Building A Yurt In Winter

Building a yurt may not be at the top of your desirability rankings in the dead of winter, but, with proper planning, a quality structure can be pre-fabricated, then assembled on site in a matter of a few days.  While flexible-wall, tarpaulin yurts are the most popular structures in North America, it is the solid-wall yurt that provides the greatest protection, for the lowest cost in cooler and colder climates.  Soft-wall yurts offer the primary advantage of being able to be assembled, then disassembled and relocated with relat9ve we, while solid structures do not lend themselves well to relocation. The question then becomes, if you intend to relocate frequently, why not buy a tent or RV?

Our solid-wall yurt will stand for years, and has proven itself, already, to be a weather-tight, comfortable home.  Although, due to our wanderlust and travelling nature in winter, we do not spent the deepest Part of winter in our home, it has endured the coldest, snowiest and windiest days of our Manitoba, Canada winters.  If minus-40 is still too warm for you, then a yurt, of any variety, may not be a viable living solution! 

By using 2-foot panels, assembled on an 8-degree angle to each other, we have constructed a 600-square foot (that’s incorrect:  hard to have square feet in a round building!) facility.  Similarly, one could build a yurt in a variety of diameters (12, 16, 24, 32) with relative simplicity. 

Simply construct the individual panels, cut the sectional top and bottom plates, build the roof ring and saw the appropriate angles into the roof rafters, and the entire package of components is ready to be shipped to your building site.  Assembly on your pre-existing platform or floor should take two people no more than 12 hours.  Slide the wall tarpaulins around this wooden framework, slip the roof tarpaulin over the rafters and install your doors and windows and your yurt is ready for the finishing inside touches.

The tarpaulin walls offer both aesthetic and practical benefits.  As a Tyvek-type exterior skin, the tarp is impervious to the most violent winds, while repelling both rain and snow. The roof tarpaulin, however, needs to be installed tightly.  This demands that the supplier manufactures it to your precise dimensions and pitch, and that your roof rafters and top plate assembly are equally precise.  If the tarp is too loose, any flapping or vibration in the wind will act as a billows, and dislodge your roof fibreglass batt insulation, or break the seal on your foil-backed bubble insulation used to line the interior of the ceiling.

Within two days, your yurt metamorphoses from a pile of dimensional lumber and fabric in your garage to a fully liveable home, for less than 50% of the cost of a conventional  flexible-wall yurt, and one twelfth to 1/6 of the cost of s similarly-sized conventional house.  The added appeal is that this project can be undertaken and completed at any time of the year.

The Romance Of Yurt Life, Wildlife Included

When you choose to live with nature in a yurt, it is a marriage: you accept the good with the bad. But even the bad can be great in the springtime! We have only been back in the yurt for a few weeks now, but our encounters with the wildlife have been nothing short of enthralling and amusing.
Last autumn, we closed out our season in the backwoods with a visit from a family of four raccoons, who systematically destroyed every bird feeder we had put up while they scavenged for the last meals of the season. A couple of squirrels determinedly decided to winter in the insulation under the platform deck of the yurt, as well, but we were willing to tolerate them for the four bitter months that we were away from our home.
As spring broke this year, though, we found just what damage a couple of active nut-eaters can do to insulation! Our raccoons have returned, as well. What is unusual is that the family of four remains together, with no new litter of kits in evidence. They announced their return by using their can-opener teeth to puncture a Coleman cooler that I had left outside. For dessert, they gnawed their way into a plastic gas canister, filled with mixed fuel for my chainsaw, and dragged the leaking container across the grass. Given their “finger” dexterity, I am glad I did not leave a barbeque lighter around!
Thirty miles north of us, Hecla Island, in Lake Winnipeg, is the summer home of turkey vultures and a few bald eagles. Rarely has either been spotted away from that area, yet, just as the snow melted from our meadow, a bald eagle pursued a mouse, and landed in the field to finish his lunch. It is just one example of the changing patterns of wildlife in the area. We have two mallard couples nesting in the creek bed not fifty yards from the yurt, sand hill cranes that have relocated their annual nesting area from the adjacent farmland to our small meadow, a grouse sitting on eggs under a three-foot high spruce in a clearing only paces from our home and coyotes that have decided that it is safe to howl, nightly, thirty feet away from where we sleep.
Late in the winter, I encountered a lone black wolf (probably from the Hecla pack) that obviously had strayed form its traditional range twenty-five miles north of us.
My wife is less happy with our annual migrant bear, who has, each spring and fall, travelled along our old riverbed with her latest cub. Two weeks ago, she came up to our doorstep with her cub, demolished a sealed garbage container and dragged one of the bags two hundred yards through our garden before tearing into it. As bold as that action was, she showed that she is less wary of human contact than ever, when she returned, during a rainstorm, to the yurt and rooted around the deck. In the morning, her huge paw prints in the wet clay where I had been excavating provided more than ample evidence of her visit.
Fortunately, our resident skunks and badger have not opted to become emboldened, and move in under the yurt platform!
More humorous that dangerous are the romantic interjections of local wildlife. Our ducks and Canada geese have almost finished their courting, calling, dancing and preening, while the frogs continue to be in great serenading voice. There is nothing quite so mood-destroying, though, as the cooing, gurgling and raucous clucking of crows in love. Their grating calls have all the appeal of a screaming baby. On the other hand, who can turn a deaf ear to the Buddy Rich drumming of a male ruffed grouse at 3:00 a.m?
The best of the strutting males though, has to be one of the many sapsuckers in the woods. For six years, he has chosen to drum his mating song not in nearby trees, but on any metal that he can find. Six years ago, it was my old Cockshutt tractor. Then, he found a better sound with an empty 45-gallon steel drum. Last year, it was the tin bonnet on my old camper. This morning, though, he reached the apex of quality music when he found that the roof of our new Prius provided the melody that he wanted.
It is there that I draw the line at passive interaction with nature. Tomorrow morning, I expect to join him with a few well-directed tennis balls to divert his attention from his new $30,000 toy! I expect, however, that, with the abundance of empty containers and old iron in the yard, it will be only moments before our rock-star drummer finds a new beat with which to lure his mate.

A Manitoba Winter in Our Yurt

It’s only November 23, and we’ve seen Mother Nature at her worst!
When we decided to build our yurt in the bush lands of Manitoba, we were thrilled to be able to “commune with nature.” So far, it’s been a pretty one-sided conversation!
Throughout the spring and early summer, record rainfalls prevented us from building our road – 2/3 mile winding through thick woodlands and meadow. The autumn saw another deluge, with over 100 mm of rainfall in one week.
A wonderfully warm October lulled us into complacency: we’d be able to stay in the yurt until at least December 1, even with only a bush trail on which to drive our Prius to our home.
The beginning of November, Mother Nature began to flex her muscle. Wind gusts of over 100 kph (60-65 mph) hit, but the yurt stood, unflinching. Just to be on the safe side, we purchased tire chains for the car, and stocked up on three 20-pound tanks of propane for the yurt.
Then, a cold snap – Minus 18C (0F) – forewarned us of things to come. On November 18, 20 centimetres of snow (8 inches), followed by 60-70 kph winds (40 mph) drove us out of the yurt for a couple of days. The first night back, the thermometer hit -20C, and another 7 cm of snow. For two days, we shovelled a roadway 950 yards long, and were able to drive in.
Ha! We beat Mother Nature! Not bad for a 59-year-old and his 51-year-old wife.
What fools we were. Sunday night, the wind chill hit -22C, with a new low of -24 during the early part of the next day. Today, we received another 2-4 cm. of snow. That’s not bad, compared to what is coming tomorrow. Fifteen centimetres is predicted, with high winds and cold temperatures to follow. Next week, another snow storm is on the way.
This area receives an average of 110-120cm from November 1 to the following April 30 in a typical year. We will have received 45 cm. by November 24, with a possibility of 60 centimetres by November 30. It’s time to pack it in.
The yurt, though, can certainly handle the winter. A full snow load of 30 centimetres hasn’t caused the roof to even flinch. Inside the yurt, we didn’t feel the slightest breeze when the sixty-five mph winds hit. At -24C, the yurt remained so warm that we had to turn off our main heat, relying on a 13,500 BTU propane furnace for our only heat.
A couple have problems have emerged, though.
Because of the lighter insulation in the domed roof, and the fact that the heat rises and pools there when we turn off the fans, we have experienced a lot of condensation falling from the foil-backed bubble insulation that lines the inside of the roof.
Around the inside perimeter of the yurt, where walls meet the floor, moisture and some frost have accumulated. We resolved this by placing one-inch rigid foam insulation under the outer tarpaulin layer, extending it 6 inches below the wall. This provides a wind barrier, as well as insulation.
And, our composting toilet system isn’t letting the waste fall readily into the accumulator. That problem, we discovered, was caused because we used too little water to wash the solids through. We’ll take care of that next spring, when we return.
For now, Mother Nature wins. I’m not ready for weekly battles with a shovel against a foot of snow, so we’ll start our yurt experience again, when the weather permits.

Yurt Totem Poles Stand for Family & Friends

We have a pole in the centre of our yurt. More correctly, we have two poles. Before you judge too harshly, these poles are neither dancing poles, nor firemen’s poles. They are prospective totem poles.
If moving from a middle-class home in suburbia to a Mongolian tent in the backwoods of Manitoba was not sufficiently unusual, we have incorporated a more clearly defined oddity in the living area of our yurt. Two spruce poles, crowned by a cross-member pole and crowned with a spiral of collar ties for the free-span truss boards, form our tribute to the iconic Pacific First Nations artefacts.
Granted, our future totems are significantly smaller than the mammoth totems along the Pacific Northwest coast. At an average diameter of 8 inches, they are paltry in size. They were also redundant in the yurt structure, as the roof assembly had sufficient strength without the addition of the centre posts and collar ties.
These totem poles, though, have a much more social purpose. On a counter adjacent to the poles we have an assortment of carving chisels and shaping knives. At our official “yurt-warming” party, scheduled for later this year, we will launch the first “community carving” in Manitoba (or so we believe). Guests will be invited to choose a spot, select their tools, and carve the gargoyle, icon, angel or creation of their choice – no limits. Of course, space is limited, as is time. Accordingly, future guests will be invited to add their own touches to existing carved artworks, or create their own in new space on the poles. Required is individual accountability: each carver will be asked to carve his/her initials in that masterpiece. In this manner, we will have a record of our guests’ visits, an insight into their creative sides, and the most original artwork available.
Cave and rock paintings, innukshuk statues and totems were all communications tools as well as expressions of individualism in our early Canadian culture. It is our intent to continue that tradition, in our little corner (or circle) of the country, and give vent to our friends’ creativity. Want to contribute your own ideas? How about sending us a drawing, photo or sketch of the icon that you would like to see gracing the totems in our yurt. We will be posting photos of the progress on these unique structures, beginning early next year. Let us, and our friends, bring your artistry to life!

Yurt Structural Supports

Although yurts are considerably lighter than conventional houses, there still is considerable weight to the materials, and the proper support structures need to be in place.
Many yurts are built as elevated structures, either in total or in part, since many are built in locations with considerable slopes. There is a tendency to construct these units on simple 4*4 stilts, with little regard to lateral rigidity. Additionally, when yurts are built on platforms or raised decks, they alter the wind flow in, around and under the building. This practice also exacerbates drainage and snow build-up issues, as moisture tends to flow more freely under the building.
The primary consideration should be to structural integrity. Merely walking on a platform or deck that is held up by 4*4 posts causes the building to vibrate. Like the harmonic effect of a bridge structure swaying in the wind (or a child’s swing being propelled on larger and larger arcs), this rhythmic motion can increase in intensity, causing the supports to break loose over time. Cross supports should be used, in addition to ties to hold the structure caps tightly to joists or beams. Ensure that you have placed a sufficient number of stilts along the length and breadth of the platform, to prevent sag.
Wind flow can be a very serious concern for yurt design. A moderate wind, funnelled beneath the yurt, may billow, like the air beneath a parachute canopy. This air flow has a detrimental effect on heating & cooling, as well. Yurts are designed to allow for easy air flow around and over the structure, and were never designed to allow for air flow beneath.
The third concern is moisture redirection. Allowing snow load to build up under your yurt will result in high moisture content in the spring, and the contingent possible decay or mould formation on the underside of the structure. Allowing water and snow melt to drain freely under the platform, as well, will contribute to the undermining of the earthen base on which deck posts rest. This, in turn, decreases structural integrity. You should install a water redirection system on the upper edge of the yurt platform, and redirecting barriers in a lead position on each deck support leg. This will minimize the risk of water erosion.
Just because yurts are considered as an “alternative” to conventional housing does not imply that improper or inadequate construction techniques should be employed. Care in design, construction and maintenance of your yurt supporting network is a critical to building integrity as it is in conventional housing.