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Permitting a yurt

Call the building dept that handles Laurel Canyon, and get the facts from them. That eliminates middle man opinions that can confuse you..
 
I just left the building permit office for Mason County Washington and NO permits are required for full time yurt living. If the platform is 30inches above grade then you need a deck permit complete with railing, but if the platform is under 30 inches from grade the platform needs ZERO permits!!!! There are no minimum insulation requirements and no permitting for water or power as long as the property has an approved septic on file with the county!!

Needless to say I am on cloud 9 knowing that we can move ahead with our yurt without permitting issues.
 
That's great news! Make sure you talked to the right officials. We were told that we didn't need a permit in the municipality of Powell River BC by front end staff and once our yurt was up the city freaked out and made us just many, very expensive hoops to have it permitted. Because someone said yes to you, you can always challenge a city in court, but who needs that stress!
 
Found this recently and thought people here might be interested to know. After last year's fires around Sonoma County CA, they revised some of their building permit regulations and are offering fee exemptions to help residents rebuild.

To get every individual back into their homes and return the community to its health and vibrancy, the City of Santa Rosa has created new policies, which include:

Expediting review process for hillside development and design review
Waiving fees for discretionary planning, demolition and temporary housing permits
Allowing residents to live in temporary housing units, such as manufactured, tiny homes, and RVs, on their properties while rebuilding
Allowing residents to build detached accessory dwelling units to live in while they are rebuilding their main residence and offering incentives for such units
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See the whole PDF document here: https://issuu.com/cityofsantarosa/docs/temporary_housing?e=31857122/57669144

I'm not 100% sure if our wood yurt cabins qualify, let alone a fabric yurt, but it is a drastic reduction in the permitting barriers in that area. Worth looking into if you're in that area! Live in a yurt while you rebuild, then use it as an Airbnb/granny flat/accessory structure once your house is rebuilt.
 
Hi Jafo, new here. Toying with the idea of selling our home and building a yurt. I know you mentioned a septic or cesspool however we would want to use a composting toilet - what would we do with our water from sink/shower use? Will that get approved? My husband mentioned using water filtration tank and then siphoning to the garden. I'm just not sure what will be allowed for a primary residence and not sure where to start looking either. We will need to have a raised deck in order to have the composting toilet beneath. What are your thoughts about building this? Also we are a family of 4 how big of a yurt might we need to accommodate comfortably? I will take any and all advice! We are in northern NJ
 
I hate to defer, but the rules change wildly from town to town. I would just go speak with your local zoning officer. Most of these guys are retired contractors and can tell you pretty quickly what they would consider and what they would reject.

The idea of using grey water in your garden is probably not going to fly, in my opinion. The composting toilet on the other hand? You might get that one.
 
Dan R-M said:
Our yurt isn't permitted, 'cause it's a temporary structure the county is ok with, but we've been exploring the prospects of cob and straw bale. The former is as far off the zoning board's radar as yurts, I'm sure.
The best advice we've gotten is to learn as much as one can about the zoning board and building inspectors (talking to folks who have built in the area recently) and to remember that most are not out to get you, but are more than willing to work with someone who is trying to do things the right way (the safe way). They won't automatically be antagonistic to new ideas if those ideas can be proven to be sound, but they're not going to do the work to establish the proof.
In some cases, the board or inspectors will actually be excited about working with you, because they want to encourage safe new ideas.
You can comment, Melissa, on the reality of that situation. We haven't acted on the advice yet ourselves, but it sounds reasonable and jives with our experience when informally asking a member of our zoning board about our yurt "summer home" by the garden.
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Hi. I had thought of using cob or straw covered with limestone on the outside of the walls of the yurt. Using the material that normally covers your house especially for winter as installation. But I don't know if it would work. I'm thinking the limestone provides a harder wall. But considering that you may have to replace your yurt structure at some point, you may not want too.
 
IMO if you are considering straw bale or 'cob' whatever that is, covered with stucco or some other troweled on finish, just stick frame the outside wall. Cheaper WAAAY faster easier. Any experiended competent carpenter could build that curved outside wall from panels sized at 16" or 2' panels in very short order. Lap the top plates. Cover with ply and finish with stucco. Bam. Done. Way faster then any other technique traditional lath. Just a thought. I'm a carpenter since 1973 and know this stuff inside and out.
 
If time and money are an issue -as they usually are- a framed wall is going to be very cheap in comparison to any other technique. Every building center has very affordable materials you need to build a VERY solid yurt in very little time. I my experience anything 'oddball' is expensive and takes a long time to build. Plus very few tradesmen have the interest in working on an odd project because they know they won't make money at it. Just stating facts to consider before proceeding. Regardless, good luck with your project.
 
new to this forum and agree that this subject is a great way to start. I am just beginning to explore the idea of a yurt. living in California, I suspect that it will be an uphill battle to get a permit to build a yurt, especially with the new codes coming up. Any californians wanting to share their thoughts is appreciated.
 
Sorry I can't answer your question. All my inlaws live there but none are into yurts. There's little traffic on this site so I make up for it by flappin my gums on every thread. I know a few folks gotta be gettin burned out on me. ha Hopefully someone will pop in here soon. Good luck
 
My recent experience in a rural county in Utah. At first we were told by someone in the building department that we didn't need a permit to build a yurt. This was accurate but not the whole story. Turned out we don't need a permit for the yurt but we do need a permit for the platform/deck. Any deck over 200 square feet requires a permit in our area. Of course the deck needs to meet code requirements for construction regarding beam and joist spans, beam size, railing, stairs, etc.

In our case, the yurt is not going to be a residence and we're building it in a way that allows it to fall into a "recreational" category. Basically this means no permanent services, like water, gas, electricity, sewer, etc. This is fine for us but doesn't suit everyone's needs.

If we didn't go this route then all the typical residential codes would apply and it would be way more intensive to permit, design, and build. YMMV.
 
Thanks, all of this info helps. I also live in NY but am very clueless on how to get the ball rolling.
 
Harry said:
Thanks, all of this info helps. I also live in NY but am very clueless on how to get the ball rolling.
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I would say your #1 step, to get the ball rolling, is to go down to the county/city permitting office and talk through your plans with them. And Make sure they understand exactly what/how you plan to use the yurt.



Every jurisdiction can have slightly different rules about these kinds of things, especially if you're talking about rural counties/towns.
 
I spoke with a company that builds yurts in my state/area and he told me to speak with a code enforcement official so I put in a call to them and I'm waiting for a call back. I do live in a rural spot so I have to figure all that out yet. I'm not a builder or anything and sometimes I'm a little clueless with the terminology that they are using. In my area I may need a zoning variance I think he said. And I'm also not sure that I would be allowed to have a second structure on my property that is allowed for full-time residential use
 
Getting a yurt permitted seems to be a grey area to talk about... I see them all over Washington for rent (by govt) yet for some reason it's near impossible to figure out how to get permitted!

I guess that is exactly why so many opt to build and permit later (if discovered). Makes sense, but for those that want to permit then build, what?
 
Building depts. vary. For sure 'don't get the building dept. sued' is a big priority. So that in mind taking risk is not gonna happen.

Building dept. can be a good ole boy network. Anything different like a yurt is likely seen by some inspectors as green hippie commie liberal bs around here. So there's that to deal with as well. JMO though.
 
Regardless of what some permit departments may want us all to believe, yurts can be permitted pretty much anywhere unless there are specific codes that block yurts in that particular area. Thankfully, permit departments don't get to arbitrarily deny a yurt or any other structure - they have to point to an actual code that isn't met. If they can do that and the yurt builder can't meet the challenge, then the challenge is over. But unless the code mentions yurts or membrane structures specifically and has a zero policy about them, there are usually ways around the offending code(s). It takes a willingness to speak kindly, keep an open mind, persistence, and get the right people on your team. Namely, a local architect and some friends in the building department never hurts.

-Some yurts don't meet door height requirements. Get one that does.
-Many yurts don't meet the antiquated R-value rating system. Get two layers of insulation or seek out alternative insulations that do meet your local R values.
-Often times the plans yurt manufacturers provide for free don't come close to cutting it for residential codes. This is where your architect first comes into play.
-You may need an engineer to sign off. I recommend Steve Kicinsky of Ellisport Engineering. Great guy, great engineer.
-Wind ratings and snow loads are important and may need documented with engineering stamp.

I got yurts permittable in Hawaii nearly 17 years ago. Every few years since I have to defend the cause all over again and jump ever new and involved series of hoops. But it's a worthy cause, I'll keep doing it for now :cool:

Good luck! Check back if you have a challenge you need help brainstorming on!

M
 
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