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Insulating a yurt roof

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lizsteve

New member
We're in upstate NY and thinking about adding extra insulation to our ceiling. any thoughts on this? Will just the roof insulation keep us significantly warmer anyway?

We are thinking we'd stuff in-between the rafters with fiberglass, buy roof insulation from Colorado Yurt Co to fit our 27' size and pin this to the rafters with wooden battens to hold the insulation in. But the insulation is $1300 from CO Yurt Co. so also looking for other options to keep insulation in place.

Other ideas?
 
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Re: insulating the roof

Hi! I'm in no way affiliated with Lowes, but the same insulation that you mention that you will need to pay $1300.00 for can be found at Lowes and you can do your Yurt for less than half the price you mention. If you go online to Lowes and type in Item #409816 you'll find the "Reflectix" insulation. All you have to do is cut it to fit. It cuts easily with shears. As you can see from the Lowes website, a 100ft X 48 inch roll sells for $166.67. I'm sure you can find the same stuff at many locations for a similar price.
 
Re: insulating the roof

Foam boards cut to fit also increase your R value.
 
Re: insulating the roof

I have not tried it, but if you have exposed rafters, I can't think of why it would not work...

Put fiberglass between the rafters to fill the space and staple the Reflectix on the bottom of the rafter to help hold the insulation in place.

A layer of white or lightly colored muslin stapled on the inside would then help support the reflective insulation, and give you a nicer, brighter look inside, (without having the "wrapped in tin-foil" look).

Admittedly, you lose the appearance of the exposed rafters, it just depends on how much work you wanted to do in that direction, and if you ever plan to move your yurt.

You could still leave the bottom of the rafters exposed, but staple the other insulation in the "triangle" showing between the rafters.

You could make some light battens, say 1.5" X .5" and use them to staple the Reflectix and muslin in place, and still have the appearance the edge of the rafters. Just some ideas.

On the Asian steppes when it is really cold, I was told they build another yurt inside their yurt as a sleeping room, and they said the difference was remarkable. A small fire kept the smaller yurt warm in this enclosed space which helped trap the heat. I haven't tried This yurt-in-a-yurt myself.

I am not sure most of us are prepared to go that far, but we aren't trying to stay warm in a howling wind at -20C to -30C huddled around a fire fueled with a pile of dried horse poop that you have been collecting for weeks. How many cords of horse poop do you guess you would need?

I hope everyone is warm this winter, and their pipes keep working.

Rod
rod::email::yurtlocker.com
Home Page.
 
Re: insulating the roof

We're in VT, last year we put R13 up and it made a big difference. I didn't want to lose the exposed rafters so we did this:

1. put up insulation by pinching it between the rafters and the roof canvas - realizing the 'squashed' areas would not provide great insulation, but knowing that it would hold it in place and also not ruin our rafter look.

2. put up plastic and tape all the seams to prevent insulation dust from being in your living space (we emptied our space before doing this, but you could drape yours and then vacuum the wall canvas, etc. when done)

3. put up painter's canvas - unbleached denim-like fabric so that it matched the canvas walls (more or less)

I can send you pics if you'd like...
 
Re: insulating the roof

Very helpful folks, thanks.

Related question is since general rule is that you're only as insulated as your spots with the least amount of insulation - does insulating the roof help that much? Obviously heat rises so we're inclined to think so. But the dome will still be uninsulated most of the time and we don't plan to add insulation to the walls.

Thanks!
 
Re: insulating the roof

Last year was our first year in the yurt - we were heading into November and feeling the chill, once this was done, we didn't feel cold. In fact, if it was daylight and over 35 degrees we had to turn our heater off every day between 12 - 4 ish or it got too warm.
 
Re: insulating the roof

Oh yes - thx. I should have said we have one for the dome but it won't be as think as the rest of the ceiling and we only use it when REALLY cold cause it's so much of our natural light.
 
Re: insulating the roof

I would imagine you could probably use that plastic you can buy in any hardware store for normal windows too, though it might lead to moisture issues. The dome is the best way to vent moisture in most yurts.
 
Re: insulating the roof

I am just throwing ideas out here...

If you are concerned about losing heat through your dome, try putting a layer, or heck 2 layers, of the clear bubble wrap that is used for packing on the inside of the dome. Put the bubbles together in the middle. It shouldn't stop too much of the light, and it should add a pretty good insulation layer to the dome.

The yurts that I have been in during nasty weather did not have a dome. They used a piece of canvas that was insulated with a quilted felt backing. I know that works, because it was -28C outside, and it was sweater - flannel shirt comfortable inside with a small wood stove, just a short time after the fire was started. This was in a 23 foot yurt, not huge, but not one of the baby ones.

Sort of cut down on the ambient light though...

Rod
rod::email::yurtlocker.com
Home Page.

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Re: insulating the roof

For sure you are right about the dome and ventilation, Jafo, but I was thinking of sealing the dome to be more like a blister, not blocking the air exchange. It would still be insulated, but open-able.

As I said before, just throwing out ideas.

Rod
rod::email::yurtlocker.com
Home Page.
 
Re: insulating the roof

I am working on various solutions for roof and walls. Price per square foot is an issue of course. Then their is also the desire for a flexible or rigid material, how much space do you have to work with and what values are you trying to obtain. Are their any building codes you have to meet?
 
Re: insulating the roof

We live in our yurt year round in Canada where we routinely get -30. We have the outside covered in the reflective insulation directly under the tarp. Then we have fiberglass insulation between the rafters and another layer of reflective insulation inside. We found that we had to tape each seam other wise we have Mousie problems in the fiberglass. Our dome is also insulated and that made a huge difference. Feel free to ask any questions!



lizsteve said:
We're in upstate NY and thinking about adding extra insulation to our ceiling. any thoughts on this? Will just the roof insulation keep us significantly warmer anyway?

We are thinking we'd stuff in-between the rafters with fiberglass, buy roof insulation from Colorado Yurt Co to fit our 27' size and pin this to the rafters with wooden battens to hold the insulation in. But the insulation is $1300 from CO Yurt Co. so also looking for other options to keep insulation in place.

Other ideas?
Click to expand...
 
Re: insulating the roof

How thick is your fiberglas insulation? Is there any problems with condensation water under the tarp? If the roof is very tight insulated, is there some need for some ventilation hole on the roof? I just imagine, I will not open the dome during the winter time. The dome which I bought is the three layered arctic window.

I am just plannig my yurt in arctic Finland and the roof insulation is the thing I think constantly.
 
Re: insulating the roof

Reinvent or,
I, too am in Vermont
When you say you used R13 is that fiberglass?
I plan on using Roxul with a parachute (used) to cover the insulation
Glad to hear that it helped, did you cover your walls?
 
Re: insulating the roof

Mongolians (and most central Asian yurts) use the "urgh" : a square (or star shaped) piece of insulated canvas. Fixed with 4 ropes that run all the way to the side of the yurt. The 4th rope is used to open / close or remove the flap completely.
 
Re: insulating the roof

Reinventor,
My family and I are in the process of insulating our 16 ft yurt roof similar to the way you explained with the roll out insulation between the rafters. I was wondering how you placed the painters canvas on to the roof? Did you tuck it under the rafter, sort of like weaving? If you would be willing to expand a bit it would be very helpful or even pictures.

One idea we had was to fill in the spaces between the rafters, cover the entire roof with canvas then staple some type of a strapping (function or decorative) on each rafter to secures the cnavas thus holding the insulation in place. I do not want to loose the rafter exposure if I do not need to!

Also, I just finished sealing our roof with the roofing paint you suggested in another post!! I think it will not only buy us some time before we have to completely replace our roof but it was also easy to put on.

Thank you!
 
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Re: insulating the roof

Cool! Glad my trial and error is helping someone else.
We cut the insulation for the upper part into trapezoids so the edges tucked under the rafters and tacked it in place with tape strips between sections of insulation.
As we did this, we put up thin mm clear plastic to keep the fibers sealed in and fully taped the seams of it.
We then threaded the canvas under all the rafters, pulled it taught and overlapped the seams pinching them diagonally behind the rafters.
I don't know how to post a picture on here, but you can email me at [email protected].
 
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