DIY & Home Improvement

I ain't yet begun to overkill!

I finally got up in the tree to drive the second bolt, I got that one in almost all the way since I had better footing and could sort of wiggle the auger bit around during the pre-drilling process and get the hole a bit bigger. Made the first few turns go a little easier, still was leaning on that 36" wrench by the end.

Overkill:

To account for the tiny bit of swaying I expect between the two trunks, one end of the beam is "pinned" with a bolt, and the other end -- the end I did today -- has a 3 ton (WLL) lifting link hanging off of it. From the link hangs a 2.4 ton turnbuckle, and from that turnbuckle hangs a 2.5 ton wire rope sling in bucket configuration, going down under the beam and back up into the turnbuckle, if you can imagine. I wanted the turnbuckle to be able to level this thing as it settles.

Next I'll do a second, parallel beam on the other side of these trunks the same way, which should put the two 16-foot 2x12s about three feet apart (big tree!). On top of those I'll plop a 10x8 deck, I'm thinking 2x8 joists and hangers, then start building walls and a roof.

Overkill? Oh, yeah. But it's pretty high up there, so I figure if it can't be safe, at least it's sturdy.