I built a stretch yurt for this year's Burning Man and in the process came up with a few modifications. I mitered all connecting edges 30º because I believe this provides the best structural strength. Mitered edges distribute any outside pressure (e.g., wind) from the roof to the walls to the ground and make for a sturdier unit. To cut the miters I laid the panels on 2x4s set flat on my deck. I marked a line 3/4" from the edge and set the blade angle on my Skilsaw to 30º. This gave me accurate miter cuts and the job took very little time.
I taped my yurt to fold into two wall units and a single roof unit. This can be done even with mitered edges. The wall units fold the two short end walls over one long wall, so all taping is done on the outside. Only two walls need to be taped during assembly. The roof unit folds the two long roof sections together on an inside tape hinge, then one triangular roof section from each end folds over the flattened roof. Only two of the triangular roof sections and the eve of the long roof sections need to be taped during assembly. I taped the inside of the roof eve after I had assembled the roof and had it taped to the walls. When I assembled the yurt before transport, I set it up on a tarp and scribed the wall lines with a felt-tipped marker. I also marked where my stakes would go so I could drive them through the tarp during set- up. This saved me some time fiddling with the walls because I knew exactly where they needed to go to square up the footprint. I didn't like the idea of relying on a halo and/or guy lines to anchor the yurt so I built gussets out of scrap roof flashing. Two gussets rest on the ends of the roof eve line and four are placed where my tie- down straps meet the intersection of the walls and roof. The gussets distribute the tension of the anchor straps over a wider area, which improves stability and prevents the straps from damaging the polyiso foam. The use of gussets also permits my tie-down straps to run parallel with the walls to the rebar anchors. No guy lines eliminated the risk of someone tripping over my tie-downs. The rebar was heated with a torch and bent into an L shape slightly more acute than 90º so they would sit flush with the ground. I used 4' cam straps (NRSweb.com) formed into loops connected to the anchors on one side of the yurt and attached ratcheting straps to the loops and through the gussets on the eve then connected to the anchors on the opposite side. The ratcheting straps made it easy to adjust tension to the tie-down system and the cam straps made it easy to disconnect the straps when I broke down the yurt. I built the door on one of the small end walls, which gave me better use of space inside the yurt. The 2'x3' opening was reinforced with galvanized flashing to protect the foam edges. I build a door out of 1/8" luan plywood glued to the piece of foam I had cut out for the doorway. I bolted strap hinges through the galvanized sheet metal on one side of the door. The door edges were lined with adhesive-backed weather strip foam to seal the opening from dust. A bungee cord connected to one of the hinge bolts and an eye bold held the door closed. I'm too lazy to tape the interior walls to the tarp to keep the dust out so I used adhesive-back foam weather stripping on the bottom of all walls to form a seal against the tarp. Once the yurt is assembled and strapped down all I have to do is bring in my bedding and gear and I''m done. When cutting the hexayurt panels there will be four triangular pieces of scrap. I taped these together to make a double shelf storage system where I could keep my lantern, ear plugs, spare batteries, and any other small items I might need to find during the night. /Users/billsenger/Pictures/iPhoto Library/Originals/2011/Burning Man 2011/IMGP0373.JPG -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt?hl=en.
