How to move a yurt platform

After taking the yurt down, we still had some daylight, so we started working on the platform, but it took all of the next day to finish taking it apart, and a Julie and I spent 1/2 of a 3rd day wrapping up. The platform was way more work than the yurt. Keep that in mind if you ever think of getting a yurt quick-and-easy structure. (It is possible to put them on the ground with no floor, but that's more temporary.)

Taking apart the platform was so hard that I wrote a question about it on the Home Improvement Stack Exchange. From that question:

Decking was 1 1/8" tongue-and-groove plywood, fastened with 3" Robertson (square-drive) screws. The deck was painted after installation, so some paint was in the screw heads. A regular cordless drill wasn't strong enough to turn these screws, but an combination drill / impact-driver was able to do it. However, maybe 1 in 10 screws had their drive heads stripped instead. Too much friction / too much torque. We used a Sawzall to cut those screws out. Went through 4 Sawzall blades.

Framing was 4" x 6" joists on 4" x 4" posts on concrete piers. Most lumber was pressure-treated, but about 1/3 of the joists were not. Beam-to-post caps were nailed in to the joists and posts, 3 nails on each side. We spent a lot of time hammering a Cat's Paw under the nail heads, and then prying them out.

Insulation was 4' x 8' sheets of 2"-thick foil-faced foam board, between the joists, secured with 1/2" x 1" lath strips, which were fastened with 2" screws. To be able to get the Sawzall in to place, we crawled around in the dirt under the yurt to remove the foam. These screws were also hard to remove, and sometimes we had to break the lath instead.

I was tired after each day of work, but the 3rd day left me deeply exhausted. The work of loading 30 concrete footing blocks kicked my butt. Many of them I had to carry up hill. I'm guessing they weighed 50 lbs each, so we put 1500 lbs of concrete in the back of the truck. Maybe more.

My new yurt location is pretty flat, so I don't necessarily need the posts. I can just lay the joists directly in to the brackets on the concrete footer blocks. However, I'm considering using the posts anyway, just cut short (6"? 12"?).  It would be easier to crawl under the yurt with a little more space. Getting all 30 blocks in just the right location, with the ground under each block perfectly flat, is tricky. Making all the blocks be exactly the same height is even harder, but cutting posts to the same length is easier. Also, I already have all the posts and brackets I would need. Downsides are more fastening required and the need for steps up in to the yurt.

How to move a yurt

Last week we took apart the yurt. I tried to find information online about how to do that, and couldn't find much. I wish I could have done time-lapse photography of the operation, but I don't really know how. So, here's a blog post that I hope someone will find useful when they want to do the same thing.

This yurt is a 30' model, which is as big as they get. That's 700 sq. ft. It seems like there's a practical limit at that size. It was made by Pacific Yurts in 2006. I wrote the company and they sent me a PDF of the construction manual, and said "just follow it backwards". That was helpful, but we still had to figure out a lot as we went.

It was built on a hillside. That meant that reaching some parts of the outside wall was really hard; luckily we had a long extension ladder.

1. Scaffolding

While the walls are only ~7' high on the perimeter, the center is more like 14' up. The instructions recommend scaffolding, so we rented some from an equipment rental place that was close by. We had a choice of 7'-long or 10'-long platforms. 10' would be too long; get the 7'. Each unit gets you 5' up, so two units give you a 10'-high platform, as recommended by the manual. Any taller wouldn't fit, and any shorter wouldn't be enough to manipulate the canvas cover.

We rented the scaffolding for a week for $55. That night I got sick with a stomach bug, and the equipment sat idle for 5 days. Finally I felt well enough to work and we assembled the troops. I called all my friends & a couple professional builders, and ended up with 4 adults: A pro, a young woman who helps in Reid's nature class, wife Julie, and myself. Reid was also with us.

2. Bubble.

There's a plastic dome in the middle of the roof, called the bubble. Under it is a small fly screen, which came off easily. After removing the bubble we tied on a 1/4" rope and slid it down the roof, using the rope to slow the slide. The instructions said to put it on a piece of cardboard, but we just flipped it upside-down. It was easy.

3. Walls.


The wall canvas hangs on small hooks from a string at the edge of the roof canvas. At the bottom it is held in place by a screw every couple feet. The screws came out first, then we unhooked and removed the walls. On the downhill side of the yurt this was tricky, and the long extension ladder was the only way were able to do this. I'm grateful that the guy I hired happened to bring one. We folded up the wall panels and loaded them in to the truck.

There were at least a dozen yellowjacket nests under the edge of the roof at the top of the wall. Luckily we were doing this in December, and all they were all in their winter homes underground.

Under the wall canvas was a foil-faced insulation layer, held in place by zip ties at the top. We clipped them off and the insulation panels dropped away. We folded & loaded these, too.

At this point, the outer walls were only lattice, which looked pretty cool. I could imagine using something like that in Hawaii in a remote area. Lots of airflow.

4. Roof material

The roof is a layer of heavy canvas, over a layer of foiled-faced insulation, over a light cloth layer, resting on a wooden frame.

A friend who has the same yurt said that getting the canvas on to the roof was the hardest part of the job. Two of us stood on the scaffolding, which put the compression ring at waist height. We grabbed the canvas on one side and started pulling, bunching it up in front of us. When it was all gathered, we passed it over our heads, and then pushed. The two on the ground pulled, and the whole thing slid to the ground in a clump. We spread the whole thing out flat (in the nearby septic drain field), folded it in half, then folded the sides in until they met, and then folded in half again. This clump we hauled to the truck. This step would have been hard with only 3 adults, and extremely difficult with only 2.

Meanwhile the light insulation layer was trying to lift off in the breeze. It is made of a series of wedge-shaped panels, taped together with aluminum tape, and they were trying to separate. Power lines from the street passed right over the yurt, and they threatened to touch. The wires are insulated, but I was still wary. Luckily we were able to move the insulation away from the power lines quickly. We rolled the insulation up, folded it in half, and loaded it in the truck.

The light cloth cover was easy to bundle up and carry away.

5. Rafters


The radial rafter system is clever. One end has a metal pin that fits in to a hole in the compression ring. The other end has a sawn slot, which fits around the tension wire at the perimeter. A screw in the end of each rafter helps make sure the wire doesn't pop out in a windstorm.

Before removing any rafters, we had to remove the "safety cable" that runs through some holes in the rafters. There are actually 4 holes in each rafter, to allow for an upgraded "snow and wind kit" but this yurt didn't have that element. The wire is held tight with cable clamps. My plain old step ladder was not quite high enough to reach this; make sure you can reach with your ladder. Once the clamps were removed, we unrove the cable and coiled it up.

To pull a rafter out, I stood with my back to the lattice wall and grabbed the rafter over my head. I pushed out on the wall with my body, while pushing the rafter inwards with my hand. When the wire was clear, I then pulled the rafter outwards. Another person in the scaffolding held the other end of the rafter to help pull the pin end out of the compression ring. I had this idea that I would remove every 8th rafter, then every 4th, then every 2nd, to keep the tension even. This was not helpful. I should have just removed every other one to start.

As the number of rafters decreases, the tension cable gets a little lose, and the roof system gets floppy. This is a risky part of the process. I wore a hard hat, and did hit myself in the head with a rafter once. No kids allowed at this point.

Eventually we got down to 3 rafters. I unhooked one, and had a helper hold it in place. Then I unhooked another & gave it to another helper. Then I unhooked the 3rd, and held it myself. The 4th adult was still on the scaffolding, and held the compression ring. We then lowered the whole thing until the ring was on the platform. We unhooked the rafters and stowed them away.

The rafters are quite long (maybe 15'), and would not fit in the back of my truck, even though it's a full-size truck with a long (8') bed. The guy I hired had a compact truck (Toyota Tacoma) with a lumber rack, so we used that. But before loading, we took down the lattice walls so they wouldn't be in the way.

We got to this point in about 2 hours; way faster than I expected.

6. Walls


The walls are a relatively light lattice framework, riveted at every crossing. One section covers approximately 3/4 of the area, and one covers 1/4 of the area. The doors go in between the two sections of lattice. They are bolted to the door frames and attached to the platform with metal brackets. The tension cable lays in the crotches at the top of the lattice; we removed the tension cable at this point.

We removed all the fasteners, then popped out the smaller lattice section. It's quite unwieldy. We compressed the lattice, which is tricky because it wants to bend instead of compress. I wonder if a brand new lattice moves more easily? It was noisy, and we may have snapped some of the wood. It's also really easy to get fingers pinched as you do this. (Hint: the more you compress the lattice, the easier it is to roll it up. So, compress all the way!)

The large lattice section was even harder to manipulate. For a while we left it standing in a cylinder on the platform. The wind blew it over the side and down the hill. This was a bad idea. We should have compressed it all the way and secured it somehow.

Once the lattice is down, the doors are not very stable. They are held in place with a pair of screws in to the platform. Get these screws out and lay the doors down right away.

At this point the yurt was completely disassembled. We hauled everything to my garage to keep it out of the weather until the new platform is ready.

Next time: taking apart the platform.

Meet Coach

I just bought an RV. The sellers called him "Coach":

It's very clean for it's age, and many of the appliances have been replaced recently. I'm enjoying getting to know all the different parts. It's like a boat + a truck + a house, so there's lots of parts!

Here's the floor plan:

It's old enough to be cheap, but not old enough to be a classic. It was on Craig's List for $8000. I took it to an RV mechanic and he pointed to a bunch of problems ranging from serious to trivial. I ended up buying it for $6000, and spent $2000 to have him fix the most important items:

• Reseal the roof
• Fix hot water heater
• Replace water pump filter
• Repair propane gas leak

For friends and family

I'm writing this blog for several reasons:

- For friends & family to follow our adventure.

- To keep track of what we did, what we were thinking, and where we spent money, for our future reference.

- As a resource for other people thinking about doing similar work. I deeply hope that our project inspires others.

However, there are some details of my house-building adventure that I don't want to share with the whole of the internet. For example <censored>. With that in mind, I've created a second blog for those details, at http://jbazuzihouse2.blogspot.com. If you want to see it, email me (JAY@BAZUZI.COM).

Chainsaw

While talking to a guy about clearing our land, he suggested that I operate a chainsaw while he ran his excavator. This would be cheaper than having him get out of the excavator every time he needed to cut a log, or hiring someone else to run the chainsaw.

I have about 10 minutes experience with a chainsaw, so I started by reading. I found this book helpful:

I didn't know how big a saw I should get. After reading online, I decided to get a Stihl. They're good saws, you can get parts for them, and the dealership is committed to supporting the saw in a way that, say, Home Depot is not.

The local Stihl dealer also does equipment rental, and they had just added a saw (Stihl 250) to their rental inventory. I figured renting would be a good way to compare saws and decide if I really wanted to do this kind of work.

I rented their 250 for 2 hours, and drove out to the land. I picked a downed Douglas Fir tree about 10" in diameter. It took several minutes to cut through, and there was a lot of smoke. Everyone I talked to said it was dull. I took it back to the rental place and they insisted it was sharp. As a total novice, I had no way to evaluate the problem.

The local hardware store also rents equipment, and they had a Stihl 260 available. I rented it for a 4 hours (same price) and went to cut the same log. It was perhaps slightly faster, but not much. I took it back.

I didn't know what to do. Why couldn't I cut a log? Were these places renting dull saws? Everything I read says there's no use trying to cut with a dull chain, so why would they do that? Maybe I was doing something wrong. Maybe I dulled the chain somehow?

I finally decided that I wanted to own a chainsaw anyway, and would work out the problems as I gained experience.

The Stihl dealership was steering me towards the 250 model, but I decided to spring for the 260 PRO model - more power, more reliable. I have a lot of cutting to do.

Strangely, some people seem to be happy to chainsaw with almost no safety equipment, while others cover themselves head to toe. As a novice, I figure I'm more likely to have an accident, so I decided to get the safety gear.

I walked out of the Stihl dealership with:

$530 Stihl MS260 PRO chainsaw

It looks like the 260 was just replaced with the 261. Having a little envy right now. What did I miss out on? I see the the bar nuts are captive. I've already lost one in the woods & replaced it.

$25 Filing kit

I also keep a small brush and screwdriver in here, so that's convenient. I don't use the file guide now, as I've learned to file freehand and prefer it.

$90 Chainsaw chaps

Since almost 1/2 of chainsaw injuries are to the legs, I thought this was a good idea.

$7 Quart of bar-and-chain oil

I had no idea how fast I would go through this stuff. 1 quart of bar oil lasts through about 1 gallon of gas. I later went back and bought a whole gallon.

Now I see they sell one based on vegetable oils that's partly biodegradable. Maybe next time.

$17 6-pack of 2-stroke engine oil (makes 1 gallon)

I already had a 1 gallon gas can to mix in.

$20 Lockable carrying case

So I could make sure the kids wouldn't get in to it. It's not an ideal case - it would be nice if it had compartments for all the stuff I want to bring along, like the chain file, bar oil, etc.

I bought this chain saw helmet from Amazon for $45. Having a face shield, ear protection, and hard hat all in one unit seemed very convenient.

I already have steel-toed work boots.

One thing I didn't buy yet is special chainsaw gloves. Long with leg injuries, many chainsaw accidents harm the left hand. Statistics say I should get these, but I hesitate.

Total bill so far: approx $800 including tax.

Yurt

Our neighbor offered to sell us her yurt. It includes the yurt platform, which is a significant expense. We have to move it.

It's 30' in diameter, for about 700 sq. ft. internal space. It was made by Pacific Yurts in 2004.

In talking to folks about yurts, I've learned that there's a lot of confusion about them. Many people think you're not required to permit them because they are temporary, like a tent. The building inspector I talked to didn't agree. He says that you can put one up for < 180 days without a permit.

My understanding is that the building department is complaint driven, meaning they won't notice an unpermitted structure unless someone complains to them. I bet you could put a yurt up without a permit for decades, and unless you pissed off your neighbor, it wouldn't ever be a problem. And if that did happen, the 180 day clock wouldn't start until that day. That's not my plan, though - I am going to permit it.

To permit it as a dwelling I'd have to install heat, plumbing, and a septic system. I don't want to do that, so I'm going to just permit it as a storage building. I can't live in it, and I can't install plumbing or heat, but it would still be very useful during construction of the house. And I have the option of converting it to a dwelling and renting it out in the future.

One advantage of going through this process is that it's easier than permitting the actual house we plan to build. So it lets us learn about the process and work out a bunch of issues (like roads!) without tying it to all the complexity of a residence.

To get the permit, I have to fill out a bunch of forms:

- A Master Permit Application, which is pretty simple in this case.

- Address request

- Road approach

- Stormwater calculation worksheet

In some ways it's simple. There's no existing "impervious surface" that affects stormwater. There's no plumbing, etc.

The county requires engineering calculations on the structure of the yurt. Pacific Yurts sent me the documentation. It's 87 pages long!

Road approach

I went to the county building department for information on applying for a building permit. I have to apply for an address and a "road approach". This turned out to be interesting. Here's a map for reference:

See interactive map

N. Jacob Miller is a paved, county-maintained road. Rainshadow Dr. is a private road that serves some upscale houses to the North. I think that those folks don't want to share their road with us.

When my area was platted, they drew in roads around each block, but none of them were ever built. My land is surrounded by Market, Fern, Moss, and Sutter streets, but they don't exist. It's all wooded, but people in the area cleared along the green lines marked above, and it's drivable.

I asked the building department if I could put a driveway in to Fern or if I had to go to Sutter, and they referred me to public works. There I learned that, since these roads weren't built within 5 years of platting, the county has no interest in them any more. So these streets don't really exist. I can put in a driveway to any of them, without a road approach permit.

However, an address would be on N. Jacob Miller Rd. The way the county does addresses is based on mileposts. They measure the distance from the start of the road to the address, in 100ths of a mile. Then they tack on an extra digit - evens on the right side of the road, odds on the left. In this case, we are 0.75 miles from the start of N. Jacob Miller, so possible addresses are 750, 752, 754, 756, and 758. And they are already taken:

To fix this situation, we have to create a new road (what would have been Sutter), with a new name, and number off of it. I can't use the name "Sutter" because it's already used slightly to the East. See it here, marked in yellow:

I may also petition to name what-was-never-Fern, because I'd like my driveway to connect there.

Once the naming happens, all the addresses around the new streets get new addresses, based on the same algorithm. For example, 754 N. Jacob Miller is about 500ft. down, so it might get 90 New Rd. If I don't name Fern, then 750 and 756 will get renumbered on to New Rd. If I do rename it, then they get numbers on Another Rd.

The name has to be unique in the county (here's the current list). It can't even sound like an existing name, so that emergency radio communication isn't confusing. It can't be vulgar or obscene. (Which is which?).

There's already a Memory Lane and a No Way in the area, so those are out. What names would you use?