Yurt flooring

[Bob Rowlands]

Thanks for the additional photos. Nice solid platform. Good job!

[kochevnik]

Hello everyone.

Now that my yurt is on it's way (finally) and the land lease is almost in place, I am actively looking for solution for yurt foundation/flooring. I like the idea of setting it on a bare ground but this area has quite a bit of snow, so I want to rise it a foot or so. I can't build a deck. Too expensive. So I have a couple of other ideas. Let me know what you think

1. Get old tires and fill the whole diameter with them and fill the gaps with dirt and then put an insulated tarp on top and then set up the yurt.
Pros: Easy to source tires, cheap
Cons: Hard to transport, what to do with them once the land lease is over?

2. Make an industrial grade styrofoam foundation. 3 layers of 3 inch styrofoam glued together and put a tarp on the top and then Yurt

Pros: Good

Insulation

, easy to transport, single handed installation, easy to dispose, easy to access used foam.
Cons: Environmentally shitty material, will it be stable enough? Will I need to put a plywood on top? More $$$

Any ideas?
Kochevnik

[Jafo]

A lot of people have used bales of hay for flooring. Here is an example:

A Low Impact Woodland Home

[hierony]

Straw, not hay, bales. But fairly cheap (~$200 for straw bales, say ~$200 for plywood for my area). Just don't leave the straw or platform exposed to rain/water--a yurt on top protects it. When done, you can take the sheeting apart and take it with you. You can take the straw bales too, or just use/sell them as mulch.

I tried this, but I left the platform up without the yurt for a couple months in the spring. When I moved everything & took the platform apart, the straw was a bit moldy in most places. There's a few other details to it which I can share upon request (or just search my other posts).

I've also heard of using bags of scoria/lava rock. I've also seen basically a wood platform (in sections) just sitting on cinder blocks (disadvantage though of no insulation).

[Zelig]

We put 8" panels of expanded polystyrene

insulation

(SIP panels) down on a raised bed of gravel and then screwed plywood on top (the SIP panels have metal studs embedded every 24"). This seemed the best compromise for us in terms of movability, R-value, height off the ground and price. We've yet to spend a winter in it but I think the floor will be the least of our worries.