Back to our roots: How timber framing heritage shapes the tree houses UK industry

Timber framing, a technique where naturally shaped wooden poles are combined into a structure with joints secured by wooden pegs, has been popular for thousands of years. In fact, it’s one of the oldest documented ways of building, with the method being used across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

In Britain, traces of timber-framed homes from more than 10,000 years ago have been discovered by archaeologists. Timber framing in the UK peaked in popularity during the Roman and Georgian periods, continuing in importance until the Victorian era where wood was diverted to meet the growing demand for shipbuilding.

Detail shot of a timber frame in one of our treehouses.

The Ancient High House in Stafford is a gorgeous example of a Tudor timber framed building. Carpenters’ marks – small etchings which indicate the order in which a frame should be assembled - can be found on many of the original timbers, indicating that the frame of the building was prefabricated before being sent to the location. Interestingly some of the timbers in the building have indents suggesting they may have been dismantled from an earlier structure and then reused.

An ample supply of oak meant that it was very popular as a building material until the 17th century in the UK. It’s a testament to its durability that so many homes made with oak are still standing today.

Today, the timber framing industry is experiencing a resurgence. The industry is innovating to offer enhanced sustainability, and more efficient construction, without relinquishing build quality. Given its many benefits, it's not surprising that timber frame techniques are also being used in the tree houses UK industry.

The Elford Treehouse - One of our timber-framed treehouse structures

Earlier this year we worked on a framed tree house building; the Elford Treehouse. The brief from our clients was clear: the treehouse needed to be a place where they could sip drinks, relax, and take in the epic sea view. They wanted an open-sided tree house design for a characterful tree house build that would fit with the garden’s heritage features, these included stone walls and an A-frame outbuilding.

We knew right away that the best option for them would be an open timber framed tree house design, with a sweeping gable roof to maximise light and views. As the tree house building itself needed to be quite compact but also bold and elegant we came up with the idea of a tall cruck frame. A cruck timber frame is a traditional method that uses curved timber to create an 'A' shaped roof. More than 4,000 cruck frame buildings have been documented in the UK. We drew inspiration for our design from many of these buildings, for instance, the Leigh Court cruck framed barn in Worcestershire - one of the largest and oldest cruck barns in the UK.

The Elford Treehouse has a cruck frame structure which takes inspiration from heritage buildings in the UK

For us, working with timber framing is an incredibly exciting and rewarding experience. To ensure that the structure fitted together perfectly, our team had to create a floor sketch of the cross frames of the tree house in our workshop. We then lofted up from the floor sketch to ensure the frame was in place before stack-scribing and cutting all the timbers. We also used some distance scribing to mark and cut the wall frames. It takes time, but getting this part right is essential. In the case of the Elford tree house it meant that once we got onto site it was a case of simply slotting the puzzle pieces together and securing them with traditional fixings.

Timber frame structures are held together by small wooden pegs, driven through mortise and tenon joints which hold two pieces of timber together. Mortise and tenon joints have been used by woodworkers all around the world, for thousands of years. You can think of the mortice as the hole, and the tenon as the tongue. To lock it into place the joint can be glued or wedged, but to ensure a super strong fit we used pegs. Each peg was handmade and shaved along the grain (rather than against it) for strength, and tapered at one end to ensure it could easily be driven through the joint.

Mortise and tenon joint on the Elford Treehouse

Whilst timber framing takes a little longer than conventional building approaches , it offers several advantages. For one, timber frame structures are inherently beautiful to look at and to be in – there’s no beating those high, expansive, sloped ceilings and chunky wooden posts. Secondly, they are inherently sustainable – both in terms of the natural materials used (no need for metal fastenings such as screws), and also in terms of durability. With proper maintenance, timber framed structures can last hundreds, even thousands of years. For instance the Stafford House mentioned earlier in this article was built in 1595.

When we think about how to build a tree house, a key consideration for us is that it is sustainable, functional and beautiful. For us, a timber frame tree house build offers the perfect balance of all three.

If you’d like to learn more about our treehouse building process please reach out to us via our contact form.