1st February Yurt Base Construction

The wood for our Yurt base was delivered to site on Monday 30th January. We used a local timber merchant based in Hereford called Pontrilas Timber (http://www.pontrilastimber.co.uk/) and the service was very good. Lee was very helpful on the phone when I placed the order and gave me a few tips to help us along.

Angela and I along with Richard began to construct the base on Tuesday 31st, a very cold and frosty morning! just what you want when you are kneeling down a lot.

Richard’s help was much appreciated as he has a lot of experience with woodworking. He is a real “Jack of all trades” but don’t tell him I said that!

While we were away in Spain Richard had prepared the hardstanding base ready for our return

The first thing we did was drag two of the picnic benches to the area of construction, Richard had a good idea of building the base on these as it would mean we did not have be on our hands and knees.

We began constructing the frame using 4”x2” joists and needed a square that was 20ft x 20ft. Bit by bit it began to come together.

As the Yurt needs to be raised of the ground by about a foot I had been thinking for a while the best way to achieve this. We were going to use the timber joists to make the legs but while we were travelling

through France on our way back we stopped off at a campsite in Limoges called Parc Verger and there was a Yurt set up where I found a solution for the base support!

I went online and typed into a well known search engine timber decking supports and hey presto I found a product that would do the job nicely and would also save a lot of time and effort.

A company called Wallbarn from Oxted in Surrey produce various adjustable support feet including the one which suits my needs http://www.wallbarn.com/timber-decking-support.htm and at £3.85 each well worth the money. Easy to order over the phone, very helpful and next day delivery. I would definitely recommend them to anyone thinking about building a timber deck base. One last bit of information about the support feet is that each one will take 400kg in weight.

After speaking to Wallbarn their advice was that 50 support feet would do the job so once the frame was finished we placed them around, one on each joist and the rest at regular intervals until we were satisfied that all looked ok.

The feet were all adjusted until the spirit level bubble was in the centre each way you checked! This bit is crucial as once all the floorboards were on and screwed down any adjustments needed would not be possible.

The next stage was to lay the floorboards in position before screwing down. We ordered 40 6”x1” boards and used 39 so Richard was spot on with his measurements!

Armed with a drill each we began. Using 4mm tile spacers we set about screwing all of the floorboards down until the light got the better of us. We downed tools for the day and then continued this morning. We stopped for a tea break then left Angela to finish off… Richard and I went into the warmth of the gents as painting needed doing before the site opens.

In the last picture you may have noticed a couple of bottles! these were Richard’s home brew and brought in to celebrate the completion of building the base