My thoughts on building my yurt

[Jafo]

Now that the main job of building my yurt has been completed, I wanted to make a thread about some of the stuff I have learned during the process. My yurt was from Pacific Yurts, so I can only speak about my experience with their product, but I am betting it will be similar with other yurt constructions.

First of all, the 30 foot yurt is BIG. I don't mean just in size, but everything about it is big and heavy. Living up here in upstate NY in the snow belt I had to order the snow and wind kits which made everything even heavier. Instead of 2X4 rafters, ours were 2X6. 50 of these rafters can wear you out when moving them.

The

center ring

for the 30 foot yurt is heavy and so is the roof that goes on top of it. Even that roll of lattice is pretty heavy, and definitely takes at least two people to move around into place without destroying things.

The other thing I learned is that the snow and wind kit adds a LOT of work. It is all worth it, but it people should understand it before they purchase it. When you get the snow and wind kit, that means you are getting the 2X4 rafter supports (studs). To install these under the 50 rafters (well, 47) means you have to drive in almost 1,000 additional screws. Having plenty of cordless drills and batteries was a must. Our location is off the grid, so a generator was also necessary to charge batters and run the miter saw. Each stud is cut to fit, so that is 47 cuts.

Then there is the cabling that is woven between all the rafters. It adds about another hour to the project.

If you live down south out of the high winds, you are lucky because you do not need this steps. It will save you almost 6 hours if you can just use the standard kit.

The company said the construction would take about a day and a half, and they are pretty much right, but I would add that the first day only needs 3 people. You will be taking a lot of time getting the lattice to the correct height. It can take a couple hours to get this done, but it is imperative that you do. Getting the first 3 - 4 rafters in will take 3 people. We did all of that the day before the yurt raising party. Once you get that part complete, then is when you will want more people. The rest of the rafters will fly into place, and getting an assembly line going, you will have all the rafters in place in less than an hour. In fact, the rest of the process goes quick if you delegate duties to everyone and keep the assembly line moving.

I will say that if you have TOO many people, it can become a counterproductive. I would say 6-8 people is perfect. If you have more than that, you should make a rule that they stay outside the yurt. Too many people in the yurt will slow things down.

If you think you are going to build your 30 foot yurt with just step ladders, think again. You will definitely need scaffolding.

One piece of equipment that would have made things easier for us would have been some kind of boom that could lift the ring in place. If you have access to such things, it will make your day go much smoother.

We had our yurt delivered via Fedex freight to my house because the site was very remote and no way could you get a tractor trailer in there. In fact, it is difficult enough getting a 4wd truck there. We had to move all the materials there ourselves. That took an entire day. The stuff is heavy! If you have to do the same thing, be prepared to spend a lot of time moving materials; definitely have it staged the day before if possible.

If you can have at least one person there with construction experience, it will save time.

Have fun! It can get aggravating, just like any big project, but just keep the laughs going. I can't tell you how many jokes were going around about Mongolian architecture, pi (3.14), and how the entire thing looked like a 70's dance floor (where's the disco ball?) before we got the roof on. "Does this thing come with a Sherpa hat?"

Just have fun with it and it will go that much easier..