Surely Yurts Build – 2016

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Jeff

For a few years now, Mike Mabunay has been building his camp in the town of Greig, a small township in the Adirondacks of upstate New York. His off-grid cabin was recently featured in Cabin Living Magazine. The entire camp is powered by solar with a backup propane generator for those cloudy North country Fall and Winter seasons generated by Lake Ontario. He and his wife Sylvia recently decided they wanted to add a yurt to the property. The main idea was to use it for some additional living space and of course, for the yurt experience. Mike did his research and after reading our article ‘A Visit to Surely Yurts‘, he went and visited Steve Reeds shop.

Apparently the visit went well because shortly afterwards, Mike contracted for a new 24′ yurt from Surely Yurts. This however, was not going to be a normal yurt build. “Normally we just build the platform, set up the yurt and leave for the next build.” said Steve Reed. Mike changed things up a bit by also hiring Steve to do much of the interior projects, such as adding a full bath, hickory flooring, plumbing, deck, perimeter stonework, rustic walls, a hearth and hours of trim work.

Since the location was not far from my residence, I frequently visited Mike and Steve throughout the build process. There were many hands in this project and it was done under the approval of the local code enforcement officer. Seeing as how building codes are often a topic on the Yurt Forum, I was very pleased to be there one day when David Meade, the Town of Greig code enforcement officer was visiting the job site. I asked David what his number one concern was when he was approached to permit the yurt. “Snow load, first and foremost” he said. The local ordinance requires a snow load capability of 85 PSF (Pounds Per Square Foot), so he had to ensure that the stamped plans indeed illustrated that from the roof to the platform, snow load would not be an issue. Otherwise he said “since it is not a residence and that it is off-grid” there were not too many other rules to worry about. The yurt does have plumbing and electric (from the solar array), but there was nothing about a yurt that would change the standard code for those things. The bathroom in the yurt uses a brand new leech field, which also had to be inspected. All in all, the inspection process was rather easy going.

Mike currently has an impressive 2.4 kW solar array complete with battery bank, inverter, full 240 volts available and a propane backup generator to power his cabin. The yurt will be tapping power from this source.

One of the nice parts of this particular build is that the ground is very sandy. Putting in the sonotubes and trenching for plumbing and electric was a piece of cake compared to other soil types.

Once the cement dried, the deck construction started. Steve and crew had to work around the plumbing and electrical lines, but they got it all set up without much of a problem.

The deck is insulated thoroughly with foam board sandwiched between OSB. This will help keep the yurt warm during those cold North country winters. It also helps deaden the upcoming hickory hard wood flooring.

Before the yurt could go up, the hickory flooring was installed.

The rest went up like most yurts.

Here are some shots of the wood stove, custom hearth and one of my daughter Addy who came with me on this particular visit!

The big feature of this yurt is the enclosed bathroom with a slate shower, river rock base and tankless water heater. The water was piped in with Pex. The rain shower head caps off this beautiful shower. The green onyx sink was custom made and Steve made the base for it to sit in. The bathroom is also heated by propane so as to keep the pipes from freezing.

The last day I was at the project, it was pretty much all done. Steve was just touching up some of the trim work as I walked around taking pictures.

From foundation to finished, this project took almost the entire summer of 2016. Surely Yurts usually puts up their yurts in a day or two but this required a great deal of custom work and I know Mike is proud of how it came out. We will have to hear back from him soon to see how well it fares this winter!

The Groovy Yurts Build

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Jeff

On June 18th, 2015, we had the pleasure of meeting up with Yves Ballenegger from Groovy Yurts as they delivered three yurts to Paul Smiths College which is located near Lake Placid, NY. Bethany Garretson, a teacher at Paul Smiths, will be overseeing an off-grid project at the college where eight students will live in three yurts for the Fall semester. The students will be doing this to document the experience and for some class credit. At the time of delivery, the permitting process was not yet complete so the project for that day was to erect and disassemble one yurt for educational purposes so they could do it themselves once ready.

Even though I had never been to Paul Smiths before, it didn’t take long to find Yves. Who could miss this?

Years ago, Yves would deliver free school supplies to Mongolia via truck from Switzerland. After a while, he started bringing yurts back with him. They sold quickly. Yves now deals exclusively in authentic, hand made yurts produced in Northern Mongolia. He does business with a couple of local Mongolian families and travels there frequently every year. He has been working with the same community for about ten years. While there are other yurt companies offering imported yurts, quality control is always an issue. Yves feels it is important to create a working symbiotic relationship with his partners on an in person basis. Only in this way do you achieve quality, he believes. He falls perfectly into the stereotype of the “quality, quality, quality” demanding Swiss that he is. 🙂

Early on, many importers were bringing in low quality yurts, some which never even survived shipping and this gave traditional yurts a bad reputation. Yves has been working tirelessly to ensure better and better quality each year.

There are many materials that are not allowed to be exported from Mongolia so Yves has also spent a lot of time making sure that not only do they use quality materials, but also the appropriate ones.

The yurts are generally built by the males of the families, while the women do all of the painting and decoration of the structure. As seen in the next few pictures, their skills are masterful.

The wood is tamarack, white pine and other local woods. Traditionally, orange is the color used for yurts in northern Mongolia. They do however offer other colors upon request as you will see.

The Mongolians are a nomadic people, so each piece of the yurt needs to be light enough to be carried by one person. It is amazing that three yurts fit so well in the Groovy Yurts trailer.

After we got everything unloaded, we began putting up the lattice as the first step.

The hand split lattice is connected by using camel rawhide. Each section (or wall) of the yurt are connected using horse hair. The more sections you have, the larger the yurt. These three yurts are six walled. That equates to a yurt that is 21′ in diameter.

The next step is to connect the traditionally South facing door to the lattice. Each door is handmade and unique. This means you usually have to play with the process of attaching it to the lattice each time. After a few minutes, they got it set.

Once the lattice and other parts are temporarily reinforced with some rope, it is time to stand up the toono (center ring). The rafters will be inserted into holes that are carved directly into it.

Once standing, the rafters can be inserted.

It is touch and go at this point because you have to be careful not to push and pull on the center ring too much. It can cause the rafters you already put up to fall. The temporary ropes caught any that slipped during this setup. Fortunately the rafters are lightweight so they don’t stand much of a chance of seriously injuring anyone. After a bit of practice, we got this down to a science. 🙂

With 50% of Mongolians living in yurts, it is understandable that they have refined this design to such wonderful levels of simplicity.

This part of the process took maybe, 15-20 minutes to complete. It probably would have went quicker, but Yves was explaining each step to us which was terrific. He really has a passion for yurts and it came out clearly that day!

Here is a pic of the frame being completed. There is still some temporary rope bracing, but that comes off after we put up the fabric.

Continue reading →

A Visit To Surely Yurts

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Jeff

I have been looking to add a small yurt at my camp to use as a shower room. My camp already has a 30′ yurt by Pacific Yurts, but this time I wanted to try something a bit more local. Surely Yurts is a small yurt business owned by Steve Reed in Taberg, NY. I have often communicated with Steve before as he is a member over at our other site, yurtforum.com. I have been somewhat drawn to his yurts because they have a unique Adirondack feel to them. The Adirondacks is where my camp is, and I love the entire region. I guess it is only natural that I have an eye for Surely Yurts. I am not sure if Steve agrees with me on whether or not his yurts are Adirondack themed, but for myself, I couldn’t help but notice it! I decided to pay his shop a visit to talk about maybe buying one of his yurt kits and while I was there, I figured it was a good time to get some background on him and his operation. I got the impression that Steve wished he had straightened up the shop since I was going to take photos, but I am glad he didn’t get that chance. I love seeing a well worked shop, not one that looks like you could eat off the floors!

We met up in the village and I followed him back to his shop. The first thing you see is the house.

He doesn’t stay in it much, he prefers his 10′ yurt instead:

I can understand that, as his yurt is a cozy, comfortable structure that is perfect for his setup. More on that later though, let’s see the shop!

Steve builds each yurt to order and erects them on platforms he already has built:

This way he can fit the fabric custom to each one he builds. Every yurt he makes is hand crafted by Steve and helpers. I happened to visit right after we received a bunch of snow, but Steve was kind enough to show me the 10′ platform.

The shop is a work in progress as much of it is outdoors. It can make for some cold working this time of year, but Steve is working on enclosing it to make winter working a bit more comfortable.

Say cheese Steve!

For those of us who have spent a lot of time in upstate New York, shops like this are pretty common. It reinforced the entire authenticity of these Adirondack style yurts.

Steve let me visit his private yurt to get an idea of what I would be getting for a shower room. It was a warm place to be and very comfortable. With the Callahan style mortared stone floor, it just felt like home.

And here is his dog Cooper, who returned after being on an adventure.

Here is the Surely Yurts glass “dome” with the stove pipe going almost down the center of the yurt. The glass is magnetically attached to the studs and can be opened and even removed to clean. The entire room was wood stove warm. 🙂

We had a good visit. We talked a lot about aspects yurt building and the industry, alternative heating and energy, and hunting. I really came away impressed with Surely Yurts and am looking forward to the shower yurt in the Spring! The only bad part of the day was that we heard the news of the untimely passing of long time yurt mentor Bill Coperthwaite.

If you are looking for a smaller Adirondack style yurt, say 10 to 20 feet in diameter, you should give Steve a call. He also builds portable yurts. Tell him Jeff from yurtforum.com sent you! 🙂