Flooring Options

[Bob Rowlands]

"Mom!!! Dad!!! Are your kids hot and cranky? (close shot of frowning kids) NEW! From YURTCO! The yurt pool! Simply unfold and tie off the lattice, install the liner, and filler up! Shallow, deep, whatever depth you want!! Yes, now you can have hours of summer fun with the whole family!! Yours for only three easy payments of $39.95!! (shot of mom shoving dad into pool amid howls of laughter) Liner not included. Not available in NJ CA or MA. Always wear sunscreen. lol

[Old Man Oldman]

Add a pool heater for year-round soaking pleasure.

[ecovallee]

Hi,

I've done several floors, in various ways, for low or no money. My yurts are coppiced, so light enough to be able to lift the walls if necessary. So they'd be fine for installing a floor after you've put it on a ply subfloor. I guess you'll be treating the floor afterwards, so you'll need to be careful with the product (if coloured), or live with a few splashes on the bottom of the walls here and there.

The floors I've done (reference here: https://thedevolutionary.wordpress.com/?s=yurt+floor) have all been finished before the yurt goes on. It takes me two days on my own to put down an 18-foot floor made of 10/12 cm tongue & groove. If you go for wider, you'll cut that time down a bit. Then treatment takes a day or so (for two coats). Then the yurt a couple of hours. I've toyed with the idea of an adobe floor with underfloor

heating

, but never done it - and when we considered it, I remember thinking it would take weeks. And would need to be covered. And not too hot. And and and. (And I've read it would be wonderful.) You'll find yourself looking at the weather a lot when living in a yurt - and racing the rain/snow/whatever. Where I am, a rain-free week comes along quite regularly. Actually, a bit too regularly now.

The only ballache I see with installing your floor after is cutting the circle segment on each piece as you go. As you'll see from that reference, I tend to put the board down, cut it, move the board to the other side, put it down again, and cut off the triangular shape, for as little waste as possible. These become kindling, but a triangle is a bit tricky to split, as you may find.

Good luck with it.

[thebitmaster]

I installed my cork flooring after the yurt was up. It simply stops short of the wall lattice, leaving a small gap. Since my 12' yurt is pretty full, I don't see the gap. Overall the cork has been fabulous. It's easy on the feet and tougher than you'd guess. It can pucker from excessive water, but only if it's allowed to sit for long periods of time where it can slip between tiles.

Sheet vinyl, especially the new kind that's more bendable than the old style can be great, especially if the yurt is moved semi-regularly. Just roll it into place and you're done.

To cut the edges for board flooring, I made a curved edge at the right curvature on a piece of thin plywood that was bigger than the boards. I would measure and mark from both corners the distance to the wall for each piece. Then I would lay the curve connecting both points and trace the circular edge. This way you only need two measurements per cut. I can post a diagram if that would be helpful.

It can definitely be easier to *cut* the flooring before you put the yurt up, because you can just let it hang over the edge of the subfloor, draw a big circle, and run around the edge with a jigsaw. That's way faster and easier than trying to cut and fit each edges piece as you go.

[ecovallee]

Yes, a jigsaw would have been great. I did all mine by hand in the woods, because I was time rich and money poor...

[riesahp]

We made a plywood floor from 2 rounds screwed together for our 24' Pacific Yurt. After all the walls and covers were on, we lay laminate flooring, cutting the pieces into different sizes as we went along, to make it look interesting. We took the cuts right out to the perimeter and after it was all done, we cut lengths to go between the planks of our perimeter wind package. This is convenient because we can slip those pieces out and vacuum up the insects that like to get under the floor; this also depends on what kind of year we've had for weather. A very cold winter with lots of snow has decimated the fly populations and so this year we've less to concern ourselves with. Good luck.

[Pacific Yurts]

Most people do install the finish flooring before installing the yurt. cardboard and/or plastic can be taped down over it during the installation to help avoid scratches.

Folks who plan to install flooring after the yurt often install a raised ring around the outer perimeter of the platform (usually 1x6 or 2x6 laid flat), which is secured to the subfloor. This wood ring can be stained or painted to match your color scheme. The yurt itself anchors onto the raised ring, while the finish flooring can be installed within the ring at a later date. This method also eliminates the gap where debris can accumulate around the bottom of the lattice wall with other installations.

[Old Man Oldman]

My main problem with installing the finish flooring before raising the yurt is that the floor could be exposed to the elements for days or even weeks. Tarps are expensive and hard to secure in a way that prevents leakage.

[Pacific Yurts]

In that case you may be better off installing a raised ring and waiting to install the finish floor.

[maryb]

Thebitmaster....this looks like a pretty old thread, but we are currently researching cork flooring for our yurt that we are putting up in Austin. I would love to know where you purchased your cork flooring & also how it has held up over the years. Thanks.