Grain Bin

[Smootz]

Is a 30 ft diameter grain bin house considered a yurt? We are planning one and it appears a lot of advantages, problems, floor plans, etc. will be similar.

[Jafo]

Do you mean a grain silo? Then I would say no.

[Smootz]

Aside from the metal sides what disqualifies it?

[Bob Rowlands]

Ask the building dept. if your grain bin could be considered a yurt.

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by Smootz

Aside from the metal sides what disqualifies it?

A yurt is a structure that utilizes compression at its core. A silo is just a round wall with a roof on it.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by Jafo

A yurt is a structure that utilizes compression at its core. A silo is just a round wall with a roof on it.

I can imagine, that he can set rafters with a center-ring on the top edge of his round (wooden or metal) wall and covering the construction with an typical Yurt roof cover....

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by TSRalex

I can imagine, that he can set rafters with a center-ring on the top edge of his round (wooden or metal) wall and covering the construction with an typical Yurt roof cover....

I don't think the walls of a silo are designed to accept the force pushing out unless you literally mean setting them on TOP of the the wall. Then you are going to need something to support the roof like a center pole.

A silo is designed so the weight of the roof is directly forcing down on the top of the wall pushing directly straight towards the ground. That's why the top of a silo is rounded like the end of a bullet. A yurt on the other hand is trying to push the wall (cable) outwards so it can flatten out like a pancake if gravity had its way.

Completely different paradigm IMO..

[Bob Rowlands]

No building dept. or bank will approve a grain bin to be a home because it 'kinda looks like a yurt'.

[Yurtman]

I’ve had a plan for many years to buy a Gain Silo and convert it to a small cabin with two floors (mezzanine) and rent it out on Airbnb. I think it would be really cool. Probably spray

insulation

on the inside.
I’m surprised a few of the permenant yurt makers out there haven’t utilized the roof off a Grain silo.

I think the question “ what is a yurt” is interesting as a few years back I was looking to see what size the biggest yurt ever made was. At the time it was a “yurt looking” structure made with concrete in Mongolia. To me it wasn’t a yurt. It had a lattice pattern in the walls and the sane for the roof rafters, but it was all concrete!
I think a Yurt or Ger has to have a lattice wall,

center Ring

and rafters and of course the tension band. It also should be portable.

[Bob Rowlands]

"I think a (TRADITIONAL) Yurt or Ger has to have a lattice wall,

center Ring

and rafters and of course the tension band. It also should be portable."

Yup. And further a cloth cover. Hard siding removes it from yurt status in my opinion because it is no longer a nomadic tent.

I'm sure a two story grain bin could be made into a dwelling, but why? That's so odd you probably couldn't get it funded by a bank. To get it permitted by a building dept. would take more money than any standard yurt, engineering, patience and a very liberal building dept.

I had two years of college in the Peoples Republic of Boulder CO in the early 1970s. There was a 'foam dome' house in the middle of a traditional neighborhood up on the hill to the west of CU. Weird as hell. I doubt it is still there. So-in a liberal place like Boulder, it just might happen. It likely wasn't bank financed.