Building a yurt from begining to end

[ktm2racing2001]

I have figured out your layout! Thanks great explanation. Also a question on wall height and how many walls. In order to get from 16' to 21' do I just add a wall? Do I need to change the wall height? In Mongolia this is how they size Gerrs/yurts.

[Bob Rowlands]

Mongolian nomadic gers have walls about 4' tall.

My yurt has 90" long laths, and an 8 cross pattern on 12" centers. Come in three inches from either end for the starting hole on that particular lath. That gives a wall somewhere around 5'4", with the lattice forming 90 degree squares when expanded. IMO the perfect wall height.


Now, put your thinking cap on and follow along as I try to answer a couple of your questions instead of just give you numbers.

The hypotenuse of a 12" square is 16.97". Divide that 16.97" into the planned rough yurt circumference (21' or whatever size you choose) and you'll get a whole number and a fraction. Drop the fraction, and round up or down. That is the number of wall crosses for your planned yurt size, AND will give you the 'exact' circumference, IF you go with the lattice forming squares, not diamonds, AND you plan on one rafter per lattice cross.

As an aside here, this technique is SO exact you can build your

tension cable

to this circumferential length. And that my friend makes erecting the yurt a snap. The wall is dead on the money in circumference once you get the cable installed into the lath crosses.

There is 'no' fiddling around expanding and retracting the wall. People do not get bopped on the head by rafters falling out of the ring while you fiddle with 'expanding and retracting' the wall trying to tension the rafters.

Stand the wall. Expand until the cable drops in nice and tight, and load the rafters. The ring will be at the right height, the rafters tightly butted into the ring, and the roof perfectly tensioned.

You need to know the number of rafters in order to build the yurt rafter ring using the build technique in the yama kaminari plan. One rafter per wall cross, and two or three above the door.

All that said, let's say your 21.15' dia. yurt has 47 rafters. Three will be above the door for a double door, or very wide single door. I chose two for a standard sized door.

That means you have 44 actual wall lattice crosses. Lets say you go with 4 sections for portability. You need to add two laths per section (one 17" width) since you lose 17" at every lap. 44 + 3 laps = 47 laths (47 per side-double for actual laths per section). 47 divided by 4 = 3- 12 lath wide sections and one 11 lath wide section. Actual laths is twice the number of crosses. If the laths are 1.5", you'll have four easily moved wall sections about two feet wide when folded up tight.


There you go. Carefully read the details in the 'yama kaminari' site plan. To pull this off successfully, you need to fully understand how to build your. Have fun.

[Jafo]

After reading that Bob, I am really glad I bought a pre-fab lol. I am great at writing code, but if I actually had to build that, I would have to settle for a mud hut.

[Bob Rowlands]

Lol it's a lot of jibber jabber for sure.

[carl160]

for a fabric yurt what kinds of fabric are folks using for interior and exterior walls.

[Surely Yurts - Steve]

Originally Posted by carl160

for a fabric yurt what kinds of fabric are folks using for interior and exterior walls.

Standard exterior roof covers are heat seamed 18 oz. Vinyl Coated polyester. Some premium options up to ~22 oz.

Walls usually an acrylic coated polyester ~15 oz..

Make sure that it's FLAME RETARDANT!

Interior liners can be anything F.R. but I've found synthetics like a polyester or nylon are much more resistant to mold.

The industry generally insulates with a reflective bubble

insulation

between
the exterior cover and liner. Works great, lightweight, and is clean with no mold.

Lanolin found in sheep wool is naturally flame retardant so a good alternative to synthetic covers and/or

insulation

would be wool felt.