How to Put Up Yurts in California

California's natural beauty and mild climate make it ideal for alternative housing such as a yurt.

A yurt is a traditional structure similar to a tent used by the nomads of Mongolia. Traditional yurts are circular, built with a wooden frame and covered by felt or animal hides, and often having a smoke hole in the top. An important advantage of the yurt is that it can be taken apart, moved and set up in another location quite easily. In the United States and many other parts of the world, though, people use yurts for everything from basic camping or luxurious vacation retreats to permanent housing; the latter are usually not very mobile. Yurts are found especially in areas with mild climates, such as much of California.

Instructions

1. Determine why you want a yurt -- as a roomy tent for camping that you can put up and take down quickly, as a retreat or vacation option, as an extra office or work space or as your permanent home. Your goal for the use of the yurt will determine not only what kind of yurt you get and how much you have to pay, but also how difficult the process of putting it up will be and what government regulations you may have to satisfy.

2. Go camping with your yurt and put it up in as little as a half an hour or so. Ecoshack, a California company, sells yurts with wooden floors, a bamboo frame and a water-repellent fabric covering. The yurt gives plenty of headroom, with a height of more than 7 feet, and can sleep six people. Assemble the floor from interlocking pieces and then put up the bamboo slats to form the frame. Top the frame with a wooden ring; this lets in light and air, but can also be covered to keep out the rain. Cover the frame with the fabric, looping some back to provide an open doorway that can be closed at night.

3. Make a more permanent, though still movable, structure to serve as a retreat, temporary office, guest house or camp by constructing a larger yurt in which you can put furnishings, a stove and other conveniences. You can use a composting toilet and a generator for electricity to stay "off the grid" and to avoid complicated plumbing and electrical work. However, you should check state and local zoning regulations and rules at any campground to see what is permitted. According to the Yurts of America website, "In some cases, you won't need a permit until you want to run plumbing into and sewage out of your yurt." You may need a permit for the base or floor of your yurt, but not for the yurt itself -- but once again, always check beforehand to be sure.

4. Construct a yurt for your home, taking advantage of the flexibility provided by suppliers such as California Yurts or Yurts of America. Build a single yurt, a series of connected yurts, or join a yurt to other structures. Your yurt home can be one, two or more stories. Add a deck, carport or garage. More permanent yurts usually have a sturdier construction and include fire-resistant siding, traditional windows and doors, full kitchens and separate bathrooms. Minimize your carbon footprint with a composting toilet, and take advantage of California's abundant sunlight by using solar power for your generator and hot water. Or you can combine the advantages and openness of the yurt with traditional plumbing and electrical wiring. Remember that using a yurt as your primary residence means satisfying state and local requirements to gain a certificate of occupancy.

Tips & Warnings

• What tools you will need, or whether you will even need tools at all, depends on the yurt you are assembling. The simplest yurts can be put up by two people and need no tools; you'll need three or more people for a larger or more complex yurt. You might need a drill, screwdriver, tape measure and utility knife for some yurts.

• Yurts may seem a simple camping or housing solution, but they are not necessarily inexpensive: some camping yurts cost upward of $4,000 as of 2011.

References

• Eco Friend; The Portable and Eco-Luxurious Nomad Yurt; July 20, 2008
• Yurts.com; Pacific Yurts; What Is a Yurt?
• California Yurts: Fire Rated Code Wildfire Yurts
• Articles Base; Regulations Stand in Way of Yurt Independence; Robert Lee; April 10, 2010
• Go Yurt: Go Yurt Shelters
• Yurts of America: Frequently Asked Questions