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building a yurt for the winter...

N

njtool

New member
I will be building a yurt to live in this winter. For reference, I live in north west new jersey.

I have been researching yurts for almost a year and I am ready to get started but I have a few questions that I hope some people will be kind enough to help me out with.

The only calculator I have found so far is simplydifferent.org. even though its in metric, i have muddled through it. However, I have a few concerns with the site. First of all, the wall angle on the site is 90 degrees, it the lath was 90 it would be verticle. Am I missing something here? 90 degrees is used throughout the website so it doesnt appear to be a one time error.
I want the walls to be 6'. I input 60 degree for the angle and it gives me a length of 7'7" for the lath. The site recommends 7 holes in the lath with 1' spacing and 16" left over on one end. That math doesnt add up if the lath is 7'7"long.

Is there another calculator out there that I cant find? My parameters are; a 20' yurt that will be built on a platform. I will be milling all the wood myself, im planning on making the walls from beech and im not sure about the roof poles yet.

Is bending the individual lath before assemble a good idea? How big of a radius bend will give me straight walls when its assembled?

So many question. Any help would be aapreciated.

Thank you
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

a2 x b2 = c2 This formula will give you alot of unknown lengths.

Bending lath before assembly into wall is absolute essential, if you intend to bend them.

Laths on a 45 degree angle relative to the platform, are at a 90 degree angle relative to eachother. The laths form squares when you look at the wall. This is a very quick reference when expanding the wall sections, assuming you planned on the wall having squares. The wall doesn't have to be squares, it can be diamonds. Your choice. Raise the wall and the diamonds narrow, and the inside diameter shrinks. Of course you need to have this planned out or the roof pitch will change, and the wall cover will beshort. You need to have all that worked out before hand. Diamonds I don't know jack about. My 12'7" yurt is squares.

You migfht want to google: Caln Yama Kaminari Yurt click on yurt build and read the instructions. I have built the 16' 14' and now the 12' version. Good luck.
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

I forgot about the simplydifferently being a pain with the metric. I'd sketch the bits out by hand and label everything just to make sure I was doing it right--every now and again I get my conversions ways off...

The lathes don't need much of a bend. The lathe in my purchased traditional yurt has a bend ~2/3 up the wall of just a few degrees. Paul King's The Complete Yurt Handbook has directions for such things.
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

Thanks for the replies. I finally got the yurt handbook and its filled with great info. My son and I framed out a deck this weekend. Next we have to build a circular platform on top of the deck.
This weekend im going to take down a beech tree to make the lath out of. My experiment will be to put the lath in a bending form wet and see how well they hold their shape when they dry.
While they are drying I will tackle the platform...
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

I thought I would share my progress so far. I cut down 2 beech trees, both had hearts that were less than perfect but I worked around them. I have about 62 slats so far, about half of what I will need. The slats are a little over 10 feet long, I will cut them down once they are dry then I will drill the holes.

I've been thinking about sealing the slats. Is there a preferred finish for the slats, if any?
 

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Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

I'm not sure if the pics loaded properly. Here they are again...
 

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Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

Good job dude. Needless to say I am VERY impressed by your effort. Nicely done.

As for finish of laths, I painted mine with two coats of hunter green Rustoleum enamel. That paint is bulletproof. If you want a clear finish you could use either oil or wb polyurethane. I happen to like oil based coatings because they are very durable. I'm sure some manufacturers use a dip tube filled with finish because labor is money.

Keep after it. Thanks for the photos.
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

Thanks,
I guess I will use boiled linseed oil if I have time for them to dry, I like natural wood
I still have a bunch of slats to cut and get in the racks, my large beech trees had rotten hearts im glad I got rid of them. I will have to take down another tree to get my quota.

Ive been thinking about the best way to build the base and the best insulation. I think I have a source for raw wool that I can wash and use. As for the design of the base, im thinking that beams radiating out from the center with a pine sub floor then a finished floor would be sufficient. Does anyone else have a better suggestion?
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

Beams radiating from center -like rafters to ring- is one way. Post and beam atop piers is the usual platform framing. Los of photos online of the standard yurt platform framing. I built my platform using that basic technique.
 
Re: building a yurt for thi winter...

Hello all.
I thought I would give an update. Cutting the lath then putting them in a bending jig while still wet worked great. They didn't take long to dry because they are so small. I have about 100 full length lath pieces with tons of shorter ones.

I'm starting to plan for the platform and I have a question. What's the best way to attach the walls to the base? I though the walls go on the outside of the base then a cable keeps it tight to the base. However, I've seen pics of people using angle iron and screws into the floor, which wouldn't look too good.
My base will probable be about 8" tall so I was thinking about putting a strip of wood an inch or two around the base so the lath can sit higher on the base.
Any other suggestion would be appreciated.

Thanks,
 
How we did it on my yurt was to bend plywood all the way around it and have the plywood come 1" over the deck. You kind of get the idea here:

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You attach the walls to that skirt with screw/grommets:

1-albums2-picture44.jpg


Does this make sense?
 
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Hi Jafo,
That interesting. Is there a cable along the bottom perimeter? I wasn't planning on using poles along the wall to hold up the roof but I like that idea.
 
No wire along the bottom, just the top. The studs are there for snow support more than anything else.

BTW, the lattice is anchored to that skirt (or floor, can't remember) with a little bracket.
 
I dug out my Pacific Yurts install manual and they have a perfect illustration of it:

instructions.jpg
 
I've been working on the deck and platform and I'm making progress. I will post pics this week.

I have a question about the lath. I haven't decided on what to use to hold them together. I was thinking bent nails but I'm worried about how they will look. Also, should I connect the lath through every hole? I've read that most of the time certain holes are skipped.

What's the best way to attach the lath together?
 
Hello njtool,

If you look at this pic you can see how I build in the platform straps to the lattice when assembling it. We make them out of 18 gauge galvanized steel.

As you see in this pic it screws into the platform of the yurt.

Watch out however because there is still a relatively sharp metal bracket here that would touch the fabric. That is why after this pic was taken another bent piece (exactly as Jafo described) goes around on the outside of the brackets.

-Cheers
 

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