Building a Wooden Platform

Many people are using their bell tents as temporary accommodation on private plots of land, by the beach or in the hills.

A wooden platform is an excellent method to keep your bell tent elevated and well ventilated, making for a quick set up on your arrival for the weekend or holiday season.

Anna, from NSW, kindly sent photographs of her wooden platform in construction as well as a step by step guide:

“The supports are short star pickets available from Bunnings. I have not seen anyone else use them for this, but when you drive them into the ground they are working as mini piles. It is using friction with the ground, so if you have soft ground, you may need to use full length star pickets, used for fences, and drive them in till they’re hard to drive any further and cut off the excess.

I do engineering and this is how they support buildings, only bigger. I’ve used this method before to create a cheap fast deck support, and it hasn’t moved going on 10 years.

Then tech screw the timber to these. I just used a solid packer off the ground at the centre to take the point load of the pole.

The fairy lights are USB, so you can run them off a phone battery charger. They’re from Typo if anyone wants to create the look.

Using ply sheets under the tent gives a nice smooth surface and helps with setout. It’s also cheaper. Save the expensive treated decking for where it will be seen.”

She also uses the solar powered vent in the Exit flu when the stove is not in use, which is a genius idea!

Thanks so much Anna for this information. We truly appreciate our wonderful customers who are so generous with their ideas.