An update on our 6 yurt build. We have finished our construction. It was a long and grueling process. 10 days of work over 5 weekends with an average of 6 people per day. Here's some broad strokes on what we did.
Our yurts are tight vinyl joints that velcro together via vinyl flaps. On playa, they will assembly with some rubbing of the velco in a few minutes. We also have a vinyl velcro in floor. We used billboard vinyl from this site ( http://billboardtarps.myshopify.com/ ) for all our joints and floors. We bought Hunter Xci 286 panels. We used red cans of Dap contact cement for all joints (vinyl to vinyl, vinyl to foil, vinyl to velcro). We also tried the "low odor" green, but couldn't make it stick. This seems very strong if applied thick, allowed to dry fully, then pressed firmly together. If you do a step wrong, like not waiting until dry, or skip firm pressing, the joint will be weak. The playa will tell if this is a 10 year solution like we hope. We also used Loctite in a few places. It holds very well if the vinyl is sanded and water is applied before squirting, but make sure you get a form of Loctite that can handle heat. Some types can be removed by applying heat over 140 degrees, which felt too close to our shipping container's possible peak temperature to risk. We used stuff that goes up to 400F before failing. We didn't use this in many spots primarily because the joints take 24 hours to dry instead of 30 minutes to an hour and because the joints dry rigid, so it can't be used on flexible flaps. In places where I mention using contact cement, the process is to lay out the 2 pieces to be joined, slopping a thick even layer of cement on both, waiting 30 to 60 minutes for it to be dry / tacky but not come away in the thickest spots with a finger (like it says on the instructions), then carefully pressing the 2 parts together and rubbing the joint hard. Once 2 pieces of contact cement touch, their love is forever, so align carefully. Construction went something like this: 1. Beveled all panels to the angle they will join at (30 degrees on verticals and wall horizontal joints, ~15 degrees on roof corners). 2. Wrapped foam edges of panels in vinyl with contact cement and 6" wide vinyl strips 3. Glued a sheet of half inch plywood to the back of a rectangle to allow for a structural door 4. Cut a door and AC port through the wood attached panels 5. Reattached the door with a vinyl strip 6. Joined all triangles and rectangles together into pairs with tight inside joints 7. Joined all triangle pairs together into rooves 8. Joined all rectangle pairs together into walls, with the door on one end 9. Applied hook velcro to the outside of the top edge of the wall, the inside ring where the floor will attach, the outside vertical where the ring closes, and one side of the roof opening 10. Applied a vinyl flap with loop velcro to the opposite vertical, the other side of the roof opening, and around the ring of the roof as an eave / roof attachment 11. Celebrated a completed yurt Other details... we left some slack in the vinyl strips joining triangles that hand out past the wall joint to be used for tie downs. We'll be putting grommets through the vinyl that we'll rope through. Overall, I can't necessarily endorse this method. It works, and I think we will have the most super advanced hexayurts science has produced, but the labor time was enormous due to all the time spent waiting for contact cement to dry. Laying out the 100s of vinyl strips, painting them, and trying to keep the wind from flopping them onto each other before we could apply them was also a nightmare (eventually we glued them down with a blob of contact cement while it dried which doesn't cure because it's not exposed to air). Maybe that stuff is less of a problem if you do 1 yurt instead of 6 at once like we did, but if we make yurts for other members in the future, it will almost certainly be out of some kind of tape instead of vinyl. We have a few construction shots I'll post later. If you want to inspect our work, we're Cafe Surprise, and we'll be camping at 4:45 and Basra. Look for the "French" maitre d out front at the podium. Happy to answer questions. Joshua, contact cement worked for us joining velcro to vinyl and velcro to wood, just make sure you slop it on thick enough and let it dry before attaching. It's stronger than the velcro joint, but if you pull directly on the 2 pieces, you can get them to separate. Sanding the vinyl first helped, but we didn't do that due to time for most joints. In places where the velcro was going onto a flap instead of a panel, we also used office staples as a secondary physical connector. On Monday, July 28, 2014 4:06:53 PM UTC-7, Joshua Slocum wrote: > > My build is a standard 8' yurt. However it differs from your build in that > the hinges are all cordura as well. > > How did you attach the tarp to your yurt? I'm planning on using contact > cement to glue Velcro strips to a tarp. Do you have any suggestions? > > On Jul 23, 2014, at 23:46, Alexander Griffin <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > > Jacob and Josh - > I really hope you guys pursue your interests to build with Velcro. I > really feel it is the way to go. > > In the past few weeks I refurbished my H7 modified stretch yurt to use > Velcro seams so it is now a combination of Bi-Di taped hinges and > Velcro/Cordura straps. It is now a 0% waste (no tape needed for assembly) > hexayurt and I am very happy with the outcome! We used it at PEX Summer > Festival earlier this month and it worked great. As an added bonus, I > found that I could vent the yurt by slipping open the Velcro on a small > roof section and fold it back. Instant fresh air gratification! And it > would have been impossible to do that with a taped yurt. Like my (newer) > H12, I used the same formula of 500D cordura, Barge Glue, and 2" wide > velcro. Worked like a charm. > > Josh: If you have any photos yet I'd love to see if you have any mods or > variations in your build. > > Jacob: For any yurt, surviving high winds is going to depend a lot on how > you rope/stake down the construction. I think many people make a mistake > of putting their guy lines at 90 degree angles to the ground. But for > better wind shear resistance it is better to have some angle, like 30 or 45 > degrees. I have no doubt that the Barge Glue and cordura is going to > hold up to the wind; the bond to the Thermasheath panels is as strong or > stronger than Bi-Di tape. > > Velcro has excellent side shear grip but poor vertical grip -- that is > what makes Velcro useful and reusable. All of your straps should use only > sideways shear stress in your design. If any strap is at an angle other > than sideways shear, Velcro is going to be your weakest link. Also bear > in mind: the wider the Velcro, the more strength you get. I have not felt > that anything wider than 2" was necessary, but you can certainly buy wider > stuff. > > I'l be honest and say I haven't tested either yurt in the rain so I don't > know how well the Cordura and glue seals resist water. But if you're > careful to keep the glue evenly spread and are careful to squeeze out air > bubbles when you attach pieces together, you should have a very good > waterproof seal. > > For the first (and probably only) time, BOTH of my hexayurts are going to > be on Playa at the same time, in the same camp. I'm excited! > > --Wolf > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the > Google Groups "hexayurt" group. > To unsubscribe from this topic, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/topic/hexayurt/2QRUl3txk-8/unsubscribe. > To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to > [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <javascript:>. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hexayurt" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hexayurt. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
