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5 or 6 years ago I got a Nestingbird Yurt and it was great - except the dome in the middle of the roof, fractured.
So I bought another one (for $500!) and yep, it partly fractured too.
In the 100mph crazy winds we had yesterday, it fractured all the way through and blew into the dog pen.
I now have a duct-tape dome and it continues to snow and rain (although thankfully the winds have died down.
I think the fracturing is due to unevenness of the insulation and can be changed, so am not sure it's a 'dome' issue, as much as a support issue.
Thing is, I need to get a new dome and they want $500, of course.
Does anybody have a better (less expensive) source of yurt domes?
The duct tape's giving way in the snow!
So I bought another one (for $500!) and yep, it partly fractured too.
In the 100mph crazy winds we had yesterday, it fractured all the way through and blew into the dog pen.
I now have a duct-tape dome and it continues to snow and rain (although thankfully the winds have died down.
I think the fracturing is due to unevenness of the insulation and can be changed, so am not sure it's a 'dome' issue, as much as a support issue.
Thing is, I need to get a new dome and they want $500, of course.
Does anybody have a better (less expensive) source of yurt domes?
The duct tape's giving way in the snow!
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Re: Acrylic Dome replacements?
Sun, January 6, 2008 - 5:24 AMhello hidie maybe you could make a cupola in place of a dome. you know those little things with the weather vien on top of them. might be cheaper to. good luck with your problem. Marshall -
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Re: Acrylic Dome replacements?
Sun, January 6, 2008 - 8:05 PMyeah, I was thinking of that for a bit, and might do so... but I really like the full-on light of the dome.
Keeps my plants alive and happy!
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Re: Acrylic Dome replacements?
Tue, January 22, 2008 - 12:02 AMHeidi,
One temporary option is to use a piece of clear (flat) acrylic for now--that you could purchase through a local hardware store and have cut to shape--until you sort out the dome issue. Another temporary option is to use a piece of diamond shaped canvas or architectural fabric with grommets in the 4 corners allowing you to tie a long rope to each corner. You could then cover your center opening Mongolian style, managing the movement of the cover with the 4 long ropes which would also tie the cover down. Some of the smaller yurt companies and the camping yurt companies are using this option, sometimes with a center circle cut out and replaced with clear vinyl.
Kathy Anderson at Blue Ridge Yurts in Floyd, VA, might be able to make you something (like the above) that would work as a temporary fix, or Howie Oakes with GoYurt camping yurts (they make this sort of cover for their camping yurts).
I don't know an easy answer for replacing the dome more reasonably. You might check out the Yurt Community thread @ yahoogroups.com as the issue was raised there awhile back; don't know if anyone came up with an answer.
You might also consider purchasing a cupola next time instead of the acrylic dome, until you get the issue with the dome worked out so you're sure it won't crack again. Pacific Yurts sells a cupola and if you contact me through yurtinfo.org I can send you another possible cupola option.
Please let me know if you find a reasonable solution (or share the solution on the yurtinfo.org forum), as you're not the only one who has dealt with this issue. Also please let me know if you figure out what is cracking the dome.
Best of luck,
becky kemery
Author of "YURTS: Living in the Round"
www.yurtinfo.org -
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Re: Acrylic Dome replacements?
Tue, January 22, 2008 - 7:22 PMActually, I think I *have* figured out what cracks the dome.
One of the 2x4 struts going from the wall to the center ring has warped.
It's warped so that a corner of the 2x4 is point UP, when all the other 2x4's are nice and flat.
Ah. My very own teeny tiny mountain peak rising above the dome-ring, right where the dome flange sets. Not good.
Being without a chisel to remove the egregious corner, I built up insulation all around the ring until it was a little higher than that wee-mountain-peak. The dome is now sitting on a nice fairly-even pad, with no stress points.
When it first broke, I'd decided against flat acrylic simply because water could wick against the underside and get under the vinyl roof, staining the ceiling. Even if I heated a thin strip into a ring and fused it to the underside. Same for fabric pulled taut, with the added possibility of my very own rooftop swimming pool, seeing as how the open ring is 4 and a half feet across and it's been raining cats and dogs! eep! Yeah, I even considered going up with some bent bamboo, drilling some holes and 'hooping' over the open ringspace to support a taut fabric without poolside seating.
Now that I have the new dome, I'm intending to acrylic-weld the old dome together again and make a metal support for it (using the old hardware and some sheet aluminum.) Well, as soon as I get my metalshop up and running, anyway. Think of a slightly smaller aluminum dome that fits under the acrylic, then plasma cut patterns/designs/sayings into the metal dome. A few rubber lined clamps to hold the acrylic to the metal and voila. I'll have an extremely decorative and sturdy dome ready should the new one ever fail (which will then go into refurb itself!) Lots of work and probably expensive, but gosh durn purdy when it's done.
I'm thinking leaves for the first pattern cut. As if falling leaves had stuck to the dome.
Or maybe bats.
Or, maybe bats and leaves. (laughing!)
It's good to be watertight again!
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