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yurt living? - Page 8

post #141 of 158
11/7/08 at 2:03pm
: Hoping to put up a yurt this summer! Needing some tips for off grid living..namely cooking/baking..any wonderful ideas? anyone have an outdoor oven? also, what are the best options for snowy weather/harsher climates?
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post #142 of 158
11/7/08 at 2:10pm
Well, I will say in my research that colder climates are supposed to be better suited for yurts than warmer, humid ones. I live in Florida. I've heard over and over that yurts heat up nicely with a woodstove. Of course you will want to pay for the insulation package as well but I think you would be nice and toasty. I've heard over and over that yurts are much harder to cool than to heat, so summer is the bigger problem.
post #143 of 158
11/7/08 at 2:14pm
my honey lived in a couple yurts for several years here in New England and says it's cooold...what pkg. or brand would be best? what about used yurts or building your own (ie;not from a kit) it can't be that difficult, no? also what about stoves? I am interested in pellet stoves..would that be possible to use in a yurt then moved to a permanent home later on? (like 5-10 years down the road)
post #144 of 158
11/7/08 at 2:21pm
Okay, a couple of things. I looked at a lot of different yurt companies as well as reviews. Pacific Yurts is the oldest and seems to be the most reputable. I stayed in one of their yurts and have never heard a bad thing about them...but I have heard some not so good things about a few competitors.

As for building one, I know it can be done and I find it pretty fascinating...I just don't know if I would trust myself to do it the right way so I would rather buy one that I know is made to perfection so to speak. To each their own though, you know? I think if I were building a wood and concrete type of one I would feel better about it but I don't know about a canvas or wool one. I would be worried about mildew, bugs, weatherizing, and so on.

I don't know much about pellet stoves. I need to look into those. I do know that I've heard of mildew problems from stoves in some of the handmade yurts, particularly the wool ones.
post #145 of 158
11/8/08 at 6:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pixiewytch View Post
Well, I will say in my research that colder climates are supposed to be better suited for yurts than warmer, humid ones. I live in Florida. I've heard over and over that yurts heat up nicely with a woodstove. Of course you will want to pay for the insulation package as well but I think you would be nice and toasty. I've heard over and over that yurts are much harder to cool than to heat, so summer is the bigger problem.
Well that just bites. Maybe I'll have to go back to the drawing board after all.. because I live in Queensland australia, the home of all humidity (really, if y'all have humidity where you are, it has just gone on holiday from HERE . I am rethinking accepting the parents offer (as we all get along FAB and MIL is offering to take care of the kids so that I can go to Uni when I'm ready, even if we are still homeschooling) and just not saying anything until the end.. then paying them 'rent' whether they like it or not We have actually discussed this a great deal and we SO want to move out to the country (we won't be off grid though.. I'm just not ready for that yet ) and I would be ecstatic to have land & a big garden, and chickens!
post #146 of 158
11/14/08 at 7:35am
Pixiewitch, mildew doesn't come from stove heat. At least not wood stoves. Wood fires are drying. Although I have never had a pellet stove, I cannot imagine a pellet stove being any different from a wood stove and it not be drying. Dry heat kills mildew.

Rainbowmoon, my husband and I built our yurt. I can talk to you about the experience if you want. Also, small wood stoves are moveable. Our wood stove has moved with us from our house, to our yurt, and now back into our house.
post #147 of 158
11/14/08 at 3:02pm
Well, it wasn't my experience. It was somebody on this forum, maybe even this thread who had mentioned mildew inside from cooking. I am fairly sure it was a wool yurt though.
post #148 of 158
11/14/08 at 3:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by madrone View Post
Pixiewitch, mildew doesn't come from stove heat. At least not wood stoves. Wood fires are drying. Although I have never had a pellet stove, I cannot imagine a pellet stove being any different from a wood stove and it not be drying. Dry heat kills mildew.

Rainbowmoon, my husband and I built our yurt. I can talk to you about the experience if you want. Also, small wood stoves are moveable. Our wood stove has moved with us from our house, to our yurt, and now back into our house.
did you design your yurt yourselves or purchase plans somewhere? I would LOVE to hear more about your experiences! what part of the country are you in?
post #149 of 158
11/14/08 at 7:06pm
It was me who mentioned mildew problems on yurts. I live in a very humid, coastal area of the world and mildew growth is a problem everywhere here. It's a bigger problem in our house than in our yurt. Our house is stone. Wool doesn't really get growth on it. It rots when it's too humid. Mildew will grow on cotton. To not have mildew grow, you need to cut down the humidity. In houses, de-humidifiers are very popular here. But they use electricity. And it's not something really feasible in a yurt.

Wood heat dries and helps get rid of humidity. Cooking creates humidity and attributes to mildew. That's because of the evaporation of water during cooking. If you just have wood heat without a kettle boiling on it, it does help dry the environment. Our yurt is wool and cotton. The yurts of different friends of ours are wool with a cotton/poly blend. Wool tends to rot and not mildew. Cotton mildews. Polyester isn't breathable, so I think it attributes to rot and mildew problems in some of our friends' yurts. We were in a very dry climate last year and cooked inside all year. But that was a much different environment. Where we live is wet pretty much year round. In the summer, you don't want to build a fire. So you cook on gas, which is a moist heat. And between the gas moisture and the cooking moisture, you create a problem for yourself. Not all wood heating stoves are good to cook on, even when you are using it for heat. Our first wood stove was horrible to cook on. Our current wood stove is better, but it's not like you can sauté something on it. We still need a cook stove. So that's gas and that creates humidity. In a dry environment, it's fine to cook in our yurt. But here no.

Rainbowmoon, we have Paul King's Yurt Handbook and used that as the basis for our yurt. We didn't follow his instructions exactly, but reading his book helped us understood the concepts. I know I wrote about it as we were doing it here. Perhaps it's in the early pages of this thread? We're not in the states but in Europe.
post #150 of 158
11/15/08 at 3:26pm
Just wanted to add that building a soild wall yurt yourself is cheaper than buy one from Pacific. Thats what really made us decide to build. Good luck
post #151 of 158
11/16/08 at 9:24pm
Humidity over 80% RH will damage wood, cloth, just about anything (mold!) If you live in a rainforest, you need water resistant walls - thats all.

My yurt-dweling friends do it just for a few weeks at a time. The roof assemblies are really easy to make (bicycle rims are a popular center at Burning Man I believe). The walls take a lot of drilling and many stainless steel bolt sets. I think a permanent build on those would not be so bad.

One builder I spoke with (http://www.yurts-r-us.com/?) said that over 30 feet you need a crane to install the roof. I saw his big traveling yurt, a 30 footer I believe and it was super! If the web site pricing is still current, the 30 footer fully loaded is less than $10K. What a deal!
post #152 of 158
11/17/08 at 12:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by AddysMom View Post
Just wanted to add that building a soild wall yurt yourself is cheaper than buy one from Pacific. Thats what really made us decide to build. Good luck
I am definitely interested in the solid wall yurts for snowy weather here in the NE..have you started building your yurt yet? what part of the country are you in?

is everyone off grid here? :

ETA- I see your blog link AddysMom (awesome!!!!)
post #153 of 158
4/30/09 at 1:36pm
Anybody know where to find used yurts? We are in the process of buying land and really want to live off grid and would love a yurt...
post #154 of 158
5/3/09 at 9:00pm

Wow!

So much amazing information here, I had to make an account to talk to you wonderful people! I read here that one of the posters built a yurt with hardwood, and was wondering if they could elaborate more on what they used to build it and maby might have some images?
post #155 of 158
5/28/09 at 5:21pm
Would anyone recommend a yurt for desert living? I'm thinking somewhere like northern Nevada, which has hot days and cool nights.

And how do you keep the mice, bugs, and other critters out?
post #156 of 158
5/28/09 at 6:14pm
Yurts heat up in the sun. The cool nights would work fine. But the hot days would be terrible.
post #157 of 158
6/30/09 at 8:24am
(wrong thread )
post #158 of 158
12/24/12 at 12:37am

Great info you all. Ya know, I want to put a Yurt on a nice piece of property in the Sierra Foothills East of San Francisco, and I love Pacific Yurts, but I really need advice about contractors for the base, deck, etc. Should I raise it up on stilts to obviate bear issues? Are there bear issues with Yurts? I know Pacific Yurts and everyone else says how easy these things are to put together, but I'm just not really confident this is true, especially if a foundation needs to be in place. Pacific Yurts did not offer me any sort of network of contractors that have experience with Yurts. They were super nice, just wish they have some more turn key solutions. I definitely want to be part of putting it together, but would happily pay someone with experience to take the lead.  Any ideas?