Building a yurt from begining to end

[Bob Rowlands]

There are pics of my scratch built (<1K) 16' yurt on this site. Type 'Homemade yurt' in the searchbox.

Find the basic plan I used online here:

clan yama kaminari yurt

A 16'er is great for a nomadic camping yurt, but realistically speaking it would be WAY too small to be a permanent home. IMO. I'd most definitely opt for the 19'er.

But in fact by using the plan I just mentioned you could get about 21' for a few hundred $ more than I spent, and 21' beats 16' in terms of long term living. Use 1x4 for rafters, not 1X3 as in the plan. The roof ring would need scaled up to accept 1x4 rafters. I'd widen the plywood ring to 36" inches in diameter, 6" in width, and use 4x4 for the spacers, not the goofy little 1x3s in the plan.

To find the EXACT rafter cuts, do a full scale lay out of wall lattice and ring centerline, and heigth differential. Lay a 1X4-10' on the marks and mark the 'master rafter'. Cut it to the layout marks and you'll be golden. It will be on the money.

Good luck.