19 ft Carved Yurt

Yurt Cover

1. Mongolian Yurt Inner cover.  Almost 100% of the time, it is made of thin white cotton fabric.

2. Sheep wool felt insulation for the roof. In Mongolia, two layers of the felt are used during the winter, and one layer during warm seasons. There are lots of variety in quality for felts, especially when they are to be used in non-Mongolian climate.

3. Sheep wool felt insulation for the wall. Like the roof insulation, two layers can be used if extra warmth is necessary.

4. Waterproof layer. This layer is very important to keep the felt layers dry. This layer is usually a thin canvass, but again there are varieties in quality.

5. Outer cover / Sun cover. Our Mongolian yurts have outer covers made of heavy duty canvass. The cover can be decorated with various traditional Mongolian decorations, as well as any custom decorations.

6. Crown wheel cover. It is made of heavy duty waterproof canvass. For extra natural light through the crown wheel (skylight) some customers prefer to have the crown wheel cover removed. For those customers, we place the glass in all the crown wheel openings to block rainwater.

Mongolian Yurt Straps and khayavch

1. Outer straps. There are three straps for the top, middle and bottom.  They are encircled and tightened after the outer cover is placed. We offer outer straps made of horse hair and nylon straps.

2. Inner straps. Although it might be difficult to see in the picture above, there are two straps, for the top and bottom, that encircle the lattice wall. We offer horsehair inner straps.

3. Side straps. There is one side strap that should be tightened after the crown cover is placed. We offer straps made of horse hair and nylon straps.

4. Khayavch. Its main purpose is to regulate the yurt temperature. When it is removed, wind flow in the yurt increases significantly. When it is on, it keeps warmth, or, coolness inside the yurt. It can be made either of wood or waterproof canvass.

5. Smoke flue pipe. It is not a soft fabric. It is made of iron. It sits on a stove, invisible in the picture above. The stove and flue pipe are not included in our standard yurts. They can be ordered as extra.

The wooden structure of Mongolian Yurt

1. Floor/foundation. The yurt needs to be set up on an even surface. Floor/foundation can be made of lots of material: wood, concrete, etc. In Mongolia, nomads do not use the floor during summer; they just set the yurt up on grass. Our standard yurt does not include floor/foundation. We recommend the customers to set their own foundation suited well to their landscape and environment. Also, the Wooden floor is too heavy and expensive to ship around the world.

2. Door. It is made of larch wood we import from Siberia. This is the part most exposed to the elements of the wood parts. It needs exterior grade glue to last long in non-Mongolian,  humid climate.

3. Lattice wall. The number of lattice wall determines the size of the Mongolian yurt. Camel hide cut in narrow straps is the most suitable material to securely join wood to make the lattice wall. However, the cheap yurts exported by others use all kinds of material including goatskin. The lattice walls are the only part of the yurft that is not painted. Therefore they get mold and mildew without proper treatment.  The lattice walls need to get its concave shape when the wood is wet.  But the wall needs to be dried completely to reduce risks of mold and mildew.  We make sure that this happens before shipment. But many other yurt producers do not appreciate the importance of this and ship the lattice walls without drying.  When non-dried walls are shipped in a container that travels 4 – 10 weeks through the ocean, the walls already get mold and mildew when they reach the destination.  In very humid climate, even the wood previously dried can get mold and mildew.  For those in humid climate who concern about mold and mildew, we offer optional treatment of the lattice wall with boiled linseed oil.

4. Rafters. Depending on the size of the Mongolian yurt, there are from 36 to over 200 rafters to join the lattice wall and the crown wheel. Our rafters are much thicker than in typical yurts produced in Mongolia for added snow load capacity.

5. Crown wheel /compression ring/skylight.  There are three different names for this part; we generally use the name “crown wheel”. This is the part through which rain and snow water can come in. In our Mongolian yurts, we modify the traditional design a bit to keep the water out.

   More about Traditions and culture about Yurt