New, modern yurt build in Mongolia

[UKadventurer]

I just want to add that I have 2 new favourite tools.

A power miter saw makes quick and accurate cross cuts. It can cut through 10cm (4”) lumbar in one cut. Angle cuts are easy and accurate. Before I had to cut twice with a circular saw and ended up with sloppy results.



A cordless impact driver/drill can install long lag bolts with ease. Before I had to use 3 tools to counter sink, pre-drill and fully tighten lag bolts.

[UKadventurer]

Originally Posted by Bob Rowlands

Your bathing area is gonna be heaven. This thread is so good I was talking to my wife about it, and got her in here to check it out. That lead to a short conversation about the real important things in life. Warm bathroom. Hot water. Sauna. Warmth in the winter, shelter from the wind. Frequently folks that have all that take it for granted- UNTIL they are 'camping' and don't have it. Your place is looking GREAT U.K.! You are gonna love it! NICELY DONE!!! Thanks.

Wow, yes. It’s a great project, potentially an incremental set of improvements. I’ve never created a home from nothing and it’s getting slowly better. It actually hasn’t been a terrible hardship to live without running water for 6 months. The natural beauty up here compensates for the rough living. One adapts and makes adjustments.

That being said, when we do add improvements, they are very exciting and one gets a fresh appreciation of luxuries, like hot and cold running water. We don’t have that yet but we will within a week or so.

I’ve always loved solving problems. So this is fun. The connection between gers and bathroom is such a problem. The geometry is tricky. There’s a serious risk of having leaky joints if I get it wrong.

[Bob Rowlands]

Side note. I started buying chopsaws in 1983 when I went full time into trim carpentry. Back then chopsaws consisted here in the U.S. of 9" Rockwell. That was it, there WERE no others. There was a huge 14" Makita that was fine for framing but way the heck too big for trim.

I've literally gone through eight chopsaws since then. I have three DeWalt 'big bird' yellow double bevel compound miter saws in my shed right now. Too bad you're on the other side of the earth or I'd give you one.

I had brand new big bird ripped off jobsite in 2004, along with 'Hoppy' my RolAir hotdog compressor from 1983. I had just upgraded the single cylinder pump to ball bearing version and it was a quiet stroker. Lemme tell yuh I wanted to square with that thief that was a GREAT compressor. They quit making them like that last century.

Have fun enjoying your work.

[UKadventurer]

Thanks for sharing, Bob. It must really hurt to have the tools of your trade ripped off. I try to keep my most valuable stuff in our shipping containers. Gers have really weak security so I was adamant about buying two 20 ton containers with upgraded internal locks.

We rarely leave home and when we do we get a neighbor to house sit. We’re getting a dog soon. He’s a rescued puppy and needs his vaccinations before we take him. I’m looking forward to making him an insulated kennel with off cuts.

My goal is to have the connection fully roughed out and sealed by the end of this week.

[Bob Rowlands]

Cool! Enjoy your work!

Container is about as good as it gets on site. Yup ripoffs suck. I've had my share over the decades. Theft is rampant. Theft is as old as mankind.

[UKadventurer]

A small bit of progress in the last couple of weeks. Mostly functional things, not cosmetic.

The bathroom/hallway is fully connected and mainly finished outside minus the metal trims which go on the corners and roof edges. This is mainly cosmetic. We'll probably paint the exterior to blend with the gers more but it's not a high priority. Having a functional indoor bathroom is the top priority. Making it pretty can wait a while.

Progress is being made on the interior of the bathroom flooring and plumbing connections. My handyman poured the self-leveling "concrete". When it's dry we'll add an

insulation

mat and underfloor electric

heating

. We've bought all the bathroom fixtures which he'll install. I'll post again when that's done.

Still tons of work to do but we'll have the basics done by the middle of next week hopefully. I can't wait to have a hot bath again. It's been a while!

[Bob Rowlands]

Excellent as usual. Thanks.

Side note. It took me 365 days to build our house. March 30 1999 to March 30 2000. I was 45 when I started. Without any doubt 'THE' toughest year of my life. I had to dig really deep. I worked 50 days straight 6 weeks after getting both my left rotator cuff tear repaired and left bicep reattached (using open surgical technique,not arthroscopy) tearing my bicep loose at the elbow setting windows on this house. Four months later I had the right cuff tear repaired. Lemme tell yuh I found out what I was made of that year. That right there taught me 'what's what' more than anything else I have ever accomplished. And edit to say, I officially retired two months ago at 68. And man, lemme tell yuh I am DIGGIN it. haha

[UKadventurer]

A year is a long time for building a house, isn't it? I suppose it depends on the crew size and how much time can be devoted to it.

I suppose that's the nice thing about a ger. You can put a traditional one up in a day. Ours took maybe 3-5 days for both with a crew of 3. I wasn't any help then due to my sciatica.

Now I'm almost fully recovered (again) I'm working at a slow pace but it's better than nothing. As a fellow-retiree, I'm not in a big hurry as long as the essentials are in. I also have to be careful not to re-herniate my back again. Going at a slow-pace means I'll never run out of things to do, haha.

We had a nice bit of weather last night and all today. I'll share a short video.

https://www.facebook.com/1575290823/...49154094004578

[Bob Rowlands]

Good job UK. Way to go.

This has zip to do with yurts. It's about fortitude, toughness, applying yourself, giving it everything you have. How you face adversity.

Back in fall 1999 I had to extend our building loan from 9 to 12 months. It was obvious I wasn't get the house built in nine months, due to falling behind from recovering from the double surgery on my left cuff and bicep reattach.

At the loan extension meeting, our loan officer said, "Look Bob, I gotta be straight with you. You HAVE to be done in a year. I don't care how you do it. You HAVE to be done in a year. There is no additional loan extension beyond a year."

Well OK. A few weeks later I had my right rotator cuff surgery Jan 4 2000. haha But by God, I WAS back to work in about a month, and the house was done March 30, 2000, the deadline.

It was frickin murderous but I did it. THREE surgeries in that year. I also did my regular finish work for the first few months while framing. Our home was 'hobby house' at the start.

OK now back to yurts. I built my first 14' yurt from scratch. Eight full days of work. Completely destroyed in a blizzard. Then scratch built my 16'er, and then redid it down to 12'er. The 12'er is in storage now. I built my 10x12 barn shed in June 2020 on the

yurt platform

. I built us a 10x15 greenhouse last April. I'm thinking I'm gonna add a second door and turn the 12' yurt into a green house next spring.

Anyway, just yakkin. I've thoroughly enjoyed your thread.

Here's to good health. :clink: edit to add your video won't play.

[UKadventurer]

We've made quite a lot of progress on the bathroom/hallway connection between our twin gers. Almost all the major fixtures are in now. Just need to install the window, partition walls and barn style doors. To speed things up, I'm going to use glu-lam panels just screwed to the 10x10cm (4"x4") frame.

These glulam panels come in similar dimensions to plywood/sheetrock etc. I might do something prettier later on but we need something up very quickly. We have a lot of family and friends and I don't know how they'd appreciate going to the toilet or taking a bath in full view.

Let the photos begin with a recap. By September our gers were fully built but unconnected. We had an outhouse toilet and a well but nothing connected to the gers themselves. We had to hand carry water 30 metres in plastic containers from the well house.



And the winter came early. The well head/pump is in the foreground.



Washing facilities were basic. This is what most Mongolians use in gers without running water. We kept it outside because it leaks until it freezes.



We also needed to protect the well head from freezing. So we had this well house built. It's about 30 metres away and the outhouse toilet is about another 20 metres beyond that. Not so much fun at night to go to the toilet so we used a bucket/potty in our bedroom. Classy!



I got to work on the framing of the bathroom / hallway after some locals poured a concrete slab for me. Wall and roof coverings are the super fast install steel insulated sandwich panels with 15cm (6") of EPS.




It was an upgrade to be able to walk through from living room ger to bedroom ger without going outside in this kind of weather.



Here are some progressions of the interior of what was essentially a shed/barn style build.

Roughly framed and covered. Temp door.

Pour self-leveling floor. Install double glazed aluminium door. Lots of passive solar heat in the day.

Lay

insulation

pad and underfloor electric

heating

.

Pour another layer of self-leveling floor (not shown), let dry for a few days and then glue down vinyl tiles. Do all plumbing and electrical connections.

We are still missing walls and barn doors (glu-lam panels), window above sink and lots of trim to hide the rough bits. I might leave the plumbing exposed because I like it and it's easy to access in case of problems.


We still have lots of finishing touches to do which may go on forever. BUT we can take a bath, a shower, and use the toilet. After 6 months of NO indoor running water/bathing etc, it's the simple things that I took for granted which now seem like luxuries.

The heating is keeping up nicely with night time temperatures down to -22C (-8F) and dropping to -40 C/F on the coldest days of January. The well house and one container are insulated and have WIFI enabled radiators which I can monitor and manage from the gers. So far they are keeping up. Batteries and a diesel generator provide backup during power outages. Wood stoves and a propane space heater provide supplementary/backup heating.

I think we're ready for winter. Fingers crossed.

Still to come an improved kitchen with a sink, shelves, etc. We have a very makeshift kitchen but it's a mess and ugly.