Eagle River Weather

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Yurt Floor Plans and Loft Plans

I have had a number of people asking for the floor plans of our yurt. So here we go:
  • We have a 30 foot Pacific Yurt with the tall wall option.
  • Our yurt sits on top of a 30 foot square garage with a roof over hang of 2 feet on 3 sides of the garage to form a deck around the perimeter of the yurt.
  • Our washer, dryer, shower, water heater, and furnace are located in the garage.
  • We have a stairwell that leads from the inside of the garage to the inside of the yurt.
  • The yurt has internal walls with a lid that forms our loft.
  • Most of out furniture is from IKEA.
  • Drawings are to scale as close as I could get them.
  • Lines for the walls are not drawn to thickness but to the center line of the wall.
  • Click on the floor plans to make them bigger and easier to read.
Here is the main floor of the yurt with the loft taken off.

Here is the loft. Part of the loft over hangs the kitchen and another part of it does not entirely cover the kids bedroom.

If you need a visual on all of this to compare to, visit our yurt walking tour on youtube. Some of the furniture has been rearranged since the video was made but the major appliances and walls, of course, are all in the same spot.
I hope you find this helpful. Let me know if you have questions.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, we came across your youtube yurt tour, thanks for sharing. I am curious to know if it is easy to hear conversations in the bedrooms? you know what I am saying? If the kids rooms is pretty quiet with the door closed. I like your setup, I think I want to put my kids room in the loft and have a master downstairs... myabe opposite, might be better to have the kids downstairs. Anyway, I was just womdering about the sounds and privacy in a yurt, please let me know, since I can not just look this up on the net and is best to ask someone who actually lives in a yurt :) Thanks.

Ben Schneider said...

You can definitely hear conversations anywhere in the yurt. There are walls, but our son's room is partially open to the ceiling. We put insulation into his walls, which I'm sure helps, but doesn't block out the sound like it would if the room was completely composed. Our kids have been trained from an early age to go to sleep with noise and we have made it a point with them to never talk through walls. When you are in bed that is it for interaction except for emergencies. Having the kids in the loft, for us, would have meant we all needed to go to bed when they do because there would be no other way to turn out the lights at bed time. We have very few problems with noise.

Unknown said...

Hello Ben,

My main question, then my story: Can you provide us with detailed loft plans, lumber and all -- is it free- standing or tied in to the floor? We are ready for the children to have their own space...

Now -- I am so heartened to read of your cozy winter yurt experience. We live in Vermont with two young children (the second was born in the yurt a year and a half ago) and i am approaching our third winter with some wariness. i appreciate your ideas -- the foam insulation and the strapping. Do you have a ceiling fan? We have no electricity (or running water) and are considering a solar panel with 12 volt battery to run a 12 volt (RV) ceiling fan. seems it would keep the heat down lower... I am really feeling the need for some assistance from seasoned yurt dwellers as I enter this next winter! Thanks for your experience and intentional way of making yurt living a comfortable experience.

Dana

Ben Schneider said...

Dana,
Honestly the most detailed loft plans we have are the ones we have listed here. We contracted out the framing of the loft because we had no where to live when we moved up to Alaska and needed it built quickly and correctly. (It would have taken me much longer to do myself.) So, no real lumber list. If you click on the picture of the plans posted on the blog, they enlarge considerably for printing. The ground floor ceiling (below the loft) is about 7 feet and we had to special order shorter doors to fit that height.
We have a ceiling fan that also has an electric heater inside it. Definitely go for some extra foam insulation and, if you don't already, insulation inserts for your windows. Good luck and let me know if you need more help or clarification.

elihu said...

Silly question, but where do you shower?

Ben Schneider said...

The garage beneath the yurt has a full bath where we take our showers.

Lora said...

Thanks so much for this! Many yurt websites are either very styled, or show singles/couples- your honest take as a family is much appreciated. I am trying to figure out where your daughter sleeps, though- do they share a room now? The child room looked very small, but could be an illusion. I imagine you minimize it as much as possible, but where do toys and other kid stuff get stored?

Ben Schneider said...

Lora,
Our daughters "bedroom" really is pretty small. It is an emptied out closet (the one the left of the kitchen on the floor plan) that measure 5 feet by 5 feet. Wee keep most of our son's toys and both of the kid's clothing in his room. Kaya's toys are in a basket out in the main living area. We worked it out this way so all of his little choking hazards are out of her way. It takes a bit of creative problem solving and frequent shufflings of furniture to make things work as the kids needs change. But, it always seems to work out.

Ren W. said...

Ello Ben, I just have some simple questions. Did you build the yurt yourself? We're are looking to build one in Texas so we don't have to worry about harsh winters so much as we do very brutal summers. Does the yurt cool in the summer? We would need to put in a AC unit in? How is the heating and what kind of stove do ya'll have?
Thanks you so much.

Yllowsubmrne said...

this is an awesome blog. it has answered almost every question i had about real permanent living in a yurt. now i am even more excited when the time comes for mine! thanks again for a great, creative, and informative blog.

Shards of Glass said...

Do you have construction plans posted anywhere? I've found several sets of plans for a 16' yurt. I built a 16 footer, but I am now looking for plans to build a larger one. Thanks, and nicely done!

Ben Schneider said...

@ Shards of Glass

Other than the ones I've posted here, I don't have any building plans for 30 foot yurts. Pacific Yurts has floor plans on their website and they sent me an instruction manual for building a deck and constructing the yurt when I bought it.

MammaMaria said...

I am curious how you modified this floor plan with the arrival of your second child. I too live full time with my husband, son, dog and two cats in a 30' Pacific Yurt. We are located on an island in the Puget Sound. And we are expecting our second child in March. I expect things will get a bit tight, as they already seem at times. Your blog is an inspiration to me and my very unattended attempt to do something similar! Good luck with your upcoming move. Congratulations!

Ben Schneider said...

@MamaMaria

When Kaya was born we moved her into the closet with the pantry. It's only a 5' x 5' space but it fit her crib perfectly and we used the pantry shelves for her clothes and stuff. Pretty small baby room but they don't need much. Now that they are older Kaya and Leo share a room and we have our closet back.
Nice work on living in the yurt. I read your blog a bit and it looks like a good setup. We also used to live in a tree house. The yurt is definitely a step up fro that.

mike said...

Ben,
my family and I are discussing doing something very similar to what you have done here. I was wondering if you recall how much you spent on materials/supplies when putting up the garaga/deck for your yurt. Also, did you build the garage/deck yourself? if you had a contractor do the work, I was also wondering how much that cost you. My family and I are looking into the yurt idea as a lower cost way of moving to Eagle River on some property there and want to make sure it really would lower costs... thanks much in advance!

Ben Schneider said...

Hi Mike.
The garage was not ours, but I believe it cost about $100,000 to have a contractor make it. The new deck I made cost about $10,000.
Why don't you send me an e-mail and I can give you the long answer to your question.

benjinds at gmail.com

Owen Black Brewer said...

Hi, I'm looking to build a loft similar to yours. You mentioned that you contracted that phase of the project out? Can you share the cost of building the loft/wall divide from your son's room? Thanks for any insight!

Ben Schneider said...

Owen, It's hard to separate out the cost of the room from the cost of the rest of the things we had built. But, I'd guess around $2000 dollars.

Unknown said...

Ben... I think your yurt looks very cozy. I wonder how tall are your walls. I like the loft idea. But I feel I new more height.

Ben Schneider said...

@ jocelyn miles

Our walls are just shy of 7 feet tall. The loft space was rather short. We pretty much just slept up there and got used to a bed on the floor and changing clothes sitting down. It worked though!

Unknown said...

Thanks for sharing your views...hope more people will read this article!!!
loftplan