Green Building: The Eco-Yurt™ Natural Home

Live a non-toxic, sustainable lifestyle in our handmade shelters

All of our yurts offer low-impact living and a smaller ecological footprint. In our commitment to building Earth-friendly shelters, we proudly present our sustainably-constructed Eco-Yurt™.

Shelter Designs' Eco-Yurts™ are produced using local, sustainably-harvested lumber. Our roof rafters are made of hand-peeled Lodge Pole pine. The best trees for this purpose, ie., straight with small knots, are collected from densely vegetated areas of the forest that benefit from highly selective thinning. We work closely with local loggers, including a horse logger, to purchase high-quality logs which are harvested based on a forest health management approach. We mill the lumber ourselves or hire local millers to do the work. After carefully selecting only the finest quality wood, we hand craft the frame. By keeping the lumber production close to home, we ensure that the ecological footprint of our frames stay within our watershed. This also bolsters the local economy and keeps us connected to the forest we call home.

Shelter Designs yurts use a non-toxic, no-VOC, food grade Tung oil as our wood finish. We thin our Tung oil with a natural citrus product. Biodegradable citrus solvent is naturally occurring in nature as a component of citrus peel oil. This durable Tung oil/citrus combination is a perfect finish for the Eco-Yurt™.

One of the greatest challenges in manufacturing Earth-friendly yurts is balancing a durable outer covering with an appropriate manufacturing footprint. The manufacturing process of the material for PVC coverings, currently in use by many yurt manufacturers, leaves behind many undesirable by-products including: dioxins, PCB's, vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, etc. Shelter Designs yurts currently use an architectual acrylic which is a long-lasting cover that offers a more modest processing legacy. We are currently developing Earth- and people-friendly coverings for our yurts as viable alternatives to both of these products.

As a final touch to the Eco-Yurt™, Shelter Designs offers recycled wooden doors purchased from a local recycled building supply store. If an appropriate door for your yurt is unavailable, we will be happy to hand craft a beautiful door from our stock of sustainably harvested lumber.

By living in a yurt you will have made the choice to live more simply and sustainably. A Shelter Designs Eco-Yurt™ will help take you to the next level in a green, healthy living environment.