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What if you don’t have a suitable tree?

Our Expert’s Guide to Treehouses Trees

You do not need a large tree to have a treehouse. If the tree is not big or strong enough to carry a structure, or there is no tree at all, we build on stilts and make the treehouse completely independent.

By Henry Durham. Updated October 2026.

A tree that is too small

Our usual answer is to build the treehouse on stilts beside the tree. That gives us far more freedom over position, height and design, and it puts no stress on a small or young tree. Our rule of thumb for what a tree can carry is in how big does a tree need to be?

You can also get surprisingly good results by placing the treehouse next to smaller trees or among existing bushes and planting. Even when the trees are not holding anything up, the greenery around the treehouse makes it feel as though it has grown out of the garden. Once the planting matures the effect can be fantastic.

No tree at all

That is absolutely fine. A treehouse on stilts can be designed from scratch to give the same sense of being up among the trees. We use the surrounding landscape, new planting, climbing plants, rope bridges and ladders to create the woodland feel.

Not having a suitable tree can even be an advantage. You are no longer restricted by the shape, position or health of one particular tree, so you can choose the ideal spot and the ideal height, and design the treehouse around how you want to use it.

What matters

The important thing is not the tree itself. It is the feeling of escaping into the garden and getting up off the ground. With the right design you can have that in a magnificent mature oak, among a few smaller trees, or in a completely empty garden.

Questions people ask

Yes. We build treehouses on stilts that stand completely on their own, then use planting, rope bridges and ladders to give the feeling of being up among the trees.

Build beside it. A treehouse on stilts next to a smaller tree puts no load on the tree, and the tree still becomes part of the setting.

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