Has anyone actually lived in one of these, or knows someone that did? What was their experience?

http://www.yurts.com/default.aspx

Thanks!

I have a friend that has traveled in the steppe a bit and lived in a yurt for a while. Also, there is a guy over here who worked in Central Asia in diplomatic service and brought back a genuine yurt. Now it stands in his garden as a summerhouse sort of.

From what I've heard, the traditional yurt works absolutely great in a dry climate. The insulation is excellent, so it's cool in summer and warm even in the coldest winter. There is a problem, though - it's optimized for the steppe where there is very little rainfall. Moisture and rain tend to degrade the materials (felt and wood) rapidly. In a temperate climate with moderate rainfall you can't expect a yurt to last very long if you just build it on the ground the way it's done in the steppe. You'd better construct it on an elevated platform (wood is okay) so that it keeps away the ground moisture and you need to find an effective way to divert the rain (some sort of drain is necessary).

Also, the process of setting up a yurt is fairly straight forward once you get the hang of it but it's tricky if you've never done it before. The frame in a traditional yurt is pretty complex and unless done just right, it won't be as strong as it ought to be.

I have never lived in one and I know no one who has. However, I have had dinner in one, IIRC. I've gone to dinner with DW's family on a trip near Vail, IIRC, during which we drove a ways, walked part of the way up a mountain and had dinner inside a yurt. It was during a Thanksgiving weekend, and there was quite a bit of snow.

I am pretty sure it was the "Tennesee Pass Cookhouse." See: http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=SGR022-027

So while I am of little help, in this regard, some info or from it might be.

I've spent a number of weeks "camping" in the Yurts along the Oregon Coast (specifically Beverly Beach, just north of Newport). The Yurts there are around 20-25 feet in diameter, erected on a plywood platform and with a fire ring and picnic area adjacent. No facilities in the Yurt, but community bathroom/showers nearby. The Yurt is in my opinion far superior to tent camping, and nominally better than a trailer or RV, with some exceptions. Those being a matter of policy of the campground wherein no cooking, no refrigeration, and no closets space inside the Yurt. There was electricity, ergo a heat source, and their was a sun roof of sorts at the apex.

I've looked into owning a Yurt; putting it on a piece of property out in the hills somewhere, and Pacific Yurts is the way to go imho. They provided all the Yurts along the PNW coast, and they know what they are doing. Having said that, I do have some issues with Yurts, namely their security. Most all Yurts are assembled using wood lathe and 2 x 6 lumber, with canvas draped over and cordage used to secure it. I find that it would be extremely easy to breech a Yurt and enter at will. However, this is not much worse than most stick built homes. The illusion that a house made of wood and gypsum is somehow going to be secure from entry even if you put steel doors and barred windows in is not much better than what you have with a Yurt itself. I find that I can penetrate most houses almost as quickly as tearing through the canvas covered wall of a Yurt. The difference is Yurts, being built of cloth, seem almost inviting for thieves to bypass the entryway, however secure, in favor of making their own passage. Were I to actually live in one on a regular basis, you can surely bet I would equip it with other means of security, but then I do that with my stick built home anyways.

All in all, a Yurt is a cost effective means of building a quick form of housing, more permanent than temporary given the framing and minimal foundation construction required. Modern Yurts differ considerably in this aspect from the traditional Mongolian nomad domeciles from which they were modeled. Yurt construction is easily expanded, and I've seen versions with outrigged vestibules and cells connected by canvas covered passageways that seemed pretty nifty. They have application so long as you are aware of their limitations.

My cousin and her husband live in a yurt just outside Wenatchee. Very nice. They built it themselves instead of a kit. The nice thing is that most yurts are very easy to add on to. There yurt has grown over the years. Not by much. It couldn't be more than 800 square feet. Oh wait they just put in indoor plumbing for a bathroom when they daughter was born. Trips to the outhouse in the winter were miserable. No power except for a generator. They pump water up from icicle creek.

They live 7 miles off the road. In the winter when it snows they use snow mobiles to get to/from the trailhead that that is plowed. Even the dog and baby rode up/back this way.

A bit too plain for my tastes but they have a good set up. I would recommend this style for someone who has some vacation property but no house on it and not enough cash to put a permanent trailer or RV before building.

I have a girlfriend of mine who's mother in law lives in a yurt in their backyard. This is up in Maine. Given the NE climate, this isnt something I would want to dwell in permanently. I am assuming that it is on an elevated platform of some sort, simply due to the fact that, to my knowledge, she has been living there for several years. She has lived off the grid most of her life (as has my friend, with her family), so this isnt anything new to them.

I've seen used ones for sale here... we get snow, so they must work for the people to be using them. OR they don't work in winter andt hey just realized that?

If you want to live in a "bubble" like that I would opt for a Monolithic Dome. The major drawback is they are not exactly portable, unless you get one of their Monolithic Cabins: http://www.monolithic.com/topics/cabins

Standard Disclaimers apply

Those domes are nifty Would be nice to have the $$ to build one into the side of the mountain.

What always worries me about any kind of housing constructed of things other then wood, is the offgassing of various plastics.

I wonder about both the yurt and the dome, do they offgass in any way?