A Yurt: Big Enough for Ya!?!?!

**mrTOECUTTER** · 30th October 2008, 10:51 AM

My Girlfriend and I are moving out of Sydney to travel rural NSW in a yurt!

I went to Mongolia in 2005 and did a lot of drawings from actual yurts, or ger [gare] in Mongolian. I also found a great resource online here:

http://simplydifferently.org/

To break it down a bit more, a yurt is made from a few (5) lattice walls (khana) which are tied together forming a circle, with a single low doorway. These are kept in form with a rope which holds it all to a set length of circumference. There is a round wooden skylight in the centre which is held up by a series of wooden poles (uni) which are tied to the lattice walls. All this is covered by felt for insulation and a waterproofed fabric, and tied on with a network of straps and ropes which are pegged into the ground.

This picture should make all that make sense:

I was thinking of using bamboo for the roof poles, because they have excellent strength and length (and I wouldn't have to do much to them to make them round!!)

I found an old round wooden table top which i was going to cut into to make the round skylight, and add a bunch of wood to to strengthen it.

What I am wondering about is which wood to choose for the khana (lattice walls) and the doorway. They will most probably be resting on the ground and they need the strength to support the roof poles. So I need to choose a wood which is durable, strong, resistant to moisture, and hopefully not too expensive!

The length of each of the pieces of the khana will be about 1.8m, with a cross section of about 8mm x 35mm, and joined through holes drilled in the pieces with a thick cord.

The doorway is about 800 wide by 1500 high, with four uprights (two each side) and 2 pieces for the top and the bottom: at the top, the roof poles have to sit into it.

This is the story so far!

I will post with my progress and look forward to any help you guys can give me!

Best Wishes

mrTOECUTTER

addendum: for the khana there needs to be about 160m. of this material (approx. 25 poles/slats per khana and five khana make up the whole wall)

**Skew ChiDAMN!!** · 30th October 2008, 05:38 PM

SSSH! Not so loudly, lest IKEA hears you and we end up with flat-pack houses flooding the market...!

From memory there are one or two other yurtmongers on the forum, so this could make for an interesting thread...

**Claw Hama** · 30th October 2008, 09:13 PM

Mr TC

You can't use more bamboo for your khana can you? Light strong durable etc etc or even split bamboo. Just a thought.

**mrTOECUTTER** · 5th November 2008, 11:18 AM

Well, the yurt people don't seem to be biting, except a few kind words from Biting Midge!
If anyone knows of the yurt-mongers, would you direct them to be?
Thanking you in advance,
mrTOECUTTER!

p.s. One of my mates just got back from Mongolia, where he very recently disassembled
and reassembled a ger with his lady-friend, so I have a couple of partners in crime, but I
need some wood-selection tips, which is why I am here!

**Clinton1** · 5th November 2008, 01:57 PM

Any reason why you could not use thin bamboo for the lattice as well?

**bitingmidge** · 5th November 2008, 05:31 PM

I think you will find that bamboo is not a very suitable material used in this way! Split, it's very pliable particularly when wet, so you could well end up with buckling walls, and you'd need quite large sections to get adequate spans across the roofs as well. Also you'd have difficulty with the mortice in the ring beam and the taper where they tie to the lattice at the outer edge I suspect.

The rafter bits don't need to be round at all of course, I'd think about using hardwood, which is heavy but has high strength/low deflection for its weight.

As for the lattice, what's wrong with CCA pine? The walls are really just part of a big tension structure, they take the vertical loads, but it's the horizontal tensioning that holds the roof up and turns them into a structural membrane. (Sorry, I'm not big on engineering technical stuff!)

Watching with some curiosity!

Cheers,

P

**mrTOECUTTER** · 21st December 2008, 09:37 AM

To keep you all updated:

I have just finished cutting all the wood for the walls: The wood was procured through a builder friend of my Mum's, there was a huge pile of 18x70 boards plus some 38x38 and 50x50 lengths. It was $1 a meter, and after I got it back from the mill, it looked AMAzing! The guys at the mill said it was Blue gum.

The 18x70 was reduced to 11x68, and the 38x38 and 50x50 got a "hard 'arris" so it's an octagonal section of 32 across. The Arrised wood will be the roof poles.

I have ripped the 18x70 into 2020x11x32 batons which are going to be made into the five lattice walls (khana).

**ratchet** · 21st December 2008, 09:53 AM

you may like to look at this site

http://site.yurtworks.com.au/

**mrTOECUTTER** · 1st June 2009, 11:08 AM

Yurt is finished now. I just finished sewing the cover on a treadle sewing machine while drying the fabric (which was mouldy and wet) by the beerkeg stove!

I will post a link to photos soon!

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