Tom and Nell Birkett, Harrow Hollow, since 1996
A father and daughter, both carpenters, building family treehouses in the Wickham hills for thirty summers. Forty-one of our clients first climbed one of our ladders as children. Now they call about their own kids.
Play treehouses from $32,000. Family treehouses from $58,000. Tree visits are free within 40 miles.
The Pryor treehouse, 2025
Two floors in a 90-year-old beech. Anna Pryor played in our 1999 build two doors down.
Grows with them
A treehouse lasts longer than a childhood, so we design all four stages on the first visit. Slide through the years to see what one Birkett treehouse becomes, and what we add each time.
Age 4, the year you build, 2026
Everything a four-year-old wants is up, down and across. So we start low, at six feet, and keep it open.
Beams and tree bolts are sized now for the room it will carry at 15, so nothing underneath gets torn out later.
Part of a play treehouse, from $32,000
Every price includes the tree visit, drawings for all four stages, the arborist’s report, permits where your county asks for them, and ten years of autumn checks.
from $32,000
About 3 weeks on site
The age four stage: a platform, rails, a rope ladder and a swing, built on beams sized for the room that comes later.
from $58,000
About 6 weeks on site
Platform, room and roof in one build, for families who want the age nine stage from day one or have kids of several ages.
In 1996 Tom Birkett was a timber framer building barns. That summer he put a platform in the ash behind the house on Copper Lane, for his daughter. The neighbours asked for one. Then their friends did. By 2004 he had stopped building barns.
Nell started as his apprentice at seventeen and took over the drawings in 2014. She does the tree visits and designs every stage. Tom cuts the beams and argues with her about windows. They build every treehouse together, with a crew of four.
They only take on twelve treehouses a year, so the waiting list for a spring build usually closes in October.
“The best letter we ever got was from a kid we built for in 1999, asking if we still did this. We did. Dad cried a bit.”
Harrow Hollow
Two sisters, five and seven. We built the platform and room together, because the older one had opinions about windows.
Alder Ridge
Three cousins who could not agree on one treehouse, so they got two, and a netted bridge Nell tested by crossing it forty times.
Copper Lane
Our third ever build, two doors from the workshop. Sam Hadley climbed the platform at six. At 27 he asked us to make it a reading room. Last spring we hung a swing from the same oak for his daughter.
Tom and Nell come out, look up, measure the trunk and walk the ground. Free within 40 miles of Harrow Hollow.
Nell draws the treehouse at every stage, not just the first one. An independent arborist signs off the tree before we do.
Beams are cut on Copper Lane and carried in, so your lawn is a building site for weeks, not months.
The kids go up first, before we leave. We come back each autumn to check the bolts and let out the brackets as the tree grows.
Sample letters
“I was six when Tom bolted a platform into our oak. At 27 I asked for it back as a reading room, and last spring Nell hung a swing on it for my daughter. The 1998 bolts were still perfect.”
“Nell asked our kids what they wanted, then actually listened. The ten-year-old got his lookout window. The four-year-old got a bell on a rope. Both use them daily.”
“We budgeted for the play treehouse and added the room three years later. Tom knew it was coming. The joists were already there waiting for it.”
Nell reads every note and calls within two working days to set a date. The visit takes about an hour, costs nothing within 40 miles, and you will know that afternoon whether your tree can carry a treehouse.
Or call the workshop, (555) 014-1996Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 4pm. If nobody answers, we are up a tree. Leave a message.