My Mt. Shasta Off Grid Yurt Build

Living in a Yurt

Are you considering building a yurt? What is it about yurts? Is it because they’re round? Self-supporting? Does it have something to do with their nomadic heritage- as the Mongolians would move around and set up, take down and move their yurts time and again?

Looking back now, I chose my yurt because of their strength- and ease of construction. But I had bought land on the south side of Mt. Shasta, in Northern California and I knew the snow was no joke.

So what could I build without a permit? Well it had to be considered ‘temporary.’ Though I had no plans to ever move it and because I was living in a permanent ‘off grid community.’ The permitting office could kiss my ass- I was building a 550 sq’ yurt and I’m so glad I did.

That said, I had a pretty good idea of what I was getting into and I had the guys that could help. 

So we went about clearing the land on my 2.7 acres- while not having to cut down any trees, not until later when we discovered bark beetles, but that’s another story.

Yurt Building Kit

My kit came from https://www.yurts.com/ I am not affiliated with them in any other way than just being a former customer. It was the highest snow load rating I could buy- which was smart. If you watch the YouTube video, you’ll understand why.

What’s the Cost of Building a Yurt?

Well, my package was quite a bit and not as cheap as you would think. But because I did this in 2011/2012 I’m not even certain what I paid. I’ll leave that to Pacific Yurt. However, if I were to do it again? I’d just build an octagon house, though then I couldn’t get away with the lack of permits, etc.

Also, I had to hard side the yurt after bears started breaking in. I’ll make videos about that, but a coulple of bears on your landing at 3am with the only thing between you and them being a layer of polyester shell, insulation and some wood slats does nothing for your confidence- or safety. Where I was, no one could hear me scream- and that was part of the point of it all…

The Yurt Platform

I had 3 or 4 friends help me through this, and I paid them. One was a contractor and the other, a very skilled ‘handy man.’ I mean skilled. Though he couldn’t read (seriously), he could build anything and I knew that from the work he did on my housing flips in Oregon.

I wanted this platform over built. We used 6×6” and 4×4” floor trusses and poured cement footings using concrete footing tube forms. Then we sheeted it with OSB and insulated it underneath, even stapling plastic sheeting to hold the batting in. 

Inside the yurt I used bamboo flooring because I had two dogs and I needed something as beautiful as it was durable.

Out side of the yurt we encased the edge with a decagon of seating- a platform of sorts. This was needed to encase the project and allow me to get up to work with the snow when needed.

How to Build a Yurt in the Woods

First of all- you’ll need a very capable, quiet and workhorse of a generator. I used an older version of this Yamaha. It was awesome and worked great for the full 3 yrs and was even sold with the property. I can recommend it enough- and yes, brand loyalty served me once again!

Follow the instructions! It’s not a big deal, but my contractor friend didn’t and we screwed up laying the roof on it. It was a mess that cost us a couple of days, until I figured out where he went wrong. In the mean time, we had a rain storm and I thought the floor was ruined, however once it dried, it all came back together- really quite like a miracle.

How to Build a Loft in a Yurt

What I did was build a free-standing loft. 6’x6’x6’ in the center. This turned out to be a great idea! It gave me storage, wall space, divided the room and provided a loft. I would climb up there vsleep up there, right under the stars. It was truly epic…

How to Live in a Yurt

Finding an Off Grid Yurt for Sale