ABOUT

LOOKOUT TOWERS

Here at Lookout Towers, we offer the highest-quality services, supplies, hospitality, and inspiration to help you bring your loftiest Fire Tower dreams to life. Under the visionary leadership of Douglas Crawley and Kevin Merta, our family business achieves international acclaim as master Lookout tower Designers and Builders.

This site unites all the elements of our life above the Trees. Look around and explore our design & builder services, shop our Lookout Tower building plans, view our gallery of Towers Built all over the world, plan a stay at our first Lookout Tower Retreat in North Carolina, and much more.

Thank you for joining us.

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I've been browsing Lookout Towers' website, and I'm seriously thinking about planning a visit to their retreat in North Carolina. The idea of experiencing life in a lookout tower is pretty darn interesting, and their retreat seems like a tempting option to live this unique experience.

OUR MAIN SERVICE

WE DESIGN, SUPPLY & INSTALL …Your Lookout Tower

We are a North Carolina based Design, Manufacturer and Installer of Lookout Towers that bring people together through the creation of exquisite/unique custom Lookout Towers.

Our design services are typically paired with our build services but can also be contracted independently. Click below to learn more about the steps and costs of our full design and build process.

Design & Engineer the Structure.

Supply The Materials Kit to fully enclose your tower

Installation Crew to set-up the structure on your site

General Contractor will typically be involved when we are not. they will prep the site/foundation ready for our installation crew and coordinate completion of trim, plumbing, electrical etc.

WE DESIGN / BUILD SAFE, ENDURING & EXQUISITE LOOKOUT TOWERS

We are a firm specializing in designing safe, enduring, and captivating Lookout Towers.

Our designers work closely with you to manifest your vision and bring years of experience in innovative and beautiful small-space design to the process.

Our designs are highly site-specific, integrated with the unique layout of your property and the surrounding environment. We collaborate with engineers and building officials to ensure that your luxury Lookout meets the highest standards of safety.

Our design services are typically paired with our build services but can also be contracted independently.

We oversee your build from prefabrication in our North Carolina based shop, to shipment of prefabricated components, to onsite Installation. Our carpenters excel at their craft, building impressive and durable towers. We pride ourselves on leading an enjoyable, safe, and seamless build experience, believing that the process of building your tower is as fundamental to its magic as being in the completed structure.

We build with only the highest-quality hardware, Materials and tried-and-tested techniques that foster the longevity of both the surrounding environment and your tower.

As necessary, we hire A General Contractor &/or Subcontractors for additional services including insulation, roofing, plumbing, and electrical.

RESIDENTIAL DESIGN & BUILD COST OVERVIEW

A FULLY APPOINTED CUSTOM LOOKOUT TOWER RANGES FROM $350,000 TO OVER $1 MILLION+.

Costs vary widely depending on the location and scope of work.

Our design services account for 10-15 percent of the total price. The minimum cost of our design services for a fully Permitted and Engineered Lookout Tower is about $35,000. The total price of your fully designed and built Tower is equal to our design-services fee plus the cost of our fixed-bid construction contract.

Our typical Lookouts are between 400 and 1,500+ square feet and can include most of the amenities of a typical “ground” house.

OUR LOOKOUTS ARE HIGHLY SITE-SPECIFIC, ENGINEERED & INTEGRATED WITH THE UNIQUE LAYOUT OF YOUR PROPERTY.

The following factors (among others) may affect the cost of your Tower:

• Number of trees you wish to keep
• Desired amenities (e.g., kitchen, bathroom, water, electricity)
• Site access and terrain / slope
• Distance of the Tower from the ground
• Materials, seasonality of the structure (e.g., all-season, three-season), and desired degree of finish
• Travel and logistics (e.g., Set crew accommodations, plane tickets, car rentals, freight).
• Time of year (e.g., peak travel season costs, weather)

ADDITIONAL COST FACTORS

Here’s a little more on what goes into our pricing structure:

• We’ve refined an efficient method of prefabricating, shipping, and building towers onsite. Nonetheless, transporting and housing our crew during your build are significant logistical costs. Projects within four hour’s drive of our North Carolina headquarters may not be subject to the costs of crew accommodations associated with long-distance builds.

• Utilities (e.g. septic system, water, electrical) will need to be brought to the base of the tower before construction can begin. We can assist with this infrastructure in some cases. Please note: these costs are above and beyond the costs of our design and Materials Package build services. Once utilities infrastructure is established, we will oversee the installation of these amenities within the structure as a part of the construction contract.

• Your jurisdiction will require a building permit for a tower—rules vary from place to place. Permitting costs tend to be similar to those of typical residential construction. Please review our FAQ on permitting for more information. This is one of our areas of expertise, so we’ll be happy to help!

• Customers typically engage Lookout Towers to design and install their projects but contracting with a different builder can be a great way to economize, especially for projects outside the USA.

• A final note: Although we have the honor of building Towers around the world, we remain a small family-owned business rooted in the small rural town of Banner Elk, North Carolina. We build beautiful Lookout Towers for incredible people—but not overnight and not without being steeped in the context of our dusty, dog-friendly, dynamic workspace.

To put it another way: we maybe able to provide cutting edge designs but still live in a mountain town that experiences delays of product, people and weather on a daily basis.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN A LOOKOUT TOWER FOR YOUR FAMILY?

WE’D LOVE TO WORK WITH YOU

We invite you to submit an inquiry so we can learn about your vision and determine if we would be the best fit for your project.

Please note: Our site contains excellent information about the process, timing, and costs of Tower construction. We urge you to familiarize yourself with these basics before making an inquiry.

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