Platform ideas?

[Jafo]

Originally Posted by djspn

Jafo,
How did you do your concrete footings?

My contractor friend spend a day there with his trackhoe and put a bunch of hard fill where the platform was going to go and compacted it. Then he drove rebar 5' down into the fill and centered the top of the rebar through some footer block. He then filled the block with cement. So far no heaving, but will know more in the Spring. He guaranteed it for 10 years.

[Corinarose]

I used the

pacific yurts

design and the piers sit on the ground--not below frost.
I have had the yurt 3 years now and no heaving.
I think if I did it over again I would put in piers/sonotubes below frost line(4' where I am)
and the 2x10's 2' apart not 4' apart~ especially if you are planning on year round living.
But then I would also consider earthen floors rather than wooden ones ~ although I do like my wide pine floors.
Corina

[Surely Yurts - Steve]

Frame and Floor for: Walk-through 10 Foot Yurt entrance into 20 Foot Yurt with 32" Entrance door and 32"X48" double-hung vinyl window.

[MT Rod]

I know this is not exactly a platform idea, but it might be of interest for the group.

It may have been posted here before, but I didn't find it with the search so I will put it out here for your reading pleasure, (perhaps again).

Tamped Earth Floors

Good step by step information about making rammed earth floors. Cheap and beautiful, but perhaps a bit time consuming.

He mentions specifically in this article that you can also include pipe in the sub-layers of the floor if you wanted to do a radiant

heating

system in this floor. Just keep it away from the gravel to avoid a possible puncture.

If I was going to make a radiant heated floor in this manner, I would be sure to have a thermal barrier below it, and around the edges to "keep my heat".

I got this from an article about earthbag building, and they specifically talked about creating a yurt foundation using earthbag style construction.

This is not the website I was reading, but there is lots of good information here: Earthbag Building Index

If I can find the one I read I will be sure to pass it forward too.

Rod
[email protected]

[KenB]

Originally Posted by MT Rod

He mentions specifically in this article that you can also include pipe in the sub-layers of the floor if you wanted to do a radiant

heating

system in this floor. Just keep it away from the gravel to avoid a possible puncture.

If I was going to make a radiant heated floor in this manner, I would be sure to have a thermal barrier below it, and around the edges to "keep my heat".

I agree. Getting that mass up to temperature might take quite a bit of energy, so I wouldn't want to lose it.

Originally Posted by MT Rod

I got this from an article about earthbag building, and they specifically talked about creating a yurt foundation using earthbag style construction.

This is not the website I was reading, but there is lots of good information here: Earthbag Building Index

If I can find the one I read I will be sure to pass it forward too.

I am planning to do an earthbag yurt foundation/basement so if you do find the article, please post!

Thanks for the info.

[MT Rod]

This is still not the blog I was reading, hahaha, but I found it while I was looking for it. Once again, lots of good stuff here, if you are so inclined, and your site is not so inclined. I know, bad pun.

Insulated Earthbag Foundations for Yurts

Give it a look Dan, Might have the information you need.

In one of his post from 2011 the writer is talking about a book he is about to publish. I don't have time to look it up now, but you might try, and let everyone know if you can find it.

Have a good morning, but I will be sleeping. 12 hours ahead of EST here. Got to walk the dog and hit the hay.

Rod
rodyurtlocker.com

[MT Rod]

Sorry, it meant Ken. It was late last night when I posted that.

Rod
rodyurtlocker.com
Home Page.

[KenB]

Thanks Rod.
I think this is the book you are talking about: Earthbag Building Guide by Owen Gieger.

Here are some 'similar' examples of what I'm planning to do (eventually).
Roundhouse with Yurt
Smiling Woods Yurt with basement

In the second example above, imagine the basement portion being of earthbag construction.

I am messing around in Google Sketchup trying to figure out how I will be doing the basement ceiling/yurt floor. For a 30' yurt, if I go with a center support column and do radial joists, that puts a 4' distance between joists at the radius (edge of the yurt). That seems far (when compared to typical 16" or 24" spacing), but the yurt deck plans I've seen basically have 4'x4' spacings between supports and using 1 1/8" plywood so I think what I'm planning would be fine. The spacing between joists of course gets smaller the closer to the center of the yurt you get (to the point where they would actually touch).
Another option would be for me to build the earthbag basement with a dividing wall that passes through the center and then lay out joists similar to what I've seen in yurt deck planning, i.e a rectilinear grid, with the dividing wall and the round wall providing support for the joists. This method, obviously, will split the basement into at least 2 sections (good or bad, I haven't decided, haha).

I'll toss some sketchups on here when I get them done.

[Marshall Eppley]

You could always do cross bracing between the joist to help offset the space and give support to the portion of the floor.

[djspn]

I you don't want a wall, consider an appropriately sized beam to support the joist.