Critical Tree House Safety Guidelines

As the weather outside starts to warm up, many parents get the desire to start building a tree house for their children. In order to ensure that your kids stay as safe as possible, you need to really plan ahead to safety. Many parents are not aware of the true dangers of tree houses until they are on their way to the emergency room, but knowing what you are potentially looking at can help you to ensure that you are protecting your children.

Luckily, most tree house accidents are not overly serious. Though there are some that are quite dangerous, and even run the lines of being extremely painful. With most accidents simply resulting in cuts, scrapes, and even bruises, there is always the risk of instead having a broken bone, or other serious injury.

If you are looking to build a tree house you need to keep it low, no more than 10 feet is the recommended height so that you can be sure that the structure is not too high up. This keeps it low enough you can get into the tree house quickly in the event of a disaster, but also ensures that kids can get in and out pretty easily. Much higher up not only increases the risk of injury, but also has the potential to take too long for you to get inside in the event of an emergency.

Carefully check all branches that you are interested in building on to ensure that they are thick enough as well as strong enough to hold the tree house. Remember, when checking strength it is not just the weight of the tree house that must be supported, but also the weight of any children that are in the tree house as well as any toys. This could add up to a significant amount quite quickly if it is not watched and checked carefully.

Another important thing to watch for is to ensure that you have a proper base of mulch around the entire base of the tree that supports the tree house. Recommendations are to have at least nine inches of mulch, and spread this base around the entire perimeter of the tree house and then extend it at least 2 feet to ensure ample coverage. Using other materials such as bark, gravel and sand are not suitable since they are not as cushy and do not help prevent injury as well.

With a careful eye towards safety, you will be able to quickly setup a tree house that your kids can enjoy all summer long, while still ensuring that they are safe. After all, going to the emergency room is never a fun trip during the summer, or even any other time of year.