Do It Yurtself
Our yurt's distinguishing feature: the bedroom loft surrounded by four dozen house plants.
Photo of the living room downstairs. More photos of the finished kitchen, office and bathroom at the very bottom of the post.
Our own little oasis about 20 minutes outside of downtown Portland. 30ft in diameter. 730 sq ft w/ an additional 200 sq ft loft. The exterior structure is a kit that we built (most yurts in the US are manufactured by about 10 different "yurt companies"). Interior was completely custom.
Day 1 at the site. Attempting to clear as many of the overgrown blackberries as we can.
Once the ground was clear and relatively level, I set up all the string lines to mark out where our footings would go.
Went with a Toro Dingo to dig the twelve footing holes. 3ft deep, 18 inches wide. It was so incredibly muddy, I had to use plywood sheets just so the dingo had traction to move. I was out there digging probably until 10pm that night.
The concrete mix pictured is roughly 1/3rd of the total concrete we used. Totaled 128 80lbs bags, mixed on site and poured by hand. My dad took his one week off to help with this monumental stage of the build. Really couldn't have done it without him!
Footings were 12in below the frost line and reinforced with rebar. 4x6 hot-dipped galvanized footing brackets were inset into the top of the concrete.
Sub frame going up with pressure treated posts and beams!
We decided to use SIP panels to save time. Not exactly inexpensive, but were able to be installed in a day or two.
Massive puzzle pieces that form a perfect circle.
It's always recommended to completely finish the flooring before starting to build the actual yurt structure (the walls sit on the finished flooring). I underestimated the time it would take to prep salvaged wood flooring so we ran out of time. Ended up installing only the boards around the perimeter and planned to fill in the flooring later (ended being quite the ordeal). The boards we did install were trimmed to the round shape with a router.
Picking up the crated yurt kit in Washington.
The lattice comes in a compact form and is stretches out like an accordion along the edge of the platform.
An often overlooked step, but super key to the strength of a yurt. Etu is putting in the stainless steel compression cable that go in between the tops of the lattice and allow the rafters to sit on the walls.
Sketchy process putting in the first couple rafters. Up on the scaffolding, two people had to hold the ring up while another person up top slid the rafters into their appropriate holes.
After the first four rafters, the ring is self-supported.
The rest of the rafters go in with a breeze.
First layer of the roof is a fabric cover. This is what you see from the inside. The plastic sheeting is temporary so that the cover is not marked by the recently black stained rafters.
Next comes the reflective foil insulation. We opted for two layers of this. Easily catches on to the wind on a breezy day! Once in place this layer was stapled to the tops of the rafters underneath.
The final vinyl cover is waterproof and weighs 200+ lbs. Quite the beast to install.
Interior wall panels hang onto the roof cable, followed by the exterior vinyl cover that clips in and zips together.
One last look at the top.
The clear dome is brought up from the outside and held in place with springs.
We wanted to build an interior room with a circular loft inside the yurt. The room would house a bathroom (yay, privacy!) and the loft would become our bedroom. As you can see, the loft uses a unique triple-cantilever design my friend who runs Moda By Design thought of.
Fully kitted out mockup I made in Sketchup to try to nail down the style. Very modern and clean was what we were going for.
First time framing walls! Actually a lot of fun. With everything else taking so long, it was great to see walls going up so quickly.
Putting in the time to get the loft done.
How do you get rid of scrap wood in the country? Nightly bon fire, of course!
Rented a trencher to dig a 100ft trench for the water line and electrical conduit. We got lucky in that our water came from a pre-existing well and electrical was able to be hooked into city utilities.
Never done electrical work before, so I decided to hire someone to help out. Luckily I found an electrician who was willing to teach me the basic concepts and let me assist. This is the electrical plan I came up with. All of this works on just 30 amps.
Probably the best moment in months. No more showers at the gym! Hot water comes from a 19 gallon hot water tank hidden in the kitchen cabinets. Since we are using a compost toilet, we only have grey water which goes out to a dry well in the ground. I have never done plumbing work before, but with PEX tubing it was so much easier than I thought it would be.
Got chilly during the winter, so I installed the wood stove a little earlier than expected. Chimney is supported by a pole embedded into concrete in the ground.
First (and most likely last) time doing drywall! Definitely learned some things! (sound on)
Finished drywall in all its glory.
Nicole doing a beautiful job sanding the finished floor. Using salvaged doug fir flooring probably added weeks to the project. PSA: FINISH FLOORING BEFORE PUTTING UP THE YURT.
The flooring gets a final coat of white stain.
Building the planter up on the loft with my little brother, Silas.
This is more of a "faux" planter because there wouldn't be any loose dirt inside. All plants would stay in their plastic pots. Lots of pothos, philodendrons, prayer plants and some curly figs.
We decided to paint the lattice walls the exact shade of the fabric behind it, so it would blend in more. Such tedious work that Nicole was a trooper about.
Finished yurt from the outside.
Finished yurt from the inside.
Our wood stove (instruction manual was in Danish!)
Office. Here I am very concentrated on some difficult subtraction arithmetic.
In the kitchen enjoying watermelon we did not grow.
Here I am ditching Maya in our back entry to go up to the loft...
...where Nicole is trolling people on Reddit.
The bathroom w/ compost toilet and custom lattice patterned flooring designed by my friend Allie Runnion.
If you liked this, I encourage you to check out Do It Yurtself (https://doityurtself.com). Its the website I created to document our build in much more detail including several video episodes you can also find on youtube!
What you'll find on Do It Yurtself! Thanks for checking it out. Go build a yurt! Videos by: - Jason Rayne - Octave Zangs Photos by: - Bryan Aulick - Jory Block
from Hacker News https://ift.tt/30a8ZGS