No permit!!! No irc!!!

[righter101]

Hello to all in the fourm. This is not exactly framing, but i thought i would get some good response from you some of you out there who may have encountered something similar.

I have a tree in my backyard that I am going to be cutting down (due to proximity to the newly built, code compliant house we just finished. also a number of roots were cut during trenching.)

I would like to leave the stump about 20 feet of the ground for the purposes of constructing an elevated platform.

Any suggestions on treatments or things to do to preserve the wood (standing stump) as long as possible ? The tree is green and healthy now, but this here plans examiner, former tree climber, is about to change all of that....

We tore down our old house and I have reclaimed a ton (actually several tons) of very nice usable material. I have some 22 foot 6x10's and some 24 foot 4x8's. While they aren't PT, i think i can surface treat them and get a 10+ year life out of them.

Any thoughts, suggetstions, comments, criticisms, jabs, off topic tangents, etc. are appreciated.

I will document and post some pics from time to time of what we are doing. Its still on the drawing board but I am going to cut the tree soon and get started.

Thanks.

 

[mtlogcabin]

What type of tree? We have some around here the stumps are over 40 years old and no rot, others will rot at the base in about 3 to 5 years

 

[righter101]

It is a Douglass Fir. About 36" at the base in diameter.

 

[RJJ]

Hope you are in the sticks! May create problems with the Town!

 

[tbz]

Not so sure the towns plans examiner going to like it, oops say it aint so.........

Try these guys for information, they would guess they work on in place trees and do preserve the carving for long term care.

http://www.chainsawcarve.com/

 

[mtlogcabin]

Just had lunch with a friend who built log homes for over 20 years in the NW. He did something similar to what you are wanting to do on a large doug fir stump 17 years ago and it is still there. He said sealing up the end grain on the stump is critical and dry soils are a must

 

[Guardian]

Hi righter 101,

the following probably adds little technical value in your case but here is my tree story:

During the construction of my house in early 2003, I cut the top of a 50 foot Southern Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) that forked about 12 foot off the ground. We intended to put a beam between the two branches and use it as a base for a bell...one of those ideas that come to you in the design phase but are later abandoned. The tree decided to come back on one side and now it gives shade to part of the flowerbeds underneath and its dead side serves as a mounting place for hanging things. The dead side has lost most of its bark and the bare wood creates a weird effect which I like. The inspector(s) never said anything when the building went up and this tree looked like a two-candle candlestick.

Other than this Virginia oak, we have a number of dead water oaks (Quercus nigra) on our two-acre property that lost their fully-leaved crown during windstorms. Most break off at about 15 feet and I leave them as apartments for our numerous woodpeckers. When they are full of holes, I cut them down and get rid of the cuttings.

As I said, my comment is non-technical.

 

[DRP]

Its several tons, well up in the air and will fall sometime in the next 3-40 years with absolutely no warning. Sounds like many of our treehouses growing up, course I don't bounce as well as I used to.