Piecing together a Colorado yurt

[Lisa Springer]

We recently purchased a 30 ft Colorado yurt kit that was missing a few parts. We have been working closely with the company and they have been extremely helpful in getting us missing parts, which was all of the hardware and the door frame. We were also missing all of the roof rafters and have been hand routing them and it was brought to our attention that the 2 that go over the door frame are different. Can anyone tell us how they are different?

Also we gave up on try to get our base perfectly smoothi in order to put laminate flooring down. We bought beautiful flooring that has a padding already attached and “ clicks together “. Our sub flooring is tongue and grove plywood and there were lots of variations and ridges in areas. Our contractor started pouring the self leveling cement and now it’s a mess, any ideas of how to get the slight variations under control? We thought about using a very thin felt or underlayment. We have moved on and will revisit after the yurt is put up, needless to say it’s very frustrating having 3 thousand dollars worth of flooring possibly wasted.

Thanks for any help, this has been quite the journey. We started with the base in July thinking it would be done in a few weeks... here we are in October!!!

[Jafo]

I don't know about the rafters, but why didn't the self leveling flooring compound work? I have used that before and it usually does a good job if you keep it as thin a layer as you can.

[Lisa Springer]

I think what happened is he did it in spots and it definitely got too thick, it started out being a great idea but turned into a disaster. I have visions of taking a floor sander to it!

[Jafo]

The contractor likely did not know what they were doing. That's usually the go-to stuff to use for floor leveling. I would remove what you can and get someone else to do it. It should work fine if done right. Trying to use padding to level things out will most likely end up with a wavy looking floor IMO..

Bob might have a different opinion. He usually pops in here a few times a week.

[Bob Rowlands]

Probably 95% of residential new construction uses the 'click together' flooring nowadays that is about 1/4 to 3/8ths inches thick. The ideal substrate for it needs to be flat and vacumned before and during installation because there are no fasteners holding the flooring down. It literally lays there just like carpet.

Pull the click flooring. Rent a pro model disc floor sander and sand the floor flat. It is a snap running that tool. A few minutes in and you'll have it down good enough to sand the entire floor. You buy sander discs at the rental store. Depot and Lowes have them in additional to rental yards. Make SURE the floor is vacumned before installation. Good luck.

Oh yeah, the rafters over the door frame probably need to be cut to fit the door frame so that the top planes out with the adjacent rafters. I've had to do that on all my

camping yurts

.

If you guys don't do the work you definitely need to find a competent carpenter to help you. Not a handyman or some dolt contractor.

[Bob Rowlands]

BTW the leveling compound is good in certain cases, especially remodeling where tile is going in a tight area that a disc floor sander can not operate in. A disc sander is 'THE' tool on wide open spaces. Fast and you WILL have a nice perfect substrate for that flooring. One of the contractors I work with disc sands the entire house to get off drywall compound and level the humps on the seams of OSB subfloor. Good luck and enjoy your work.

[Bob Rowlands]

OK lastly, the flooring at the curved khana walls is just laying there, unfastened. In normal construction base or cab toe kick sits on top of it to keep it from curling up over time from dirt, water, etc. getting under the unsecured cut edge. I'm gonna guess that Americanized yurts probably don't have base on the curved edge. So I am thinking since it really should be anchored, and the flooring is very thin, you might be able to jack up the lattice and run the flooring under the wall lattice and or snow load studs, and have that secure it at the cut edge. Or run flex base around the perimeter. Or ask the manufacturer.

Personally I don't like the idea of that type of flooring being loose on the ends but that's just me. Also make certain you follow manufacturers instructions on whether cabs can be installed on top of that product. Usually the entire floor is floating loose, and the cabs are 'NOT- sitting on the flooring. That's how we roll with it around here anyway. That flooring certainly looks great and installs lightning fast but it is nu skewl flooring imo. OK I shut up now. lol

[Lisa Springer]

Thanks for all the info Bob! Don’t shut up!!!! We did not install the flooring yet and have moved on befor the rain starts ( Northern California) . I do agree the sander is the way to go. Probably will attack that right before we put the yurt up so it’s not ruined by dust. The floor is beautiful and we are really hoping it will work. We are not going to put it under the lattice and eventually we will be insulating with rigid foam.

[Bob Rowlands]

OK I reread your initial post. Do you have OSB subfloor? OSB is wood chips and glue pressed flat. Or plywood subloor? Plywood is no chips. It is peeled sheets of wood turned on a lathe, and at least five plys are glued and pressed together in t@g subloor. Quality subfloor ply also has football shaped inlays that replace knot holes.

OSB ALWAYS has raised edges and seams when installed. Why beats me but it is what is is. Never seen it flat at edges and seams. If OSB subfloor gets real wet or repeatedly wet, those edges and seams become REAL proud of the main body of the sheet. Painting the subfloor with cheap 'oops' gallons from Depot or Lowes is a good away to protect it until the roof is on. That's what I did on my own house because it was me framing it and not a full crew. Repeated wettings from summer rains did zero damage to it.

Sanding OSB with a pro grade disc sander will take that raised area down to level. However you need to be very aware that if the edges and seams are really raised, like 1/4" up from the field, heavy sanding on the edges to level it with the field can get you into the t@g area and destroy the integrity of the joints. That would be a BIG mistake that's why I am discussing it in detail. I don't want you to just blindly leap in there and start cussing me down the road. lol

In new construction, OSB t@g is the subfloor everyone uses nowadays. As a generalization, 'click' laminates go right on top of osb, ridges and all. Nobody but the contaractor I mentioned in earlier post sands the subfloor. Just gitr done is the name of the game.

There's a chance I am misreading something or making a bad guess here. My gut tells me you have osb and that it sat out in the weather and got wet several times. If that's the case and it really is in poor shape, I would sand the piss out of it and recover with additional sheeting, but breaking the joints of the new sheathing in a different spot than the sanded sheets.

Just thinking about your problem. Hope this helps. Good luck.

[Lisa Springer]

No It is not it is not OSB