Humidity and Rain

[Scrog]

I love this idea, awesome job! Thanks.

I was wondering if anybody has experience with the hexayurt in humid
condition and in rainy conditions?
I am planning on taking my HY to Bonnaroo in June in Tennessee. It
will be hot and humid and could rain. Does the HY work in humid
conditions just as well as it does in the dry desert of Black Rock
City?
If it rains I will cover the HY with a tarp and of course I will try
to make my tape sealed tight. I do not water water getting under my
tape. Any precautionary steps or any suggestions on protecting the HY
if it rains?
Thanks

Scrog

[Spiral Syzygy]

If you build it out of the isocyanoacrylic foam board, the outer
layers are thick paper with foil on it. This will not do well in the
rain. You may be able to get away with covering it with a tarp. Using
other materials may do you better. I highly encourage you to share any
innovations you make to the design with the list. That's how it keeps
getting better :)

Spiral

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[hexa...@gmail.com]

So the most troublesome spot is the ring of tape around the roof.

The straps of tape going up and over are fine - gravity keeps the water out of those seams just fine. At the roof ring, however, rain runs down the roof, hits the edge of the tape, then runs underneath. This is a pain in the ass. If the taping is near-perfect rain can't get under, but that's nontrivial.

I've seen some polyiso panels which are kinda plasticy, and others which are more papery. Which kind do you have?

Vinay

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

[Elliot]

Ya I've had that problem as well. As soon as water starts getting under the tape on the roof ring it gets trapped and starts coming down the inside of your walls. This is an added pain if you have tapped a plastic tarp to the bottom of the yurt, as you are effectively trapping the water in 0_o

I've thought about making my roof overhang the walls a tiny bit to avoid this. At least it would make it harder for water to be channeled down the inner walls :-/

[Alyssa Royse]

We are building an all hexayurt camp at Burning Man this year. (yay!) We are collectively fixated on the idea of putting 6 of them together, in a "circle" by connecting them each on one side and creating a courtyard in the middle that is just for us.  (One yurt will have doors on the outside and the inside, opening into the courtyard, the others all open from inside the courtyard.....)

We want to cover the courtyard, ideally in a dust-proof manner, but every design we come up with starts to seem like a solar cooker. 

We've tossed around:

1) make an extra roof. Secure it by resting it on top of the pvc tubes on the outside of the outer yurts, putting the pvc tie downs for the extra roof on the inside of the extra roof. loop the inner and outer pvc pieces together, and tie down the extra roof per usual. put "windows" in  the courtyard roof with air filters in them.

2) using a tall pvc pole, basically spread a tarp / parachute type thing over all of them and seal down with tape etc.....

3) screw it, just do a shade cloth cover and call it good....

anyone have any great ideas about how to create a cool, dust-free (ish) covered courtyard in a HexaComb cluster? :)

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[Skye]

Tell you the truth, having wrestled with a similar question, I'd probably opt for # 3. :)

I love the idea, though, and look forward to stumbling upon your hexavillage!

[Spiral Syzygy]

I saw an ingenious rig a few years back where some one sunk a 2" dia
metal pipe into the ground. It was about 15' tall. The top of the pipe
had 4 metal eye-hooks. They had a parachute with a metal ring about
the size of the hole in the parachute attached to the center of the
chute. They ran rope up through the eye-hooks and back down to the
ring. The outer edge of the chute was staked to the ground. This let
them hoist the chute up the pole like a cone. It let air flow in from
the bottom and up the top like a chimney, keeping things decently
cool.

Spiral

[Beacon Sway]

Check out Camp Overkill:http://coolpoolmedia.zenfolio.com/
bm10campoverkill/h15fc5ac0#h15fc5ac0 and go to slide 343 to see our
Double yurt with 3 sleeping nodes.......air conditioned.....plascic
strip door. Next year we want fishbowl windows. We had another group
of 6 Yurt rowhomes.........the lower rent district. We are "Yurtistan"
and you are all invited to commisurate/hang with us. Follow the Green
Laser..........around 10 & J...............

Peace...........)'(

[Alyssa Royse]

very cool..... we'll probably do something like that next year, when the kids insist on coming with us.

so far, the parachute over the top is sounding good, but still looking for inspiration as to how to close the donut hole in a ring of 6 connected yurts - preferably dustproof for cool, quiet escape from the world.

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[Owen Greenwood]

Yurtistan eh? That's hilarious, last year we called our two joined
hexayurts in Nectar Village "Yurtistan." It is a good and clever name
for a yurt village, certainly.

[Elliot]

Our plan is to connect about 6 to a big geodesic dome that we have a cover for.

Come visit us at the Space Gnome camp this year! :D

[Vinay Gupta (Hexayurt Shelter Project)]

Seems to me, if I understand this right, you could just put an extra
roof attached to the other six roofs and do it that way? So you'd have
seven hexayurts and a lot of shared walls?

Is the problem that the "seventh roof" will fall inside the walls of
the other six units? Or the issue is the anchoring (which, I think,
you have a decent plan for.)

If that's not a problem, that seems like the way to go. It'll be wicked cool,

Vinay

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[Cody Firestone]

i can get a design ready in a few days, really easy.

 

I'd suggest a moneky hut / PVC frame with tarps, very easy to do.  i can draw it up in google and post it.

 

What size hexayurts are you planning to use?

[Alyssa Royse]

you people rock. it's like Burner brains and generosity on steroids. 

i think we're gonna go with the 7th roof plan, but if you feel like mocking up what you're talking about, i'm sure tons of people, including me, would love to see it. 

this is doing wonders for my winter blues....  :)

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[Cody Firestone]

you can also use a metal frame to support the cover over the area.  i waill have optioins for you.

 

Very easy and very strong, we used them extremely effeectively in the rain / snow stom in 2010.  and during the 85 mph gust during the build before the event opened

[Scrog]

I have R-max panels, like the ones from Home Depot, although I got
mine from a local heating and cooling insulation company. I guess you
could say they are more plasticy, kinda of like compressed foam, that
has been dried out and is now hard.
As for Bonnaroo, I will have to wait and see the weather report. I do
not want to make any changes to the structure just yet. I do have a
Quonset hut, the Monkey Hut, built out of PVC and a tarp and some
rebar, I can put a tent under that and protect myself some from the
sun and rain, and if is going to be wet that is what I might do. I
think the benefit of coolness will be lost if it rains and the HY
could become more of a trouble than should be in those wet conditions.
If it is going to be sunny Bonnaroo will be introduced to the
Hexayurt. I will share my experiences. For sure!
The response is awesome Thanks!

Scrog

On Mar 23, 4:24 pm, hexay...@gmail.com wrote:
> So the most troublesome spot is the ring of tape around the roof.
>
> The straps of tape going up and over are fine - gravity keeps the water out of those seams just fine. At the roof ring, however, rain runs down the roof, hits the edge of the tape, then runs underneath. This is a pain in the ass. If the taping is near-perfect rain can't get under, but that's nontrivial.
>
> I've seen some polyiso panels which are kinda plasticy, and others which are more papery. Which kind do you have?
>
> Vinay
>
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device-----Original Message-----

> From: Scrog <gatorsc...@gmail.com>

[Joshua Keroes]

I've used Shelter-System's playadomes. They are not airtight but they do a good job minimizing dust, provided you leave the doors shut most of the time and prevent the wind from blowing into the dome.

I think a 6' tall hexayurt in the middle would be pretty sweet - the extra headroom would allow everybody to walk at full height, even out to the edge. The extra headroom would improve airflow, too. 

On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 10:27 AM, Scrog <gator...@gmail.com> wrote:

I just google pvc geodesic dome tent, because I have seen one before,
and I found this company. I know nothing about them, but the right
sized dome would fit in your court yard.

http://www.shelter-systems.com/playadomes.html

Scrog

[Joshua Keroes]

Our neighbor's hexayurt avoided much of the rain by taping their tarp against the exterior of their HY. I think they also taped the inside seam. This prevented the puddles from sneaking under the edge and pooling in the living area.

[Cody Firestone]

taping the exterior is "ok, but then you are tracking all that mud into the tent.  having a larger sized tarp over the whole thing eliminate the mud pit all around your hex.

 

we also used a monky hut, which is a PVC hoop shade / rain structure.  our last year was up and we were camping for the week of 13 inches of rain, and we never got wet!  For rain, and for a single hexayurt, i'd recommend that over anything else.

 

If you have a monkey hut, a tent would probably be better for bonnaroo, no rain worries.  you can leave the rain fly off, and have lots of screens.  when we go summer camping that is what we do, we have a nearly all screen tent, which is under the monkey hut / tarp so it is dry.

[Scrog]

I just google pvc geodesic dome tent, because I have seen one before,
and I found this company. I know nothing about them, but the right
sized dome would fit in your court yard.

http://www.shelter-systems.com/playadomes.html

Scrog


On Mar 23, 6:52 pm, Alyssa Royse <alyssaro...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Cody Firestone]

also, CLEAR tarps, great for cold rainy areas, are on sale at tarps plus.  we just got some for our week long april camping trip.  laast year was the year of the nashville flood during our camp retreat, so we figured we'd like clear tarps because we spend som much time under it when it rains.

[Keith Brown]

You might consider using Aluminet over the center section to reflect back most of the heat/energy.  It's not dust proof (far from it, it breathes), but the heat will be reflected out, and the rain can pass right through.

You do have a big rain problem if you tie all the roofs together.  You'll end up with a donut shaped private swimming pool where they all join together.

-Oswego

[Elliot]

I found a good solution to avoid tracking mud everywhere was to leave about a fifth of the hexyaurt near the door tarpless (so the tarp would start further back). This gives you a little mud room basically so you can take off your muddy stuff there and still be under shelter.

[Alyssa Royse]

Was thinking about a hole in the "gutter" where the courtyard roof connects, with a pvc pipe going straight into a bucket, just in case.  It's definitely a bet-hedging situation - I've not run into much rain on the playa, and when it does rain, it evaporates so quickly....   But yes, if we had structural failure in rain, it would be all kinds of suck. 

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[Cody Firestone]

I got on google sketchup tonight

seems like the "courtyard is barely larger than a hexayurt, so to hAVE USEABLE SPACE, YOU NEED A LITTLE MORE ROOM...

WILL THINK ON SOME LAYOUTS

[Alyssa Royse]

Ya, we know that's the size, and that's actually what we want. a cool, dark, cleanish quietish place for just us. something private - as opposed to our big public shade structure / biergarten. after all, it's not the size that matters, it's how you use it. plenty of space for us to nap, chill, watch movies during a dust storm. :)

____________________
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[The Distinguished ...]

Greetings,

On Thu, 2011-03-24 at 19:37 -0700, Alyssa Royse wrote:
> Ya, we know that's the size, and that's actually what we want. a cool,
> dark, cleanish quietish place for just us. something private - as
> opposed to our big public shade structure / biergarten. after all,
> it's not the size that matters, it's how you use it. plenty of space
> for us to nap, chill, watch movies during a dust storm. :)

Interestingly enough, I'm doing something similar this year, at Pennsic,
with actual Ger (what most people call yurt) structures.

They are 16 foot in diameter rounds, except instead of 1 door apiece, 5
of them have 3 doors, at 120 degrees. The 6th has the 120 degree
separated doors with a 4th door in the middle of the inside wall.

So what I've done is made a taller roof, sitting off the 6 roof-rings as
a similar slope, to a central roof ring. This gives me a slopped roof
that covers all the space, and gives the interior space that much more
headroom. (For balance, I've had to also connect the 6 roof-rings
together, so they pull inward, to the ratio of the outward push ...
ratcheting straps are your friends.)

While I can't quite picture how it would work, might it be possible to
do the same? Some sort of raised roof from the peaks, continuing the
slope, with the inner roof-tape lines going all the way to the ground?
I'm just not sure what shape would be structural to fill in the gaps.

But, indeed, you could just drop and tape a "spare roof" in the center,
just bevel the inside edges a touch, and, if you have a (collapsible)
pole in the center of the center one you can lean the inner roof
partitions against, as you are taping them into place, provided you
aren't going to have a rain issue.

If you are worried about rain, though, you could always put a small
"weep hole" (some sort of cloth that would wick the water, but not the
dust) in the corners of the "center/7th" with buckets underneath.

Oh, and in terms of rain, I've seen people put a "bead" of caulk, tar,
or pine-sap along the upper edge of their tape, just to make the water
run over, rather than under it.

I've also seen people use those mylar blankets over hexacomb, cut just a
little too long, with sand put in, and taped like a french-seam so the
edge of the blankets are folded under, and the sand sits in the slightly
distended pocket running around the edge. It's not shingling, but it's
fast and seems to work, because, in a high wind, the sand might get
blown about, but it's easy enough to resettle.

Percy

[Scrog]

Firestone, I was looking into building a 6' stretch HY, quick easy set
up. I like that video from burning man. and using the monkey hut as a
way to protect my HY from the rain. I will be a 5 minutes from my camp
at all time so if need be I could run over and cover it up. Just set
up the monkey hut skeleton and have the tarp tied to one end rib. I
want the yurt for its insulation. I am planing on building a ice
cooler cooler. where you blow air over ice in your cooler and redirect
that cooler air to where ever. Well I would redirect it into my 6'
stretch HY. Have a fan running and with the insulation, the reflective
properties, and cool air duct, I think I will be able to sleep past
10am this year.

On Mar 24, 2:23 pm, Cody Firestone <4x4c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> also, CLEAR tarps, great for cold rainy areas, are on sale at tarps plus.
> we just got some for our week long april camping trip.  laast year was the
> year of the nashville flood during our camp retreat, so we figured we'd like

> clear tarps because we spend som much time under it when it rains.On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Cody Firestone <4x4c...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > taping the exterior is "ok, but then you are tracking all that mud into the
> > tent.  having a larger sized tarp over the whole thing eliminate the mud pit
> > all around your hex.
>
> > we also used a monky hut, which is a PVC hoop shade / rain structure.  our
> > last year was up and we were camping for the week of 13 inches of rain, and
> > we never got wet!  For rain, and for a single hexayurt, i'd recommend that
> > over anything else.
>
> > If you have a monkey hut, a tent would probably be better for bonnaroo, no
> > rain worries.  you can leave the rain fly off, and have lots of screens.
> > when we go summer camping that is what we do, we have a nearly all screen
> > tent, which is under the monkey hut / tarp so it is dry.
>
> >   On Thu, Mar 24, 2011 at 12:51 PM, Joshua Keroes <jos...@keroes.com>wrote:
>
> >> Our neighbor's hexayurt avoided much of the rain by taping their tarp
> >> against the exterior of their HY. I think they also taped the inside seam.
> >> This prevented the puddles from sneaking under the edge and pooling in the
> >> living area.
>

[Cody Firestone]

Sounds like a great idea Scrog.  

We built a swamp cooler for the Burn last year, to use our cooler melt water?  but it was so dam cold we never needed it!  HAHA!

I'd also suggest a waterproof canvas cover if you can swing the extra cost.  they breath better, and you cna spritz them down with water and cool off the area under the monkey hut ( at BM of course, at bonnaroo prolly just make it muggier!!!!

Hope you are well, Give us a shout, we live in nashville!