attaching fabric to roof ring

[hampzie]

Hello fellow yurters
I have been reading post for a while this is my first post .I'm in the process of building a 20 foot yurt for a backyard office . I have every thing figured out except how to attach the fabric to the roof ring , I am going to put a 4' acrylic

dome

with lift . My question is does the hole in the roof fabric have a cable or rope to keep its shape or do you just screw it to the ring and place the

dome

on top and when the dome closes it seals it from weather . I hope this make sense . I f any of you have any pictures of a dome install this would be helpful

Thanks robert

[Bob Rowlands]

As far as attaching the cover to the roof ring, I sewed loops at the edge of the hole in the roof cover. The diameter of the hole in the cover matches the inside diameter of my roof ring. I lace the loops in zig zag fashion to screw eyes set in the roof ring. That ties the cover down snug to the ring.

I don't have an acrylic dome, but I'm guessing someone here will have an answer. Good luck.

[Bob Rowlands]

Also, I wouldn't advise screwing an unhemmed fabric edge to the base of the dome. That's inviting tears if the cover starts flapping in the wind and you know how much effort you've put into the yurt already.

A better procedure to anchor cloth to wood -or plastic sheeting like in a greenhouse- is to sandwich it between two pieces of wood. Pinching the cover between two layers spreads the stress and keeps the cover from tearing at the screws. I'm saying this because I've tried it screwing material to a wood frame without a backer, and the material ripped in short order. Good luck.

[Kiwassa]

I don't know if I'd recommend it to everyone, but I stapled it in six places, directly to the roof ring.

I had my reservations about doing that, but it's just a security blanket. The ring is bigger than the opening in the fabric, so it's not the staples that are holding it up. In my case, the staples are just keeping it from flapping.

So far I haven't had any problems, though I have yet to get up there and check it after the winer.

[Jafo]

As I recall, nothing holds it on my Pacific Yurt. The dome comes over the top of it a bit, but that's about it.

[hierony]

Hello Robert,

How are you doing your roof canvas?

A lot of the commericial yurts have one continuous piece for the roof, then a bunch of wall sections that velcro together to form the walls. This allows them to precisely match the hole in the roof section for the crown ring. If you visit their webpages, I suspect Pacific & Rainier both have setup instructions that could be revealing--maybe Colorado, too.

I've seen two different renditions for DIY/more traditional yurts--a fitted top completely separate from wall section(s); the wall & roof as one piece that folds over itself (see this setup manual for pictures). There's also some convolutions of these designs. It wouldn't take too long to browse the photo archives to find some design you like.

[Bob Rowlands]

hierony I'll assume you're asking me about the cover canvas? Mine is one piece, made from a square tarp. I turned the tarp into a fitted yurt cover by laying it atop the yurt roof and tucking a tight fold in the cover until it was conic in shape. Marked up the fold and left material for a seam allowance. Cut out the pie shaped piece and lap felled the edges together. Draped it over the roof have to say it fit perfectly.

Then I marked the ring hole. Cut and hemmed it and added 14 loops to the edge for tie off at the ring. Got that done and reinstalled it. Walked around the outside at the wall and marked with a sharpie 2' down from the top of the wall. Hemmed and added loops for tie off. Good thing I cut it at 2' down because the tarp shrunk like crazy. It is now down about a foot ~ 2 years later.

Marking in place eliminates trying to do 'yurt roof math'. Empirical methods are how I roll.

You didn't ask, but I made the wall cover from 9x12 painters tarps. I cut them in half to 2-6x9s. Sewed several of those together until I had the entire wall as one piece. Hung it in place with the upper rope and marked the lath crosses. Sewed loops at every cross, plus loops at the door frame too. Couldn't work any better. Just hang it on the wall. Hangs up as high as possible, nice and tight, no hardware needed. A snap to install.

In hindsight real 17 oz. cotton canvas like the roof cover is made from would have made a much better wall cover. Oh well next time around.

[Bob Rowlands]

Also unasked, but it's absolutely worth it to buy quality cover material. I recommend to anyone that has the cash to go ahead and just get a professionally made 15 year cover, ESPECIALLY if you live in a humid climate. There's -NO WAY- my 100% cotton canvas cover will last 15 years of continuous outside exposure. It might go five. I only had about 300$ in the tarp, and I do everything myself,...but just sayin that's a whole heck of alot of work to save a few hundred bucks.

If I was to paint the cover tarp it would last a whole lot longer. How that would effect the yurt 'breathing' I haven't a clue.

Good luck to all contemplating/planning building their yurt.