Hello everyone,
A wee while lurker here, decided to finally join the community. I guess introductions are in order.
Wife and I decided to get a yurt due to increasingly high real estate prices in NZ, but also because living in nature appealed to us, and we like the idea of our three little children growing up organic, olden style.
We went with
in August last year, 30 foot diameter, 2 doors, 8 windows, tinted
, snow & wind kit, perimeter blocking and water catchment add-on to the top cover.
It is absolutely gorgeous, beautiful material, especially timber, it even smells so nice.
I can't remember anymore why we didn't go with their platform plans, but anyway, this one here suited our situation best:
https://www.shelterdesigns.net/images/platforms/30.jpg
It's a (very) long ongoing project, with a large front and small rear deck, gravel pathway and garden all around, currently existing only in our thoughts
Here's a few photos from building days and when it was finally put up.
Ground screws saved us a ton of hassle with concrete.
Platform turned out okay, we went with ply floor. It did get rained on though, that was poos, we had to puncture
barrier to drain rainwater.
Yurt building was a scary, thrilling affair. Only one person in the crew knew anything about them, and even that was from years past memory.
Yurt completed. Afraid it's going to be a while before we are ready for a postcard style 'finished' finished yurt photos.
Fire purchase and installation was last minute, with winter around the corner. It's a Nectre 15 freestanding model, marketed sufficient for up to 140m2.
Scariest cut ever, wife had to step in
I made brackets holding the chimney out of folded flue cuttings and scrap pieces of wood, held together by metal screws. I screwed them from inside the outer flue pipe to the folded flue cutting. It was such a rush, ideally I'd like to replace those with bolts, but we had some pretty insane winds lately, and it held out fine.
The main posts go 1m underground with 2 bags of ready-mix concrete to hold it.
The outside elbow partially rests on another piece of flue cutting, which can be pushed aside to reach the cap for cleaning.
I also had to shorten the outside flashing, as it was too close to the window zipper. I used roof silicone sealant between flashing and side cover, leaving top and bottom partially unsealed, so any trapped
can get out.
Climbing all the way up to put the chimney cap was super scary, but also rewarding it's finally done.
Hearth is made out of cement board, fire bricks (white) and pavers (black). I used heat resistant glue to hold it together.
What really surprised us is how dry it suddenly was inside the yurt with the fire going, on top of being toasty. No mould up to this point, touch wood.
Not directly yurt related, but we recently made this cooking stove section with thin ply to protect yurt covers and guide steam to the
, warm LED light and spice rack.
I have some doubts and questions though, as certain things are still unclear to me, and the yurt manual doesn't go into many details.
For example, the lattice wall brackets which connect to the door frame via nuts and bolts are nowhere near to resting flush to the door frame, and the lattice wall comes inside the door frame, instead of next to it.
I have doubts whether we installed this properly...
When we had really strong winds recently, nuts and bolts loosened and sleeve holding the side cover slipped out of the door frame socket.
We've put it back and tightened the bolts, but since it's not resting flush, I'm worried about tightening it too much. The washers are on an awkward angle.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
And the water catchment system seems to be working alright, except at one point where it just sags inexplicably. I've tried tightening the whole circumference of the cord going around inside the water catchment sleeve, and I've tightened and tied a knot where the cut out is near the sag. Nothing seems to help.
The issue is, due to sagging, water just flows out where the cut out is, instead of going past the door frame towards one of down spouts.
I can't find any photos online of this system, so I don't have anything to compare it against. Hoping someone here will have ideas on how to fix this.
I was thinking about gluing another piece of fabric with grommets, and essentially make up a third adjustment lacing spot right above the sag, but it's a bit of a mission, was hoping there's a simpler solution.
I guess another thing I could try is put 1/2inch PVC pipe through the hem, around entire circumference, as manual suggests, but I'm not enough math savvy to envision if that would help with my sagging issue.
That's it for now, looking forward to getting more involved with this lovely community.
P.S.
We're completely off grid, solar powered, composting toilet, with separate gray and drinking water catchment systems.
Greetings from New Zealand
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