Planning to build a yurt in Czech Republic

[Jafo]

Awesome score!!

[Bob Rowlands]

Good score for sure. It'll help hold in the heat.

[Knecht]

Thanks, I'm really happy with it.
Not sure about the roof

insulation

. The hemp fiber will come in rolls, guess 1m wide, which means two around the khana, that's no problem. What about the roof? Put stripes on it, like a star pattern? Then fill the remaining triangles with something? I have several old army blankets saved for that...I was also thinking space blankets, those are cheap and should reflect the heat nicely, but I guess the condensation would be terrible on them.

[Bob Rowlands]

I don't know how tough the hemp

insulation

is, or how bulky and unwieldy it is. I'll just assume it is tough enough that you could join strips of the stuff on edge. In effect you'd be making a 'tarp' of the stuff. Hopefully it wouldn't fall apart. How you'd join the edges beats me since I haven't seen the insulation.

But if you can, make a square of the stuff that's a few feet larger than the diameter of your yurt. If you cut a wedge shape out of the square, and join the 'cut edges' where you cut out the wedge, you'd have a cone. Then cut out the smoke hole. Slide that huge China cap up into place and anchor it.

Another route would be to just roll the insulation over the roof and overlap it like the Mongolians do, and call it good. Good luck.

[Knecht]

I could stitch the insulation together with a big sail needle, I've thought about that before. But would it hold together? If I try to drag it over the roof? That's unsure. My guess is it would tear away the stitches with it's own weight.
How exactly do the Mongolians insulate their roof? I remember a photo of a recent ger that seemed to have the insulation sewed together from all kinds of fabric, likely blankets as well as discarded clothes (a back part of a jacket with the "Panthers" logo was extra cool ) but it wasn't clear what's attached together and what's just overlaid.

[Bob Rowlands]

Firstly, I'm no expert on yurts so keep that in mind. In particular I know zilch about yurt insulation.

I've watched a couple YT vids of Mongolians erecting their yurts. The felt cover in those vids isn't one big yurt sized piece like I described. Actually they were several large irregular sized pieces flopped into place atop the liner and lapped to get full coverage. Get them up over the roof liner, roll them out, and shift around until covered.

Once the final yurt cover gets installed, they threw ropes across the structure in criss cross fashion and stake them to the ground. That holds everything in place. No muss no fuss no tools no carpentry nothing fancy. Easy to erect and take down. Perfect for breaking camp a few times a year. A brilliant home design IMO.

[Knecht]

Allright, I may do something like that as well. Guess the PVC coated roof fabric will be sturdy and heavy enough to compress the insulation a bit and straighten the irregular surface under it.
I was thinking about some ropes over the whole structure then, maybe make some sort of very loose net or something. Or maybe a loop that would go around the roof in about 2/3 height and then several rope beams coming from the loop to ground.

[Bob Rowlands]

knecht- How I stopped the cover from flapping in the wind. I took an old retired 11mm climbing rope and cut it into thirds- about 55' in length for each section. Out of one length, I made a rope 'bridle' that sits atop my yurt cover about half way down the rafter length.

I have five loops spaced evenly in the bridle. Each of the five loops are secured with additional rope to the cable/concrete anchor system I installed around the perimeter of the yurt, prior to building the platform. No matter how hard the wind blows that cover doesn't billow up and down and flap against the rafters like it did beforehand.

I know your yurt is securely anchored to the platform. For those folks that aren't aware, securing the yurt to the ground with a bridle or criss cross of rope is a very wise move if you live in a wind prone area. Otherwise you just might lose your yurt like I did.

[Knecht]

I think you had similar idea to what I was describing, if I imagine yours right.
Guess I'll solve this when I get there...I need to finish the ring before the roof tarp arrives, but also need to finish an order of some 9th century spurs replica, which I have to ship by Monday...so annoying item to make!

[Bob Rowlands]

I pretty much make it up as I go, too. lol