Yurt Platform and Insulation in Mixed Climate

[tboulden]

Hello All!
I've purchased a gently used 30' Pacific Yurt that I'm looking to get put up in the next month or so. The questions I'm currently asking myself are what is the best solution in terms of price, comfort, and assembly/disassembly for the platform.

Price, of course, I'd like to be lower, but will pay reasonably for quality. I have some facility with tools, have several friends who have carpentry and building experience to help if needed.

In terms of comfort, I'm in eastern NC where it gets hot and humid during the summer and usually not much colder than 10-15degF during the winter (USDA hardiness zone 8a). We slept in an uninsulated 15' yurt last winter with an electric blanket, but the new 30' yurt has the full wall and roof

insulation

package, so the question is really how to insulate which floor option we choose.

I'd thought about buying SIPs, however this is looking to be much more expensive than I would like.
Insulative comfort, Disassembly/Portability, Ease of construction: +
Price: --

Concrete floor would be less expensive, but still up there. I could add a hydronic radiant

heating

option, and am thinking about experimenting with compost furnace (wood chip pile water heater, google "biomeiler compost furnace"). Clearly this is much more permanent. To lessen the cost, I've thought about just having a stem wall poured and making a tamped earthen floor, this would just require more time than I might like right now, but certainly much cheaper, we'll see.
Insulative comfort, Ease of construction: +
Price, Disassembly/Portability: -


A stick built platform, depending on materials, should be substantially cheaper than either a full SIPs floor or concrete floor, but I wonder again about dissasembly/portability and

insulation

options. In particular, a comment I read in another thread on here made sense in relation heat and humidity and that having an elevated platform to help pull heat away, but to handle cold/drafts by placing straw bales around the perimeter. I could use these in garden beds/compost after the winter, and straw bales are relatively cheap and local. What are others thoughts in this regard? Our experience last winter in the 15' yurt with an uninsulated platform (guy we bought it from was a doctor, not a carpenter, and looking at the platform you could tell it, not 16",24" centers, just a mess and we decided to make do rather than build a new platform at the time) lets me know that some modicum of draft protection and insulation would be needed, but how much is presents a happy medium?
Ease of construction, Price, Disassembly/Portability: +
Insulative comfort: ?

What do y'all think? Thanks!

travis