Dome Installation

[Dan R-M]

Ok, here goes:
I lust after the simplicity of the Pacific Yurts'

dome

installation, but ours is a little trickier. Or, less complex in design but hairier in actually attaching it.
I'll get to the point: Our SMY

dome

is just a dome with 8 holes for screws. What I envisioned doing was 1) putting on the roof, 2) pulling the dome up the side, and 3) crawling on the roof to screw it down.
I got up to step 1 and realized that I did not want to bet my weight (or my life) on the security of our rafters. After a brainstorming session with my two helpers, I decided I'd roll the roof vinyl up one side and lean across the roll (while standing on the scaffold) to screw in one side, the unroll it and do the same on the opposite side. It worked ok, but I wasn't able to get the roof pulled as tight as I wanted to before sticking in screws, and I ended up with a little wrinkle under the dome.
Now I wonder how folks who don't have the snap-on dome thing do it? It seems like there ought to be a surer way that I went about it.

[Jafo]

I don't blame you for not trusting the rafters! This is a hard question and I am not sure I know the answer. It is a shame

Spirit Mountain Yurts

is of so little help!

The only thing I can say, and I mentioned it in the gasket thread, is to give it a few days and see if it stretches into place. Mine did, but then again my dome is not screwed down.

[HawaiiYurts]

Wow,that sounds whacky! I have no idea, but I think you're wise not to trust your life on that roofing system. I would almost have to recommend an alteration there. If you screw it right in to the ring... How do you open the dome? If you can't open the dome then you're losing your biggest ventilation factor. :\ Hmmm...

[Dan R-M]

It's only wacky if you're familiar with "normal" That's why I'm getting so much perspective from this forum.
No ventilation is right. It gets HOT during the day. So hot, in fact, that the floor under the dome is littered with dead bugs of all sorts. The other day I watched a cabbage butterfly flutter up into the dome and immediately fall down to the floor, dead. Whew!
So, among other things, I'm plotting how to make it easy to raise. I'm imagining a sturdy piece of plywood that I'd screw the dome to, then hinge it in one or two places to the

center ring

. And then go cruise Home Depot to see if they've got any of those skylight-lifting pole assemblies.
Sound kosher? Anything I should be thinking about?

[Jafo]

The one thing you will want to take into consideration is wind. You are only going to need to open one side of the dome 3-5 inches and not much more. You will want the side that opens to not be facing the normal prevailing winds. A good breeze gets under that dome and it could rip right off.