feedback on a 30' yurt

[Bob Rowlands]

heh heh. The 'Zephyr' from Zampano Yurt CO.

[Jake]

You folks may have talked me into the 30' rather then the 24' one. I need to redo the calculations now, 2X6s over 2 bys, and a lot of rethinking on it all. Much food for thought.

The Zepheyr is sure pretty !

[Jake]

After playing with the numbers etc, I will stick with the 24' dia. It will do nicely for me, and a bit easier to heat. I will also stay with the 2 by 4s, but fastened as Bob and Jafo advise. From the

dome

on down I can cut it all, except for the very door and two windows, commercial. I have seen a number of the manufacturers products here, and will be buying some of them, especially the

dome

.

If all goes well I will begin the building next June, depending on how much the snow is opened up. I have some of the material now, the lathe for the Khana has been cut for several years and is stickered. I have the wood stove and pipe. Quite a bit of stuff actually.

I really appreciate all of the advice and input here. This yurt has been incubating in mind for almost five years and has assumed shape, very Mongolian except for the windows, I will do them with appropriate red paint though. A LOT has jelled the past two weeks reading the advice on what others are doing. I

And more will as it goes along.

Thank you all.

[Jafo]

The only thing I don't like about 24' yurts is that you can't make them any bigger.

[Jake]

Sure you can ! But, for me its over 400 sq ft, which is more then I use now,
and less space to heat.

And a huge difference in cost to buy and/or build.

I really would prefer to build most or all of it myself, but, if I buy one, from say

Colorado Yurts

I can save the purchase price in a year. I actually lean towards building a lot of one and then buying the rest like tono and other stuff. We'll see, now is the time to research and compare options.

'Measure twice and cut once.' Applys to the initial homework too.

To say that I need to examine all options is a way understated fact.

[Jafo]

I meant, you can't make it any bigger after you build it.

[Jake]

add another beside it???

For a single person a 24' is very nice, more then enough room, easier to heat, in Mongolia it would be considered a luxury sized one.

[Bob Rowlands]

Lemme tell yuz, when I was in my early 20s and single, I lived in a couple different apartments smaller than a 24' yurt. Guys don't need space. The women they live with want it. Then they get married, then the kids come along and 'we need more space' hits. It's usually the woman that wants the big well feathered nest, with eight freaking pillows on the bloody bed. lol. Most guys could care less. As long as they got a place to park their truck, they're good to go. Heck I lived out of my 5x7 mountain tent for nearly four months straightback in 1978, before I met my wife. I was happy as all git out with no rent.

A 24' yurt is HUGE, IMO. A 30' is the Taj Mahal of yurts. Personally, I think 16' is just about right. Cheap to build, easy up and down, easy to move. Perfect. Entire Mongolian families are raised in 5 meter yurts.

[Jafo]

Well some of it depends on what you are doing. At my camp, I have things like the solar battery bank stored inside, then I have a wood stove, propane range, two sets of bunk beds for my kids and hunting buddies, a couple couches and a dining room table. This is just for a camp. Now that uses up quite a bit of space. Sure, you won't need that much if you are just going to hermit there, but when it comes to space, I am all for having more than I need.

[kyle]

Yea, I agree, the space is nice. Depends on the person though. I lived in a 16' yurt for 2 years with no water, electricity etc, and found the space was limiting. My fiance and I are hoping to build another yurt (its been a couple years since I move out of my 16'er and am jonesing to get back to it bad!) I look forward to having the space to do a compact kitchen space, potentially a loft and some space to move around, and not have to eat, sleep and prepare food from the same futon! If kids come along, a 16' add on is easy to put up and a very cheap addition to the home!