New, modern yurt build in Mongolia

[UKadventurer]

I'm working on the design / architecture of our hallway / bathroom which connects the 2 yurts. The hallway will have a wet/cold weather entry to keep the rain / cold out of the living and bedroom yurts.

I do my design in Blender, an open source 3d program. I used Smartdraw, a web-based floorplan tool, for its intended purpose. But 3d helps me deal with other issues.

I rendered the hallway / bathroom without outer walls. I'm trying to design a hallway bathroom that looks similar to the yurts and uses similar materials. The intention is to use a wood frame (4" x 4" or 10cm x 10cm) lumber with lattice walls, covered with inner liner, wool felt and outer waterproof canvas. I'm toying with the idea of making these easily removable for seasonal changes. What do you think?

There is an elevation change between the 2 yurts of 27cm (about 11") so that presents a slight challenge compared to both yurts being on the same elevation.







Here the yurts are hidden to show more details of framing.



The floorplan with dimensions in metric (sorry)

[Bob Rowlands]

Very nice. Thanks for details.

[UKadventurer]

Lots of new work has been going on in the last week or so. Some of it quite scary.

The law in Mongolia states we must have septic tank(s) for toilets etc. I talked to my trusty handyman who I've been hiring for years. He designed a system that wasn't too expensive but would NOT need emptying often. With 2 people it might be years before the system needs emptying. So this is what he did.

A black water septic tank 2.5m diameter and 3m tall. This is fully enclosed and will need to be pumped out every time we fill it. However, it's just for the toilet only.

A grey water septic tank 1.5m diameter and 3m tall. This has no bottom and simply holds water while it drains into the soil. This is for sinks, washing machine, bath, etc.

A narrow but deep trench to the well for water supply. A big hole for the 2 septic tanks (3.8m deep). And a trench from the septic tank to the spot where our bathroom will go.


Precarious looking trench between gers and containers.

My man Paul preparing the bottom of the pit.

This required 3.5 days of excavator work. The operator was brilliant and I was impressed with his skills. In hindsight, we should've done this excavation BEFORE we built the gers but, hey ho, we didn't.

I was worried about the trench collapsing too and somebody getting hurt. Mongolians generally do not taken seriously. OSHA would have a fit. Luckily, no accidents happened.

Here are the parts before assembly.



We coated the concrete on the outside with tar for increased longevity. Each section/ring was sealed with PU foam. Finished and ready for burial, it looked like this:



After burial (with notes):



All pipes are insulated and heated (in the 7 freezing months).




Now we can proceed with a foundation for the bathroom. Keen observers may note the

insulation

of the drain pipes. It's EPS and all joints/seams are further insulated liberally with PU spray foam. Underground there is even more

insulation

(fiber glass AND/OR foam blankets). In addition, there is a heated wire in each pipe wrapped around to keep it from sub-freezing in the cold months (October to April). There might be a thermostat too.

Since we STILL don't have an indoor bathroom, we had an outdoor toilet which also has a septic tank (1m diameter x 3m deep). It's basic but it's better than what we had before - squat over a trench which is now full. Ah, the luxury.



I wasn't impressed with this company's attention to detail. No tar coating, no foam in the seams of the rings in the septic tank. Also, the toilet structure wasn't well made. The roofing in particular is shoddy work (no drip edge). I could complain or fix myself.




In any case, it'll do the trick and it will take 2 people years to fill up.

[Bob Rowlands]

That's some solid ground. Hardly any taper to the hole. He knew it was safe. Good work.

Well done U.K. I really appreciate the detailed photos. Thanks man.

[UKadventurer]

The ger company finally brought our outer covers, straps and trim. I'm very pleasantly surprised. The gers look totally different and pretty cool, I think. Much more traditional look but with the curved walls. Better than I expected.



Another angle.



Also, the well house foundation is done. My handyman is going to build the well house in his workshop and truck it up here. It'll be much smaller than the foundation (4m x 4m square) because it needs to be heated in the freezing months and kept above freezing. Probably 1.5m W x 2m L x 1.5 H. So it'll be just big enough to fit a 1000L cold water tank, pump and other gear needed to supply our bathroom and kitchen. Also big enough for a human to service the equipment. We'll have a hot water tank of much smaller capacity in the bathroom.



With freezing nights already we need to step up the pace of getting our bathroom/hallway and water supply done. Those unfinished side door frames are chilly spots these days.

I also need to insulate the containers. I'm rethinking my design and considering using steel sandwich panels (15cm EPS core) for the bathroom and containers due to their wide availability (they are made locally), their speed of construction and they are cost effective here. They cost 1/3 the price of the same items in the UK.

I did a 3d rendering of the back to back 20 ton containers we have with sandwich panel walls and roof. They won't win any awards but they'd look better than the current ghetto appearance, I think. I compared the price of sandwich panels (exterior) to PU spray foam (interior) and the price per m/2 was the same. Spray foam would be quicker but lose a bit of interior space and do nothing for the aesthetics of somewhat beaten of shipping containers. I haven't decided yet which way to go. I'll almost certainly use sandwich panels for the bathroom so my experience with that my sway me one way or another.

Any thoughts?

[Bob Rowlands]

My first comment is no exposed spray foam that could be ignited from lightning strike, torch, light bulb breakage, electrical short, welding sparks, grinding sparks, or act of God. The fumes from burning foam will kill you in short order and that's to be respected. No bs. Residential spray foam here in the U.S. Is ALWAYS covered for that reason. Yes, it's incredibly good insulation, and incredibly good at killing occupants if ignited.

I'd opt for the more affordable panels that are made locally.

Yurts are mucho niceo. Thanks again for a great thread!

[UKadventurer]

Originally Posted by Bob Rowlands

My first comment is no exposed spray foam that could be ignited from lightning strike, torch, light bulb breakage, electrical short, welding sparks, grinding sparks, or act of God. The fumes from burning foam will kill you in short order and that's to be respected. No bs. Residential spray foam here in the U.S. Is ALWAYS covered for that reason. Yes, it's incredibly good insulation, and incredibly good at killing occupants if ignited.

I'd opt for the more affordable panels that are made locally.

Yurts are mucho niceo. Thanks again for a great thread!

Great points. We use the containers as a garage, workshop and storage. The attraction of PU spray foam was that I didn’t think I needed to add a finished interior (dry wall). Since I was wrong about that, I agree that steel sandwich panel is the way to go. It’ll take longer but be a much more satisfactory solution.

The cost of steel sandwich panels (15cm / 6” thickness) is about $17 per m/2 which is the same as spray foam of 5cm (2”) thickness per m/2.

Winter like conditions comes early here. We had a blizzard last night.





However, the snow will melt soon. It’s still well above freezing and sunny in the day.

[Bob Rowlands]

Nice photos. Thanks. No doubt about it, this is one of THE best illustrated/detailed threads ever on this site and I've been here a long time.

Fall is starting and and I'm diggin' it.

[UKadventurer]

Originally Posted by Bob Rowlands

Nice photos. Thanks. No doubt about it, this is one of THE best illustrated/detailed threads ever on this site and I've been here a long time.

Fall is starting and and I'm diggin' it.

Thanks so much. That means a lot to me. I’m collecting video too. I’m hoping to make YouTube videos again, documenting our build out, but our upload speeds are terrible. Hopefully Starlink will help with that, if/when we get government approval.

Autumn lasts about 2 weeks here. It’s very pretty to see the forest change. One thing that’s not great is Siberian larch (the majority of trees next to us) goes yellow and drops all its needles. Not so pretty. Hopefully we’ll plant some pine trees in the future which keep their needles and are evergreens. They’d need to be the extreme cold tolerant type.

[Bob Rowlands]

Thank you Sir.