but she had to fight the town tooth and nail because a neighbor "tattled" on her when they saw the backhoe. Then the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife got involved when the town discovered the natural spring and they really caused an issue with her progress for about 2 years. They would come to her home every day and sit and watch her to make sure she didn't mess with the "natural" water source, which is protected, apparently. The first few days, they were actually sitting in her driveway and coming up to her every time she went out to hand-clean the trench of weeds. She finally got the nerve up and got in their face and told them to get off her property and to not step foot on it again. These people were un-f**ing believable. She finally won her right to fix the property. Even after they went to court and she won, these slugs came and watched from the road as she did the work on the trench. She finally took out a restraining order on them (and got it, surprisingly.)

It just goes to show you that unless we stop letting these types of fool push us around, we'll just keep getting pushed and pushed and pushed until we're 6 feet under.

I hope the treehouse family tells them where to stick it. They'd have to drag me through court before I'd take that house down. Even if I might be violating some stupid code somehow, they'd have to prove it and get an order against me first.

Edited to add: Just read the article posted above me...what an awesome treehouse! I only wish I had one when I was a kid, never mind one that frikkin' cool!

Nobody is asking the family to take the structure down. The county just wants to ensure that building standards are met. The main sticking point seems to be that the structure is not attached to the tree, but rather built around it on posts. Apparently there's some question as to whether or not these posts are sufficient to support the structure.

I think the only party involved that has been unreasonable, is the neighbor who complained about it... twice. Why can't people mind their own damn business!

Oh, and the title of this thread definitely should be edited, as it's blatantly misleading.

WTF? this is seriously insane!

Poor kids! people complain all the time that they just stay indoors glued to their x-boxes & playstations nowadays - and when finally some kids are outdoors in the fresh air having fun with their tree house, it's suddenly not allowed anymore, prohibited, VERBOTEN!!

Have people completely lost their minds?

reply to post by forall2see

Seems a bit OTT for the kid to have his treehouse disallowed.
He should have built one of these bad boys,harder to spot:





thechive.com...

Now that is a cool treehouse IMO.

Originally posted by schuyler
The county did NOT order the treehouse torn down. That is false information. The county DOES have building code jurisdiction over the treehouse. The reason this happened is because of a busy body neighbor.

I don't know what your negative comments about Seattle have to do with the story since the treehouse is located in an entirely different county. Whether people in Seattle expect everything to be given to them is hardly relevant.

Here is a local story with a picture if the treehouse. Please do read some of the comments. This thing is far from over.

I'm simply sharing my experience in Seattle as I have been here for my entire life... and Kitsap, although a different county is close enough to home for me.

I also just placed a call to the Kitsap Co. Planning and development office to pose a question as to when obtaining a building permit would be validated. Answer: Any structure exceeding 200 square feet.

The tree house in question can be no larger than 100sf, which makes a stop work order excessive and invalid. I tried to find links to the information, but the county pages Residential Building Guidelines tab has been removed for updating. See Link Hence, the phone call.

It appears that the guy used the simple post and beam method to support the structure. Same thing you would do when building a deck. As long as his footings are on hard ground, there shouldnt be an issue. The county guy, claiming that the posts may not be sufficient to hold up the structure is obviously just looking for something to do so that he can justify his position as a county inspector during a time when our economy doesn't favor the construction industry very well at all.

A 4x4 post, standing upright is capable of a load bearing 3000lbs per square inch plus. It is possible that the footings are not adequate, but as of yet I have not seen a picture of where the posts land so I cannot say. It would also improve the lateral shear factor if he were to add strong-backs about mid-way up the posts.

One can go on for days over-engineering the crap out of anything structural.

Originally posted by Unit541


Oh, and the title of this thread definitely should be edited, as it's blatantly misleading.

edit on 6/1/2011 by Unit541 because: (no reason given)

I take full responsibility for the title sounding misleading. I can see now why some would think that. I had just finished my nightly glass of Glenlivit when I posted the article.... guess I got excited.

I cannot edit it to your satisfaction now though since the time to do so has expired, so you'll just have to deal

I also liked what you had to say. Thank you for contributing!

reply to post by Silcone Synapse


Makes me think of Predator!

How cool would it be to design a reflective tree house encapsulated by solar panels?