Soil mound for yurt?

[ACW93]

Hello,

So, first post here. I'll start with some quick details, then get to the topic.

Received our yurt from "F.I.R.E." (Flagstaff International Relief Effort). F.I.R.E. is a nonprofit organization that provided the yurt. We provided a donation, received the yurt in September 2022, and put it up two weeks later. This is a traditional yurt built by the people of Mongolia. 6 wall 21' diameter w/ a door at 12 o'clock w/ windows on each side of door, and a door at 6 o'clock. Also has tall walls.


Before erecting yurt, we cleared a 21' diameter area of any debris/vegetation...and that was it. There lies the problem. The yurt is directly on the ground, and where it was placed was not properly leveled. We had a fairly rough winter where we are located, a lot of snow, so in turn a lot of water seeping into the yurt once it melted.

We tried adding gravel around the yurt, hay waddles, sandbags, and these things helped, but not nearly enough.

We are planning on doing the bathtub tarp method, and properly leveling the site, but would also like to raise the yurt up without a platform, at least until we can afford one.

Would a soil mound work? If so, any ideas to do this and have this work the best way possible?

Thank you in advance for any help/suggestions.

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by ACW93

Would a soil mound work? If so, any ideas to do this and have this work the best way possible?

Based on my nearly 60-years-experiences with camping:

IMHO it will work better than the flat ground you´ve had.

But you wrote:

Originally Posted by ACW93

We had a fairly rough winter where we are located, a lot of snow, so in turn a lot of water seeping into the yurt once it melted.

You need to build the soil mound higher the expected snow and maybe your Yurt will look similar the European middle age castles on their hills.

Originally Posted by ACW93

We tried adding gravel around the yurt, hay waddles, sandbags, and these things helped, but not nearly enough.

I would prepare that additional for worst case scenarios, but I believe an simple platform - cheap built - would be the better solution....

[Jafo]

I think one of those hay bale platforms would work out better than a mount of dirt IMO..

[TSRalex]

Originally Posted by Jafo

I think one of those hay bale platforms would work out better than a mount of dirt IMO..

It´s to expect, but the floor stability should be kept in mind....