Current Projects

In May 2023, Cedar Yurts secured a contract to build 14 insulated log cedar yurts to replace the 14 soft wall yurts at a large resort here on Vancouver Island.

This BLOG will introduce you to  to our company http://www.cedaryurts.com

This is a division of http://www.oneofakindcw.com and both companies are under the umbrella of 1229156 B.C. Ltd.

Enjoy this blog as we introduce you to the world of insulated logs from start to finish (for this project anyway). Until now, we have completed 13 cedar yurts from Nova Scotia to BC.

We start with western red cedar, put it in our dry kiln to get the moisture down below 15%.

Then we select the best of the best, leaving any slightly warped, cupped or split boards behind.

The best of the dried cedar is then glued to a type II high density foam using a gorilla glue from Europe. The log blanks are pressed together overnight in our clamp carrier. Cedar Yurts can clamp 72 logs up to 12' long every day.

This project will use 3,100 insulated logs.

 

As of July 31, 2023 Cedar Yurts had over 2,000 logs glued up.

Some of the other moving parts of this project will be added throughout the blog. These will include the 2 part center skylight inserts with triple bubbles, the window and door sections and the entire installation on site in the new year.

Right now all the standing seam ROUND metal roofs have been completed and are stored ready to deliver to the site.

Now you may be wondering how these piles of metal roofing actually look as a round yurt roof. Well, here is a sneak peak from a few past jobs Cedar Yurts has completed.

 

And the inside of the metal roof looks like...

More about the spray foam insulation later.

Perhaps this is a good time to back up a bit and show exactly what our insulated logs will be replacing.

Before Cedar Yurts created our insulated log, there was no alternative to a lattice and canvas (commonly called a soft wall yurt). There are thousands of these yurts in every Province.

A beautiful product manufactured by several yurt companies throughout North America. Unfortunately, the life expectancy of the soft wall vinyl roof yurt is 8 to 10 years before it starts to leak. These particular yurts have been up for 12 years.

There are 2 different diameters of yurts to be replaced. These are the luxury yurts and all 9 are 32' in diameter.

We numbered all the yurts so it would be easier for you to follow along as they may not be completed in this order.

32' yurts

These are the five smaller yurts at 21' in diameter.

Jump to September 2023

All the logs have been run through our molder for the 5 smaller cedar yurts.

Time to start making window and door sections. Best to pre make all the sills, headers, bottom and top logs and have a stock pile so we can make as many window and door sections as possible every day.

These are the 30" high logs that go under every window in this project.

These are the 12" stubby logs that go on top of every window of this Cedar Yurts  project. These are just the parts and pieces for the 5 twenty one foot diameter yurts.

The top and bottom sills for every window pre notched out and a rain drip routered on the underside.

Jump to October

The insulated logs are placed onto one of our jigs where we install the emseal log cabin tape in one of the T & G's and a bead of dymonic caulking in the outer T & G.

There are a lot of moving parts that I will not show here like Blueskin, proper flashing, trim etc, however, here is what the inside and outside of a few Cedar Yurts insulated log window sections look like for this project.

A view looking up from the bottom of the window section (no thermal break).

A look at the inside of 3 window sections of cedar yurts. These can be placed all in a row or spaced around the yurt.

An outside view of 3 separate window sections of our cedar yurts.

We will add more after we finish 30 window sections of the 21' diameter cedar yurts and start on the 54 window sections of the 33' diameter cedar yurts.

All 3,100 logs have been made. All the logs have been run through the molder for the 21' yurts and all 30 window sections have been made.

We are now moving all the logs into a tighter storage area so we can start applying a stain the client has asked for. This will only be applied to the exterior of the cedar. We are starting with 50 gallons.

The rest of the 3,100 logs

Here is a look at the completed window sections before staining and caulking.

Jump to November

Start the 9' 6" high window sections.

Two of the tall window sections ready for stain.

Speaking of stain, all 30 of the smaller window sections (for the 21' yurts) are finished, caulked, stained and are secured into the first shipping container.

Shown here packed in ready to ship.

Next, and at the same time, we are staining all the logs, allowing them to dry for 24 hours and loading them into the appropriate shipping container.

The doors are pre-painted (black) fiberglass with 3 point lock sets.

The first single door is standing. Notice the large wheelchair service sill replacing the regular thick sill. Because these yurts are right on the ocean, the doors are all fiberglass so they do not swell with the wet winter conditions.

Inside look before blue skin and cedar trim. SOLID curved headers custom fit red cedar trim pieces inside and out including both sides of the curved header.

Happy NEW YEAR from Cedar Yurts. Yes, we passed Christmas 2023 and well into 2024 already - where does the time go?

Mentioned the center insert at the very top of the yurt before. Contract called for us to replace the single bubble with another single bubble on top. We went the extra mile and added triple bubbles (at no extra cost to the client or the project). This will give the client additional insulation value and no chance of condensation. The protective cover is still on and full of sawdust from the shop.

We are replacing 2 different diameter yurts so you see 2 different diameter aluminum inserts below.

Did I mention that we made every insert able to be opened? They can open 10" to exhaust hot air in summer.

On to the window and doors. There are 90 window sections. You see 20 here.

There is 1 set of garden doors and one person / man door for each yurt. These are the 5 garden doors for the 21 foot diameter yurts.

These are the garden door sections for the larger 32' diameter yurts.

Jumping to Feb / March, the containers are spray foamed for condensation and the window and door sections  are just about finished

Parallel Cranes accepted the job of loading the containers onto chassis supplied by A & N Trucking.

Date to leave has been set. March 5th, 2024 we all leave. We loaded one of our flat deck trailers as well.

Off to a good start right up until we reached 5 mile hill just outside Gold River. The lead truck hauling our tool crib got stuck which meant the second truck could not get by.

No one is going anywhere fast.

In backing down the hill, the second truck got stuck. Even with chains on, he was just digging holes into the dirt road.

What does Moutcha Bay look like right now?

 

These are what is called SOFT WALL YURTS. Life expectancy is less than the 80 year life expectancy of our cedar yurts.

I was able to put my chains on and drove past the trucks stuck on the hill and up to the resort to check out the progress of the crew removing the old yurts.

The on-site team had started taking down the first yurt - #11. The walls of a soft wall yurt are a lattice structure with a vinyl skin. The vinyl roof has a felt layer under it to keep the heat in with a vinyl roof on top of the rafter poles. Very good quality materials we noticed as we were taking the old yurts down.

Because it is the rainy season and these yurts are right on the ocean and fully furnished, we can't allow them to get wet when taking them apart or re building them.

We purchased a blow up tent that was 40' in diameter x 25' high. The manager of the property liked this idea and also purchased a second tent.

The first blow up tent was laid over the old yurt, plugged in and inflated.

We were all able to work inside the tent to dismantle the old yurt.

Two yurts are being worked on and the crew will install tent number 2 soon. Meanwhile, we got word that a 60 ton wrecker is on its way from Campbell river to pull the truck out of the snow bank.

A bit excessive and expensive.

Stayed with the truckers until they got out and even plowed the snow off a side road so he could turn around.

A very interesting start to the project. It is now March 11th and all our trailers and the tool crib are locked up in a fenced compound in Gold River waiting for the weather to break.

Well, the weather did finally break. Tool crib arrived March 13.

Now in place with a covered roof on the back side to protect our tools in case of rain. We are out of the weather for now.

Time to take the tent down. Telehandler extended. Don is an awesome operator.

Jack up top tying off the top of the tent. Awesome job Jack.
BONUS!
Jack sent me images he took while up there - simply GREAT photography Jack.

Looking down at the top of the yurt loft.

yurt 14 up on the hill.

yurt 10.

Off the old yurt it comes. All rolled up for another rainy day.

Ram board floor covering installed to protect the existing finished floor.

One of the major concerns in any building is water egress. This was a large concern for our engineers as our entire new insulated log cedar yurt is simply sitting on a 12 year old existing yurt floor.

How did we address this issue?

We hired a company in BC to custom bend 1/4" thick aluminum in a 33 foot diameter with a 2" high leg or baseboard on the inside.

Every joint is aluminum welded with blue skin under just in case the weld separates.

Then one layer of sill gasket gets installed.

Aluminum base started. The 2" high inside leg cut down to receive the garden door.

Aluminum base continues all around the circumference. To the left.

And to the right

And a couple of Jack's pictures again. Beautiful setting - someone should put a resort here :-).

This is a high wind area so the aluminum base is securely screwed to the floor joists all around the circumference.

At the end of Day 2 on site, we did receive a bit of a surprise - a sink hole right under the telehandler. It started small.

Then grew to a 5' round hole and 5' deep.

Notified the resort manager and they had it looked after first light next day. Earl on site with detailed blueprints of water, sewage, electrical and propane. One of our new guys, Forest, is an excavator operator so he jumped in and got it looked after freeing Earl up.

Back to the installation. Because of the sinkhole over 100 logs had to be brought over from the trailers by hand. That gave Pat a chance to catch up on welding every joint in the aluminum base.

FANTANTSIC job, Pat! Now we start standing up the garden door section, single logs, logs with electrical outlets and 4 window sections.

Garden door section standing and braced.

A look inside the garden door and 1 window. Screwing the logs to the 2" leg or baseboard will prevent up loading / uplifting.

One more window section on the right. Next is a single log with an exterior duplex receptacle hole in it. The hole down the center of the foam to chase the wire was not yet bored so Pat grabbed the drill and looked after it.

More logs. Need caulking and log cabin tape. Father and son team (Brad and Jack) team up to apply 1 layer of Emseal log cabin tape and a generous bead of Dymonic caulking to the T & G of every log.

Towards the end of day 3, almost half way around the 33' diameter with the logs. The inside of every yurt is going to look and smell nice.

Jagger vacuuming up and keeping the space clean.

This same image after the roof is on and sprayed.

 

Coming around the back side. Everything plumb and level.

Window 5 and 6 installed. Just a few more logs then we can start the metal roof.

I took a walk down onto the boat docks to get a few images looking back.

End of day 3, lifted the tent over the yurt as there is a lot of heavy dew come morning.

March 18th

Side door section in and more logs. Only an 8' opening left and the logs are done.

New bottom plywood under the aluminum sill.

Brad caulking every layer.

The yurt now has a full circle of logs and our tool crib in the foreground.

Another of Jack's images - he takes great pictures.

Starting the top plate. This connects every log, spreads all point loading and makes everything flat and level to start the metal roof.

Top plate on.

Have to make sure that whomever was responsible for boring the holes in the logs for every electrical outlet, did their job. If one is missed, this is what you have to do.

Get on top of it and bore down through as you will not have the room to do anything once the roof is on.

Scaffolding set up in the loft.

Center ring being placed.

First 4 sheets in place.

Half way around.

More panels.

Fastened at the bottom.

Pat tightening the nuts and bolts at the bottom that holds the metal roof in place.

Looking down.

Almost done roof 1.

Buttoned up roof 1.

Next step is to insert the aluminum ring with triple bubble.

Noah made a custom lifting system that worked perfectly. It is hanging from the bottom of the telehandler basket here.

It picks the bubble section up with 4 points of contact to keep it straight

First clean the bubble on the ground.

Then hoist over the center hole.

In the opening it went and the lifting hooks released just like Noah had planned.

Top view lowering the bubble.

Couple images of yurt 12 finished then on to yurt 13.

We advertise our insulated log cedar yurts as an 80 year yurt. Number one of 14 in this project is now almost completed.