Having a tree house is every child’s dream. For those of us who are lucky enough to have the space to build one for our children, it’s a pretty rewarding project.
If you’ve ever built a tree house, you’ll know how much hard work and time can go into it. Once it’s finally finished, you want your tree house to last as long as possible.
That’s why it’s so important to weatherproof your creation, so that you and your children can enjoy it for many years to come.
When wood gets wet and doesn’t dry properly, mold can form and the wood may start to rot. This can happen more often in a tree house than in other types of wooden structure, because a tree house isn’t generally properly ventilated.
Here are some things that you can do to weatherproof your tree house:
Protect the wood
Even if you want to keep the natural beauty of the wood, it’s important to protect your tree house from the weather, if you want it to last as long as possible.
For the natural look, you could apply a penetrating oil finish, such as Textrol, to protect your tree house against moisture, weathering and UV damage.
As there’s no film on the surface, it won’t peel or flake and because it can be applied wet-on-wet, you don’t need to wait for coats to dry during application.
Even better, maintenance is easy with local touch-ups and no laborious sanding required.
If your treehouse is made from a hardwood, you could opt for Deks Olje D1, our high performance saturating wood oil for hardwoods, which comes in a clear matt finish.
Want a semi-transparent finish? Aquadecks, a water-based penetrating finish, is available in 6 different shades. Alternatively, Tropitech works equally as well and is designed to withstand severe foot traffic.
If you fancy painting your tree house, Solid Color stain is the ideal choice. Guaranteed on bare wood for 15 years on vertical surfaces, it’s available in 35 different shades. Stick with a neutral shade or opt for two colors to create a stunning stripe effect.
A good roof can help to stop water damaging your tree house
Having a good roof is essential, as it serves to protect the whole of your tree house from rain and snow.
When you’re building your tree house, ensure that your roof has a steep pitch (this will help to stop snow from gathering on the structure) and a generous overhang, to keep the rain away from the tree house walls.
Is that trunk really a good idea?
While it may look pretty to have a trunk or a branch running through your tree house, it can also cause damage in the long run. Not only could a branch channel more water into your tree house, it could also damage your structure when the winds get up, as the tree’s branches move and flex.
Designing a tree house in a way that protects the walls and base from water is essential, as well as protecting the wood you’ve used to build it, as soon as you’ve completed the construction part of your project.
Have you built a tree house? Send us your pics – we’d love to see your creation!
About Owatrol Team
Our team are ready and willing to support you with your requirements whether it is protecting your newly laid deck or renovating a luxury yacht, whatever the application Owatrol US has the solution you are looking for.
I have an outdoor playhouse with wood, swings and a slide. I would like to stain it and then put something on it so that it doesn’t warp and looks nice. What would you suggest? I live in the USA in a dry, desert area that does have an average amount of snowfall most years.
Hello Emily,
Thank you for your interest in our products.
There are two options here depending on whether the wood is new or weathered. If new then I would suggest using Aquadecks, which as we know is available in colours only so negates the need for applying a separate stain followed by a finish. If the wood is weathered then I would suggest Textrol. Like Aquadecks Textrol is available in both colours and Clear. With Textrol if none of the colours are suitable then the Clear maybe tinted with up to 5% of an oil based wood stain. I would not recommend applying an oil based wood stain first followed by Textrol as the stain will block the pores of the wood and stop Textrol from penetrating. Both Textrol and Aquadecks will help to prevent warping, splitting, cracking etc. as they control the movement of moisture in and out of the wood, thus reducing the wood movement, which in turn prevents/minimize the potential for the wood to warp etc.
Hope it helps !
We are right now building what WAS supposed to be a tree house for the grand kids but decided to put it up in front of the tree instead of around it and for the very reasons mentioned above. It will have a wrap around porch on 2 sides and monkey bars on the 3rd side, with a climbing wall, a slide, swings , and much more. Although a color like TEAK or grey would be nice, my primary desire is that it look good and last a long time. How long will one application last? Which choice would you recommend? We used great quality rough cut lumber from a local friend’s sawmill to build it. Board and Batton will be on the exterior and it has a normal house roof. Wood shutters will be used on the windows