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Comment by starpilot | Hacker News Reader

Some terrible, hyper-critical comments so far. A 3d-printed concrete cube with a fridge full of Soylent would be vastly more efficient for productive techies. Can't we just admit that this is an incredibly creative hybrid of old & new. The end result is breathtaking.

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But the problem is this is not DIY, it's professional work, the word is being abused for some purpose.

> He has a do it yurtself website w/ all the fancy content, presumably he's planning on selling that.

Not surprised

> But the problem is this is not DIY, it's professional work

Yet it's something that you can do yourself, since all resources are available (contrast this with something like cutting edge electronic devices).

Well, it's do it YOURTself, not yourself, sometimes humor is hard to detect ;)

Sorry, as an older individual, not necessarily up to date on current memes and such, what's the significance of the extra "T" in "yourtself"?

They were building a Yurt :)

Never heard of a definition of DIY that did not include building something of professional quality. I think it’s as simple as the name implies: you can do it all by yourself.

I don't think it's being abused at all. If you have the time, finances, and willingness to learn how to do it, you can DIY. I think the same goes for most DIY projects.

The guy who put together this yurt is also the same guy who converted a van to a camper van (link was on Hacker News a while back: http://thevanual.com/). I recall he had next-to-nothing in construction experience.

Complete with insulation instructions that will cause mold growth.

You mean the fiberglass-in-a-bag solution? Yeah, I can't see how you would get that airtight enough to not trap moisture inside.

Ah yes! That insulation! I definitely learned my lesson afterwards from the s*storm that ensued. Maybe there will be a vanual 2.0 in the future that resolves these issues, but at the very least, Id like to make some edits to correct that info on the current site.

You should look into that. You definitely present that site like "i know what I'm doing and this is good information."

This was my response to a similar comment on reddit: Personally, I think a professional is someone with training and experience who is paid by someone to build something for them. We have no training (except youtube videos), very little previous experience (built out a campervan before) who built a yurt with our friends and family for us to live in.

But I’ll add, I’m a professional filmmaker and producer which is maybe why some people are thrown off because the images are a step up from the normal iphone/dslr photos and videos people typically post. Ideally, the quality of the documentation is appreciated, especially for something that is free and hopefully useful for people trying to do something similar.

I think people are turned off by the near professional quality of the photos for some reason. The one of the guy using the router in slo mo could be out of a Craftsman commercial.

It does indeed kinda feel like guerilla advertising...

As someone who tries to build things myself, I think of it as a valid way to monetize what you have learned as passive income to make up for the time it took you to do it. Another well done example is https://faroutride.com/ . They have a very detailed and highly useful journal of their camper van build.

I might be missing something here, but I'm not sure this makes any sense to me.

Why should you be owed more than a yurt should you decide to build a yurt? If you're making a post to advertise a service, all I expect is a notice disclaiming as much. Otherwise, it certainly feels dishonest.

He has a do it yurtself website w/ all the fancy content, presumably he's planning on selling that.

The maker is a art director by profession.

This lacks statistics on temperatures throughout the day or estimates on the loadbearing capacity of the roof.

In essence, this house has not been benchmarked.

This is exactly, what came to my mind after adoring the beautiful first and following pictures. The whole setup looks very adorable, with the plants inside the bedroom area and i guess it could be very plesant to stay there for holiday.

But i guess the winters will be horribly cold without anything that could be called decent insulation. And the whole weight of the roof (and maybe snow) is on that little wooden fence. And its better not going to get windy, because as as you can see in https://i.imgur.com/i3o9MBj.mp4 the bars are mostly just hooked into the top of the fence. As someone who learned basic structural engineering, this is giving me shivers. The roof can hold itself pretty nicely like an archway,... but if you get lots and lots of wind from the side, my guts say that it might evolve into a big problem.

It’s white.

The stains on roofs are from mildew. They will likely have to power wash every few months, assuming the water doesn’t cut through eventually.

I’m unclear about ventilation or the ability to do basic maintenance like walking on the roof.

In what picture are stains?

The round shape sould help against wind. I agree with the lack of insulation though. The heating part could be partially remediated with radiant heat. With a heavy masonry stove instead of a simple wood stove.

They are using a wood burning stove which will adequately heat the space. Instead of controlling for a constant temperature like a modern insulated/HVACd house, they heat as needed. Its an older approach but will work perfectly fine. The walls will have zero problem supporting the roof as it is incredibly light compared to modern US roofs.

Traditional yurts were built in areas with high winds and snowy winters, how is this different?

In the project page https://doityurtself.com faq page the faqs talk a little about climate control. Apparently they don’t do great in extreme heat or cold (lacking great insulation?). Not benchmarking but something:

“ Yurts do not do well in extreme heat. It's best to find a location for a yurt that is in a mild climate and in a place where you can build in some partial shade. During the summer months, you can use fans or potentially an A/C unit if you have the power to run it. “

I’ve stayed in Yurts like this in the Sawtooth range of Idaho in February with night time temps of -10F. They fare well when there is a wood fire going, and better if there is a solar/battery ceiling fan to circulate the rising warm air.

In the summer direct sunlight can warm them considerably, but if well placed in shaded areas then the temperature is well moderated. Some units have a vent in the oculus at the top for use in the summer.

There is zero mildew if platformed well and clad properly with water protective barriers.

Ironically, traditional yurts very similar to these are used in places that go from -40C to +40C throughout the year (Mongolia, Tuva... though true, when it’s -40C, hopefully you’ve packed up your yurt and moved it down the valley to the winter grazing location that’s a little less harsh...).

The yurt manufacturer's website has snow loads available on it. I didn't take the time to figure out exactly what model was being used here, but they've definitely done the calculations and have upgrades available for higher snow load areas.

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