Experience with cardboard yurt/cheap shelter

[MortalsNeverKnow]

Anyone have ideas, photos, experience building cheap structures that will hold up a week in BRC. I was wanting to take a spin on the yurt and build something of a miniature skyline and paint it to go with the theme of METROPOLIS. If you are interested in helping or participating in this let me know!

[swampdog]

Check out hexayurts - http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt
A good friend used one last year and loved it.

[MortalsNeverKnow]

Interesting, would have to alter materials to be on the cheaper end of the cost they list, but that is doable. Thanks for the input!

[Sail Man]

a family camped near us in kidsville for the last 2 yrs used the same hexayurt, made with the reflective foam boards u can buy at homey despot and duct tape. Held up quite well although they reported it as kinda toasty inside w/out ventilation.

[zachass]

I'll be building a hexayurt too. Great shelter idea. If you do it right, it can be damn near dust free inside from what I've heard.

[Elorrum]

http://www.fetchaphrase.com/dome/ cardboard domes

[swampdog]

Somewhere on the hexayurt site they talk about building out of recycled cardboard. They say build it up in cross-oriented layers (so the corrugation goes perpendicular, layer by layer) until the panels are as big as needed (4x4 or 4x8 or...) and as thick as needed (by the time you got corrugated cardboard out to 1" I think it'd be sturdy as hell). You could omit covering it with the sun reflective stuff and your total cost would be (free) + (a whole lot of tape) + (a whole lot of glue). I've found 1000 sq ft of insulating foil on line for about $130 shipped.

I'm still deciding whether to build the full size panel HY or the half size. Depends on how my camp size goes.

[robotland]

The other year I made a quick-and-sloppy structure from cardboard tubes zipstripped together and covered with Reflectix-like windshield shades...It was anchored to my Element's gear rack and tailgate, and held up beautifully. The BEST part was the reaction of the Earth Guardians when I tossed the tubes on the community burn platform at week's end- They thought it was PVC and came a-runnin'!
You can also sprayglue mylar emergency blankets onto cardboard sheets and use them as shade/reflectors. Also very durable!

[Remark]

Big box stores get rid of two or three of these produce bins daily. very strong! they fold flat.

Only 2.5' to 3' tall and 4' to 5'ish wide, but you know what duct tape and zip ties are right?

There, a free cardboard yurt.

[TEFKAA]

We had two hexayurts made of cardboard on the playa last year, and we're bringing them back again this year. They were awesome. Shade over them was essential though. We also had a 12v misting fan going inside that made it really comfortable. Held up incredibly well in dust storms...barely moved at all and little dust came in other than what we brought in on our bodies. This is a silly video I made for some family members that wanted to know more about them.
http://picasaweb.google.com/heyitsanne/ ... directlink[/url]
We ordered the cardboard from a distributor for Pregis called Tharco. Tape was ordered online somewhere...I can look for the link if anyone wants more info.

[Elorrum]

Super contribution TEFKAA! Thanks.

[LeChatNoir]

Yes, that video was a super contribution, TEFKAA. Said a lot with pictures and a little text.

[phil]

Hexayurts in the real world:
http://hexayurt.com/hexayurt_country/

[stack]

Ours was around the corner from "The God Box" in the video. I built it standard size from Tuff-R purchased at HD. I also built a swamp cooler that used melted cooler water and ran off a solar system. They are totally worth the effort, we loved ours!

If you're thinking about building one, I promise, you will be glad you did, they will make you happy on the playa.

Cool video btw

not sure how to post a pic, but here's a link to some pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40011485@N ... 314139798/

and the practice build:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40011485@N ... 133547828/

[swampdog]

There are also foil products that you can buy, intended for insulating houses. You could glue it to the outside of your cardboard. It isn't free, but you can get 500 sq ft for as little as $65 places like: http://www.radiantguard.com/radiant-barrier-reflective-insulation.aspx (not an ad, just one source I've found). They say that they reflect 97% of heat away.

So free cardboard plus $65 worth of aluminum foil plus tape and glue - you can still probably build a hexayurt under $100

[TEFKAA]

There are also foil products that you can buy, intended for insulating houses. You could glue it to the outside of your cardboard. It isn't free, but you can get 500 sq ft for as little as $65 places like: http://www.radiantguard.com/radiant-barrier-reflective-insulation.aspx (not an ad, just one source I've found). They say that they reflect 97% of heat away.

We used this stuff and it was difficult to attach to the cardboard. Spray adhesive didn't work, so we ended up taping it to the cardboard using the 6" filament tape. It was a pain and we didn't want to use the tape for this application so we gave up on it. Luckily our shade structure showed up and it wasn't an issue.

I'd still like to find a way to attach that stuff. I'm curious how the hexacomb hexayurt would do in the sun with this stuff covering it. Glue doesn't seem to play nicely with the playa sunshine. Plus I've heard that any edges caught by the wind get shredded and can tear the stuff off. So maybe a cheaper tape that holds up under playa conditions is the way to go? Any thoughts on this?

ps...glad you guys liked my silly slide show.