Smorster

Hand Woven Rope Tree House (Tree Net) Timelapse

CanopyCraft · 10m 28s · Watch on YouTube · 5 sources

Decision Card

Effort: Multi-weekend physical build — roughly $175–250 in materials (2.5 × 1,000 ft paracord spools at ~$49–70 each, plus ~150 ft of static rope) and ~25 hours of hand-weaving for a ~95 sq ft net with sidewalls, assuming four suitable trees and prior knot experience; add the $79–159 CanopyCraft course if starting from zero.

Honest take: The video’s own numbers are best-case and the creator admits it — this was a re-weave in a space he’d already netted, so the 3.8–5.6 sq ft/hr rates understate a first-timer’s effort; the promised cost-per-square-foot breakdown is not in the video (it’s pushed to the description), and the video is explicitly a funnel excerpt from his paid course, so all structural details (anchoring, tensioning, tree protection, safety margins) are omitted.

Concrete next steps:

  • Price out materials: ~2.5 spools of 1,000 ft MIL-C-5040H 550 paracord (from ~$48.99/spool at Paracord Planet) plus 150 ft static rope — ~30 min.
  • If new to net weaving, evaluate the CanopyCraft course catalog ($79 beginner / $159 advanced, which covers the strips pattern and portals shown here) before buying rope — ~30 min.
  • Budget honestly: pad the video’s 25-hour figure by 50–100% for a first build in an unfamiliar space — planning exercise, ~15 min.
  • Skip if you lack four load-bearing anchor trees in a roughly rectangular layout, or if you need engineered/insured safety (professional installs run $15K+ at TreeNet Willy’s) rather than a DIY backyard net.

TL;DR

A timelapse of hand-weaving a ~95 sq ft “time trial” tree net (floor, sidewalls, and entry portal) between four trees, with an on-screen timer to measure exactly how long it takes and how much material it consumes. Final tally: ~25 hours total (17 for the floor alone), 2,500 ft of paracord, and 120 ft of rope, working out to 3.8–5.6 sq ft per hour — rates the creator flags as faster than normal because he had already woven a net in the same spot.

Key Points

  • The project replaces a previous demo net with a bigger “time trial” net featuring a floor, sidewalls, and a portal to climb in 00:02
  • The entire purpose of the build is measurement: how long a net takes to weave and how much rope and paracord it consumes 00:18
  • An on-screen hour/minute counter runs through the timelapse, with on-screen flags each time a 1,000 ft roll of paracord is used up 00:25
  • Rope usage is tallied only at the end because it was pulled from a single 150 ft bundle 00:41
  • He chose the strips pattern because the rectangular space suited it and a simple pattern made paracord usage and timing easier to track on camera 00:43
  • Total time was about 25 hours, including after-dark work on the sidewall crossweave and finishing loose ends 08:55
  • Net area is calculated as the area between the four anchor trees: 95 sq ft for the floor 09:10
  • Floor-only rate: 17 hours (16 + ~1 for loose ends) = 5.6 sq ft per hour; with sidewalls: 25 hours = 3.8 sq ft per hour 09:28
  • He explicitly cautions these rates are fast because he’d already woven a net in this space; most of his nets take longer due to experimental features 09:39
  • Materials total: 2,500 ft of paracord (2,000 floor + 500 sidewalls) and 120 ft of rope; cost breakdown and course link live in the video description 09:58

Notable Quotes

“the whole point of this net is to see how long does it take to weave a net, and then how much rope and paracord does it use” 00:18

“we used 2500 ft of paracord total, 2,000 ft for the floor, and 500 for the sidewalls” 09:58

“I should note that these numbers are pretty fast because I already wo[ve] a net here. So, I was already familiar with the space.” 09:39

Verified Claims

  • Claim: Paracord comes in 1,000 ft rolls, used as the tracking unit for the build. 00:32

  • Claim: Tree nets are built from a rope frame plus paracord fill, the two materials tracked in this video. 00:22

    • Sources: TreeNet Willy’s FAQ
    • Verdict: Confirmed — professional builders describe treenets as “hand-woven nets made of static rope and 550 parachute cord,” with each paracord strand rated to 550 lbs and the rope frame holding thousands of pounds.

  • Claim: The video is an excerpt from the creator’s advanced weaving course, which teaches what’s shown (strips pattern, portals). 10:16

    • Sources: CanopyCraft course site
    • Verdict: Confirmed — an “Advanced Tree Net Weaving” course ($159) exists and its syllabus explicitly lists “rings & portals to climb into your net, chaos pattern, strips pattern, subdividing your net.”

  • Claim: 3.8–5.6 sq ft per hour is a fast weaving rate compared to typical nets. 09:39

    • Sources: Treenet Weaves FAQ, TreeNet Willy’s FAQ
    • Verdict: Inconclusive — public per-hour benchmarks are scarce; search results suggest a two-person team weaves roughly 100 sq ft per day (comparable per-person rates), but professional builders quote custom projects rather than standardized rates, so “fast” can’t be independently pinned down.

  • Claim (implicit): A DIY net of this size is cheap in materials — the cost is almost entirely labor. 09:58

    • Sources: Paracord Planet 1000’ spool (from $48.99/1,000 ft), TreeNet Willy’s FAQ (professional installs start at $15K indoor / $25K outdoor)
    • Verdict: Confirmed — 2,500 ft of paracord costs roughly $125–175 retail, two orders of magnitude below professional install pricing, which is dominated by skilled labor.

Tools, Papers & Standards Mentioned

Follow-up Questions

  1. What anchoring and tree-protection methods (wraps, tensioning hardware, bark protection) are considered safe practice for treenets, and are there any published load-testing or safety standards for human-rated hand-woven nets?
  2. How does UV and weather exposure degrade nylon 550 paracord outdoors over time, and what is the realistic service life and inspection/retirement schedule for a backyard treenet?
  3. How do the strips pattern and chaos pattern compare in weave time, cord consumption, and load distribution per square foot — is the strips pattern’s trackability worth any structural trade-off?

Sources