I witnessed the construction of a concrete yurt base a few days ago.
I'd like to say I helped out, but I didn't, although I did have lunch with the two people who actually created the base, which counts I think.
I was unable to help due to urgent hive-dicking obligations, but I did pop up to the site with sufficient periodicity (that's actually a word?!?) to learn about the various stages involved, and take some photos...
The materials...
The Yurt is 5.5 metres in diameter and this required this much gravel and sand, nb about a third of the sand had already been used by the time I'd taken this picture!
The cement is out of shot, but I could never have got it all in-shot as we bought it in batches - it was somewhere around 500 Kilograms of cement all-in, so around half a tonne!
Naturally a cement mixer too given so much mixing that was required.
Make a level-ish ditch for the brick wall of the base, level it with concrete:
The outer edge of the ditch needs to be the same diameter as the Yurt, easy enough to measure with some string from the middle point.
The ditch is about a foot wide, this is the main support part after all!
You only need to get it level-ish as the concrete poor will do the levelling proper.
This all took about a day, then let the concrete set overnight.
Build a brick wall to frame the base:
This is where it's handy to have a wider strip of concrete than you need, so you have plenty of room to construct the outer brick base to ever so slightly wider than the diamater as the Yurt Frame (about 0.5 of an inch wider)
The completed base-wall
Five bricks high and level. The Yurt frame will fit onto those bricks.....
This was basically day two: building the brick wall.
Add gravel into the middle
Not a lot to say, just a lot of shovelling, and easier than adding in pure concrete!
Another cement layer on top
This alone took about 10 bags of cement - mix, poor and level. Now just let dry!
And with the Yurt frame on top
I did actually help but this up, the more fun and less taxing bit!
The measurements of the base were bang-on perfect!
The end result
It's a seriously nice Yurt with it's big windows and it's BIG (5.5 metres) and I can stand up in most of it and I'm tall.
Not my Yurt and I'm not staying in it, the plan is to rent it out, but it's a very pleasant space!
It's not quite finished, it needs a patio area - you can clearly see the difference in the DIY approach and the professional approach on the base!
Why concrete?
Well it's a thermal thing - it's better than wood at keeping the heat in during winter and keeping the Yurt cool in summer.
It's also about the same price as wood.
And yes, it's maybe not as ecologically sound, but give that this is going to last for decades, maybe even centuries, I think that's fair enough.
And aesthetically - well, it's a floor, which gets covered for the most part so that doesn't matter and the bricks from the outside I think look OK.
Final thoughts....
It was great to witness the Yurt-Base build and learn how to do it, it was even BETTER to NOT have to get involved with any of the concrete mixing - this job is basically a mixture of measuring and carefully building a wall, which do require some skill, but then just brute force for the rest of it!
I think if I ever need a yurt base doing I'll get the guy in who did this, it only took him 2.5 days which is pretty efficient!
It's sort of hard to justify doing the physical labour yourself when your coining it in with Splinterlands!
Wow, isn't this lovely. I had no idea what a Yurt base meant before now, honestly from the second picture i never expected that it would end up looking so beautiful and solid.
I definitely disagree with you that having a meal with those that constructed this counts as you helping out lol.
But then on the other hand, capturing the stages involved in this and sharing it here was brilliant of you, and that is what I'll say counts as helping🙂
It was certainly great to just observe, even if I didn't help out - not a fan of concrete work I must say!
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Thanks for the Pizza😋
Its cool to observe, and I'm sure you learned a lot while observing.
My friends have their yurt on a wooden base and that is on stilts; they had massive ant infestations until they elevated the yurt and greased the posts.
Yes - lots of ants around here, but a bit of elevation helps. I like wooden bases, but it was interesting to see this as an alternative.
One must after all have a sense of priorities.
FYI I read somewhere recently (Vaclav Smil?) that if you add up all the human-made things ever made, concrete constitutes the heaviest category. And that modern concrete, cost-effective as it might be, is neither as strong nor as durable as the concrete of ancient Romans. They made it to last; we make it just good enough.
I dread to think how much water is in that concrete.
I hadn't really given the quality of concrete much thought TBH!
It will hopefully last a few decades at least then.
This looks a lot better than the goat shed you live in. Maybe live here and rent the goat place out? 😀
Ah I've liked living in the 'cabin' for a year, funnily enough though I sign a contract on an actual HOUSE tomorrow!
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Thats really awesome! I would like to try that also
This is so beautiful you have a very nice pictures, and work looks so neat @revisesociology
Ide cemerlang, amazing 👍👍👍
Wow, it looks amazing! Nice and cozy, love the big windows! I think that concrete base was a good decision.
It was certainly very quick and easy to construct, hard work, but straight forward. It was an interesting process.
It is a pretty amazing yurt too, yes!
Super cool. Haven't touched base in ages - hope all is going well. You Splinterlands folk seem to be, that's for sure!
Hey good to hear from you.
Splinterlands has been a little crazy, to say the lease!
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Wow, would you look at that?! That's so sensational. Exquisite structures and I bet your experience was really fulfilling and interesting.
Hey cheers, and yes it was great to observe!
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Thanks once again.
No, I never knew that.
Alright, Thanks. The pleasure is mine.