Yurt Owner Information

From time to time Nalina sends out information by email to individuals who have bought yurts from Spirit Mountain Yurts regarding yurt living. This section includes some of those topics. More will be added in the future

Successful Yurt Living: Be Prepared for Big Winds

By Nalina Uehlein

June 2, 2006

In the last year we have heard many reports from people with Yurts (and also others) that there have been very high gusts of winds in many locations where high winds have not been a problem in the past.

Since this has been happening, we have been recommending more wind tie downs than we ever have in the past.

Also, with hurricane season around the corner, this is a good time to look over your Yurt set up and be proactive about adding some wind bracing if you feel that it is necessary.

First of all, be realistic about the possibility of high winds in your area. If you think winds could be a threat to your Yurt, here are some steps that you can take. You may not need to take all of them, it is going to be your call. If you live where there are regularly occurring high winds, then we recommend that you do take all of these steps.

1) Make sure that you have installed the rafter brackets, which attach your rafters to your compression ring.

2) Make sure that you install a screw at the bottom end of each rafter positioned so that each rafter cannot come off the cable even in a big wind.

3) Have a wind tie down cable handy, even if you donut want to use it daily. This attaches to your compression ring and ties the ring down to the floor! Be prepared to set it up when preparing for a storm or when leaving your Yurt for any length of time. This cable runs through the large eye screws that have been installed in your compression ring and then attaches to hardware that is recessed in the center of your deck. If you are building walls to create separate rooms in your Yurt, you can run this cable down the center of the wall before it is finished off and it won't be an eye sore.

4) You can run strong nylon rope between your outer canvas and insulation, attaching it to the aircraft cable at the top of your lattice on the top and to your deck at the bottom. Go around the perimeter of your Yurt and do this every couple of feet.

5) Attach angle brackets to the lattice where it sits on your floor.

6) Make your own upright supports that go under each rafter. You would purchase nice 8 ft 2 x 4’s and cut them to fit under each rafter. Once they are cut, sand them and finish with a finish of your choice. They are attached to the rafter with straight brackets and to your floor with angle brackets. (To make all of these supporting brackets look much nicer, spray each one with a couple of coats of black metal primer paint. This gives them more of a “wrought iron” look!)

7) If you think you still need more support, you can use strapping that is similar to tow straps to cross over your Yurt. I know of a Yurt that uses two of these, placed so that they are attractive. The ends are anchored in the ground in cement footings. This Yurt has stood up to 100 mph winds and the owners are confidant that it will continue to.

I hope that these ideas offer you some inspiration to be very realistic about potential difficult weather conditions where you live. If you would like coaching for your specific situation, please contact us and we will be glad to offer recommendations for your site. Normally, we tend to do more than necessary to create a safe, positive Yurt living experience for ourselves. Because of this, our Yurt living experiences have been totally positive!

Yurt Living in Deep Snow

By Nalina Uehlein

September 10, 2006

Yurt Living and big snow can go hand in hand, and yet there are things that need to be understood about this relationship.

We would like to help people that are embarking upon Yurt Living to be sufficiently educated about what they are getting into so that they will have positive experiences!

OK, lets talk about snow. We lived in Yurts for almost seven years in NW Montana. My children were very young when we began our Yurt Living journey. It was important to me to create a comfortable and safe home. We did this and had a wonderful experience!

We insulated our Yurts well and also added snow load supports. Also, we learned from our experiences and we upgraded our Yurt design so that a Yurt could tolerate extreme weather conditions.

First, I'd like to make it clear that the smaller Yurts are a better idea in areas where you will get large amounts of snow all at once. Please understand that the ski adventure outfitters that place Yurts out in the mountains in the Rocky Mountains and also in the Northwest use the smaller Yurts for this purpose. Their Yurts are often totally buried in snow! (See photo below.) Small Yurts set up properly can tolerate this! The outfitters that I have personally talked with use both the 16 ft and 20 ft Yurts for this purpose.

Yes, we lived in large Yurts in the Rocky Mountains where we had potential to receive a decent amount of snow. The most snow that we got in a winter was about four feet. The most that we got in one snowfall was about two feet. When I woke up in the morning and there was a lot of snow on the roof, I would go out with a broom and knock off as much snow as I could reach around the perimeter of the Yurts. We were always home, and were able to keep the fire going (which melted some of the snow on the roof) as well as physically knock off as much as we could.

If I were going to set up a Yurt in the mountains as a get away place where I would not be present except on weekends or special occasions, I would definitely set up one of the smaller Yurts. If I wanted more space, I would add more Yurts. I would add the snow and wind kit, and make sure that all reinforcements were in place. (All of our Yurts come with rafter brackets and also each rafter has a pre-drilled hole at the cable end so that you can easily set a keeper screw on that end so the rafter will stay on the cable in the event of big winds.)

Here is a photo of a Yurt buried in snow:

Photo courtesy of Connelly Brown at www.wallowahuts.com. Contact Connelley for a Yurt ski adventure in the mountains of NE Oregon!

Below are photos of traditional Mongolian Yurts showing how they set up their Yurts in a way that they can tolerate wind and snow.

source http://www.mongolyurt.com/en/construction/frame.html

The two photos above show central support columns that help with snow load, and also add structural support.

source http://www.mongolyurt.com/en/construction/cover.html

www.travelogues.net/Trans_Siberian/index_js.htm?page=photos_Mongolia_ger_trip.htm

The three photos above show how the Mongolians add "Belly Bands" around the lattice to keep it from bowing out under a snow load.

Yurt companies in the US sell "snow and wind kits." These include support systems to make Yurts a more stable "buildings." We would like to show you how to add your own support systems to your Yurt!

We like to see more rafters added to accommodate large amounts of snow. The reason for this is because the roof vinyl needs the extra support for the additional weight of a large amount of snow. We use all Machine Stress Rated lumber for this purpose, which means that each piece of lumber has been tested for strength. This is what we recommend that you use also.

Here is a diagram of how someone with a standard Yurt could add additional rafters:

The next thing that we like to see is someone adding upright supports under each rafter. These are easily made out of 2 x 4's. Sand your boards, apply your finish, and use simpson brackets to attach each support to the rafter that sits on it, and also to the floor.

These supports are obvious in many Yurt photos.

You can also add the central support column as seen in the traditional Mongolian Yurts above.

The last thing that we like to see is to use brackets to attach each rafter to the center ring, and place a keeper screw into the bottom end of the rafter so that where each rafter sits on the cable, the keeper screw keeps it in place. (These two reinforcements come standard with all of our Yurts.)

Also, please see the article on our web site about dealing with high winds while Yurt Living. This article will give you other ideas about how to secure your Yurt. Look at all of the ideas presented and decide what you need to do for your particular situation. All of these ideas are basically turning your Yurt into a more solid building.

Please contact us if we can help in any way. We like to help people set up their Yurt Living experience so that it is a positive, wonderful experience!

How to Stay Warm & Cozy in Your Yurt in Cold Climates

By Nalina Uehlein

November 9, 2006

We get a lot of questions from people who call us about the realities of staying warm in a Yurt in very cold climates.

Reality is.... YES... you can stay warm and cozy!

In order to accomplish this, insulation is important. The reflective insulation used by Yurt companies is surprisingly effective. Sure surprised me when we were living in Yurts in the mountains of Montana!

Here are some important details to help you stay warm:

A: Small Yurts are easier to heat than larger Yurts.

B: When you purchase your wood stove or other heating system, think big. Purchase a system that is a little overkill for a building the square footage of your Yurt.

C:If you have a larger Yurt (24 to 30 ft), a great way to hold the heat in is to build an upstairs in your Yurt. When you build the floor for the upstairs, you should insulate it very well. That's what really helps to keep the heat down in your living space. With the tall walls in all of our Yurts, there is plenty of room to add an upstairs. Of course this adds much more living space, as well as creates a way to keep the heat down in your living space (since heat flows upwards). We always have a lot of windows in our Yurts, and we found that it was most effective to really focus on insulating the roof (or the floor of your upstairs). Any home with a high ceiling will be more difficult to heat. This is not just an issue with Yurts.

When you build an upstairs, the room that you create upstairs is a very special space, as you have the beauty of the roof rafters, center ring, and dome as your ceiling. Along the perimeter where the roof is low you can put shelves, dressers, etc., and use the center as the space where you can stand up and move around. Our Standard 30 ft Yurt is 15 ½ ft tall at the center ring! Our Fortress model is almost 16 ft tall at the center ring! That leaves a lot of space for an upstairs. We recommend this way of keeping your heat in your downstairs living space if you are in a very cold climate and are feeling that you are losing too much heat. It is so effective. Call us if you would like more information about how to go about adding an upstairs or a loft to your Yurt!

If you are building an upstairs or a loft, one way to create a staircase without taking up a lot of space is to put in a spiral staircase. They are very beautiful.

D: Use a fan that is mounted high in your ceiling to blow the warm air back down into your living space. You can turn a fan on low so it is quiet.This is very effective in areas where the climate is moderately cold.

E: Think of your Yurt as any other building. What would you do to your home to make sure your heating system was working efficiently? Are there drafts around your windows and doors? If so, use weather-stripping to create a better seal and eliminate drafts.

F: Find a good book, sit by the fire, and enjoy winter!

Spirit Mountain Yurts home 551 W. Cordova Road #422, Santa Fe, NM 87505 (505) 757-2547
Quality Custom Yurts Providing yurts across America as well as Canada, Costa Rica, Israel, Japan & India. How We Started Making Yurts History of Yurts FAQ's Standard Yurt Design Pricing/Standard Features/Options Fortress Yurt Design Contact Us	Yurt Owner Information From time to time Nalina sends out information by email to individuals who have bought yurts from Spirit Mountain Yurts regarding yurt living. This section includes some of those topics. More will be added in the future Successful Yurt Living: Be Prepared for Big Winds By Nalina Uehlein June 2, 2006 In the last year we have heard many reports from people with Yurts (and also others) that there have been very high gusts of winds in many locations where high winds have not been a problem in the past. Since this has been happening, we have been recommending more wind tie downs than we ever have in the past. Also, with hurricane season around the corner, this is a good time to look over your Yurt set up and be proactive about adding some wind bracing if you feel that it is necessary. First of all, be realistic about the possibility of high winds in your area. If you think winds could be a threat to your Yurt, here are some steps that you can take. You may not need to take all of them, it is going to be your call. If you live where there are regularly occurring high winds, then we recommend that you do take all of these steps. 1) Make sure that you have installed the rafter brackets, which attach your rafters to your compression ring. 2) Make sure that you install a screw at the bottom end of each rafter positioned so that each rafter cannot come off the cable even in a big wind. 3) Have a wind tie down cable handy, even if you donut want to use it daily. This attaches to your compression ring and ties the ring down to the floor! Be prepared to set it up when preparing for a storm or when leaving your Yurt for any length of time. This cable runs through the large eye screws that have been installed in your compression ring and then attaches to hardware that is recessed in the center of your deck. If you are building walls to create separate rooms in your Yurt, you can run this cable down the center of the wall before it is finished off and it won't be an eye sore. 4) You can run strong nylon rope between your outer canvas and insulation, attaching it to the aircraft cable at the top of your lattice on the top and to your deck at the bottom. Go around the perimeter of your Yurt and do this every couple of feet. 5) Attach angle brackets to the lattice where it sits on your floor. 6) Make your own upright supports that go under each rafter. You would purchase nice 8 ft 2 x 4’s and cut them to fit under each rafter. Once they are cut, sand them and finish with a finish of your choice. They are attached to the rafter with straight brackets and to your floor with angle brackets. (To make all of these supporting brackets look much nicer, spray each one with a couple of coats of black metal primer paint. This gives them more of a “wrought iron” look!) 7) If you think you still need more support, you can use strapping that is similar to tow straps to cross over your Yurt. I know of a Yurt that uses two of these, placed so that they are attractive. The ends are anchored in the ground in cement footings. This Yurt has stood up to 100 mph winds and the owners are confidant that it will continue to. I hope that these ideas offer you some inspiration to be very realistic about potential difficult weather conditions where you live. If you would like coaching for your specific situation, please contact us and we will be glad to offer recommendations for your site. Normally, we tend to do more than necessary to create a safe, positive Yurt living experience for ourselves. Because of this, our Yurt living experiences have been totally positive! Yurt Living in Deep Snow By Nalina Uehlein September 10, 2006 Yurt Living and big snow can go hand in hand, and yet there are things that need to be understood about this relationship. We would like to help people that are embarking upon Yurt Living to be sufficiently educated about what they are getting into so that they will have positive experiences! OK, lets talk about snow. We lived in Yurts for almost seven years in NW Montana. My children were very young when we began our Yurt Living journey. It was important to me to create a comfortable and safe home. We did this and had a wonderful experience! We insulated our Yurts well and also added snow load supports. Also, we learned from our experiences and we upgraded our Yurt design so that a Yurt could tolerate extreme weather conditions. First, I'd like to make it clear that the smaller Yurts are a better idea in areas where you will get large amounts of snow all at once. Please understand that the ski adventure outfitters that place Yurts out in the mountains in the Rocky Mountains and also in the Northwest use the smaller Yurts for this purpose. Their Yurts are often totally buried in snow! (See photo below.) Small Yurts set up properly can tolerate this! The outfitters that I have personally talked with use both the 16 ft and 20 ft Yurts for this purpose. Yes, we lived in large Yurts in the Rocky Mountains where we had potential to receive a decent amount of snow. The most snow that we got in a winter was about four feet. The most that we got in one snowfall was about two feet. When I woke up in the morning and there was a lot of snow on the roof, I would go out with a broom and knock off as much snow as I could reach around the perimeter of the Yurts. We were always home, and were able to keep the fire going (which melted some of the snow on the roof) as well as physically knock off as much as we could. If I were going to set up a Yurt in the mountains as a get away place where I would not be present except on weekends or special occasions, I would definitely set up one of the smaller Yurts. If I wanted more space, I would add more Yurts. I would add the snow and wind kit, and make sure that all reinforcements were in place. (All of our Yurts come with rafter brackets and also each rafter has a pre-drilled hole at the cable end so that you can easily set a keeper screw on that end so the rafter will stay on the cable in the event of big winds.) Here is a photo of a Yurt buried in snow: Photo courtesy of Connelly Brown at www.wallowahuts.com. Contact Connelley for a Yurt ski adventure in the mountains of NE Oregon! Below are photos of traditional Mongolian Yurts showing how they set up their Yurts in a way that they can tolerate wind and snow. source http://www.mongolyurt.com/en/construction/frame.html The two photos above show central support columns that help with snow load, and also add structural support. source http://www.mongolyurt.com/en/construction/cover.html www.travelogues.net/Trans_Siberian/index_js.htm?page=photos_Mongolia_ger_trip.htm The three photos above show how the Mongolians add "Belly Bands" around the lattice to keep it from bowing out under a snow load. Yurt companies in the US sell "snow and wind kits." These include support systems to make Yurts a more stable "buildings." We would like to show you how to add your own support systems to your Yurt! We like to see more rafters added to accommodate large amounts of snow. The reason for this is because the roof vinyl needs the extra support for the additional weight of a large amount of snow. We use all Machine Stress Rated lumber for this purpose, which means that each piece of lumber has been tested for strength. This is what we recommend that you use also. Here is a diagram of how someone with a standard Yurt could add additional rafters: The next thing that we like to see is someone adding upright supports under each rafter. These are easily made out of 2 x 4's. Sand your boards, apply your finish, and use simpson brackets to attach each support to the rafter that sits on it, and also to the floor. These supports are obvious in many Yurt photos. You can also add the central support column as seen in the traditional Mongolian Yurts above. The last thing that we like to see is to use brackets to attach each rafter to the center ring, and place a keeper screw into the bottom end of the rafter so that where each rafter sits on the cable, the keeper screw keeps it in place. (These two reinforcements come standard with all of our Yurts.) Also, please see the article on our web site about dealing with high winds while Yurt Living. This article will give you other ideas about how to secure your Yurt. Look at all of the ideas presented and decide what you need to do for your particular situation. All of these ideas are basically turning your Yurt into a more solid building. Please contact us if we can help in any way. We like to help people set up their Yurt Living experience so that it is a positive, wonderful experience! How to Stay Warm & Cozy in Your Yurt in Cold Climates By Nalina Uehlein November 9, 2006 We get a lot of questions from people who call us about the realities of staying warm in a Yurt in very cold climates. Reality is.... YES... you can stay warm and cozy! In order to accomplish this, insulation is important. The reflective insulation used by Yurt companies is surprisingly effective. Sure surprised me when we were living in Yurts in the mountains of Montana! Here are some important details to help you stay warm: A: Small Yurts are easier to heat than larger Yurts. B: When you purchase your wood stove or other heating system, think big. Purchase a system that is a little overkill for a building the square footage of your Yurt. C:If you have a larger Yurt (24 to 30 ft), a great way to hold the heat in is to build an upstairs in your Yurt. When you build the floor for the upstairs, you should insulate it very well. That's what really helps to keep the heat down in your living space. With the tall walls in all of our Yurts, there is plenty of room to add an upstairs. Of course this adds much more living space, as well as creates a way to keep the heat down in your living space (since heat flows upwards). We always have a lot of windows in our Yurts, and we found that it was most effective to really focus on insulating the roof (or the floor of your upstairs). Any home with a high ceiling will be more difficult to heat. This is not just an issue with Yurts. When you build an upstairs, the room that you create upstairs is a very special space, as you have the beauty of the roof rafters, center ring, and dome as your ceiling. Along the perimeter where the roof is low you can put shelves, dressers, etc., and use the center as the space where you can stand up and move around. Our Standard 30 ft Yurt is 15 ½ ft tall at the center ring! Our Fortress model is almost 16 ft tall at the center ring! That leaves a lot of space for an upstairs. We recommend this way of keeping your heat in your downstairs living space if you are in a very cold climate and are feeling that you are losing too much heat. It is so effective. Call us if you would like more information about how to go about adding an upstairs or a loft to your Yurt! If you are building an upstairs or a loft, one way to create a staircase without taking up a lot of space is to put in a spiral staircase. They are very beautiful. D: Use a fan that is mounted high in your ceiling to blow the warm air back down into your living space. You can turn a fan on low so it is quiet.This is very effective in areas where the climate is moderately cold. E: Think of your Yurt as any other building. What would you do to your home to make sure your heating system was working efficiently? Are there drafts around your windows and doors? If so, use weather-stripping to create a better seal and eliminate drafts. F: Find a good book, sit by the fire, and enjoy winter!