Yurts and/or tinyhouse movement.

[Cancertomnpdx]

I would like to find someone who has built themselves either a yurt of wood and/or have built a house along the principles of the tinyhouse movement.

If you have any information I would like to hear from you.

Thanks,
Tom
Portland, Oregon

PS: Today was like a fresh new morning in Orosi, Costa Rica here in Portland, Oregon! I look forward to many such mornings on my little farm soon.

[waggoner41]

[quote=”cancertomnpdx”] I would like to find someone who has built themselves either a yurt of wood and/or have built a house along the principles of the tiny house movement.
[/quote]

One man’s tiny house is another man’s castle. It depends greatly on your needs and what you want. I don’t consider anything over 400 feet to be tiny but you can find “tiny house” plans on the internet that are up to 1,000 feet.

You might be interested in watching this video

[DavidCMurray]

Any structure built of wood will have to be built very, very carefully to avoid the onslaught of termites and rot in this Costa Rican climate. Frankly, I’m skeptical.

That said, friends of ours built a small but interesting one-room bamboo house outside Grecia. They used a Costa Rican builder who specializes in such structures. The framing is all structural grade bamboo. The in-fill in the walls is some combination of mud and cement (as I recall) “plastered” over a bamboo screen. It’s intriguing.

[waggoner41]

[quote=”DavidCMurray”]Any structure built of wood will have to be built very, very carefully to avoid the onslaught of termites and rot in this Costa Rican climate. Frankly, I’m skeptical.[/quote]

David is absolutely correct about the problems with insects and it isn’t only termites that destroy wooden members.

Concrete is the best way to go in Costa Rica due to the insects and the amount of water we encounter.

The metal roofs can last forever with proper maintenance but the sound of rain on them can drown out everything else. That and the sun beating down on the roof present almost the only reasons that insulation is needed unless you live in the “high ups”.

Electrical and plumbing installed within the concrete walls using 1/2 inch PVC is maintenance free with the only metal parts accessible for replacement when necessary.

Waste water presents two problems in body waste and kitchen grease. Body waste can be resolved with an [url=http://www.public.health.wa.gov.au/cproot/1337/2/ApprovedAlternativeToiletSystems.pdf]alternative toilet system[/url] of one of several types and kitchen grease can be dealt with by installing a simple grease trap system and regular maintenance.

With careful planning for your personal needs a house for one or two can be built with an interior footprint of as little as 96 square feet and a loft for a bedroom.

[*Lotus]

I built my own “tiny house” on some land I bought in the Catskills when I was 20 (27 years ago) and it’s still standing! It was about 400F2 with a large deck and outhouse. I have always been interested in alternative house building and have explored tee-pees and yurts. I think a yurt could work in CR at the right altitude, check out Pacific Yurts for some good info; http://www.yurts.com/

I do wonder about mold and canvas though? I think Scott posted something about earth bag home construction as well, but again with the amount of rain, heat, bugs just not certain this would hold up.

David,

Can you pass on the contact info of the bamboo home builder?

[sprite]

These things look good for a nomadic experience in a wilderness, but how long would it take your local Tico thief to pull a yurt down and haul away any or all of it?

While the removable contents of any unoccupied building are never completely secure from thieves, couldn’t a trip to the local beach for a week end end up surprising a returning yurt owner with a vacant lot? It’s one thing to lose a TV or lap top to a thief. It’s quite another to lose the very roof over your head.

[DavidCMurray]

Lotus, I’ve asked our friends who built the bamboo house for contact information. When I know you’ll know.

I looked a Pacific Yurts’ website. The 200s/f yurt (mighty small)costs about $27 per square foot plus whichever of the numerous upgrades you might opt for. That gets you a roof, walls, two windows and a door but nothing else. Delivery would be extra.

You must supply your own site and site improvements, your own platform to put the thing on, and your own interior finishes. By the time you build the platform, make provisions for utilities and septic, and make this thing comfortable, my guess is that you’d have around twice that invested.*

Now I’m skeptical that you can build much of a conventional house anyplace in Costa Rica for $55 per square foot these days, but still it would be worth doing the math. So let’s . . .

Suppose this yurt project saved you (say) twenty percent. That’s a lot . . . until you recall that we’re only talking about (say) a 200s/f structure. At $55 per square foot, that’d be around $11,000 for the finished yurt.

Or you could spend 20% more ($61 per square foot) for a total of $12,200 and get a termite-proof, rot-proof masonry structure that meets the earthquake code and which should last a couple of generations. Sixty-one dollars per square foot is a pretty lowball price, but it could probably be done.

Twelve hundred dollars isn’t much additional to spend for the upgrade to a permanent structure — one that you’re going to be living in, that is — and in the total scheme of things it doesn’t represent much of a savings.

*Many years ago, I investigated a pre-cut geodesic dome (ala R. Buckminster Fuller) from a company in Davison, Michigan. They were incredibly cheap given the area they enclosed, but the prep and the finish work to make such a thing livable brought the cost up to about what a conventional home would have cost at the time. Initial cost doesn’t always tell the tale.

[*Lotus]

You are right on the mark David and of course sprite is correct. I even beat my head in thinking prefab was much less expensive to build with. It may be quicker but the savings fade quickly as you add in site work roofing and finishes. Cement block seems to be the way to go maybe with some steel framing as well.

Any way there was no talking my wife into a yurt …never mind a teepee 😆

[*Lotus]

[quote=”sprite”]These things look good for a nomadic experience in a wilderness, but how long would it take your local Tico thief to pull a yurt down and haul away any or all of it?

While the removable contents of any unoccupied building are never completely secure from thieves, couldn’t a trip to the local beach for a week end end up surprising a returning yurt owner with a vacant lot? It’s one thing to lose a TV or lap top to a thief. It’s quite another to lose the very roof over your head.[/quote]

Imagine calling the local police to report your “home” was stolen…lol.

[DavidCMurray]

[quote=”*Lotus”]

Imagine calling the local police to report your “home” was stolen…lol.[/quote]

On the other hand, a yurt would be easy to spot, no? It’d have to be pretty much the only one around.

[costaricafinca]

Imagine living in a yurt and how wet everything would get right now, with all the rain we have been having….

[DavidCMurray]

I suspect these things can be made pretty watertight, Shirley. “Bugtight” is another matter.

In fact, Pacific Yurts offers some upgraded roof treatment — at additional cost, of course.

[costaricafinca]

I was thinking more in the lines of humidity entering the abode. When we first moved into out present home, some ‘windows’ did not have ‘glass’ only wooden shutters, and when driving back and forth between homes, our ‘furniture’ started to grow ….
[i]That was a very wet season.[/i]

[OTTFOG]

While at the construction expo, we spoke with the area owners for this building technology. Very intriguing concept. Has anyone had experience with Styrofoam Insulated Concrete Forms? Here is their website: http://www.buildwithfastbloc.com/the-system
The material cost is in line with concrete block but the time to build can be reduced by a third. The insulation, strength, and earthquake resistance are better than block.

[DavidCMurray]

This genre of building technology is catching on in areas where insulation is an issue. If I were building in such an area, ICF construction would be my first choice.

What I’m not clear about is how the Styrofoam will hold up in a tropocal climate, but that’s pure conjecture.

I’d want to know how many of these structures this company has built. My understanding is that there’s a little more to it than just stacking up the forms and pumping them full of concrete.

[Author]

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