One of our crew has a welder, so he made my stand for me. The ladder is u-channel steel, and the stand is 1" square tubing with a 3/4" plywood floor. I also has plywood walls and a plywood roof. A chain holds the whole unit to the tree. I actually inherited the stand when I started hunting the lease. All of the materials were bought cheap, but this would certainly be a pricy stand if all materials had to be purchased at normal cost. We also build our own aluminum ladder stands for archery and ML season. Easy to move those around.