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Yurt vs Tiny House (Detailed Comparison)

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I love doing these kinds of comparison which is really not the same in any way like a yurt and tiny house which have their own beautiful experiences.

To make the comparison easy and above all to help you choose one to live from yurt vs a tiny house I am dividing the comparison into sections.

Here we’ll see a fight between a yurt and tiny house and based on which performs better the scores will be given in each round and a total of all scores will decide who is the overall winner in this fight.

Again I am telling you the fight would be difficult because they both have their unique features so just use this fight as a guide to choose where you want to live or invest.

Yurt vs Tiny House – The fight begins

Note: Scores are out of 10!

TL;DR (too long; didn’t read): All Scores In Table

Category Yurt Tiny House
Freedom of location 10 9
Permit process 7 9
Complete cost of construction 9 10
Weather protection 8 10
Spaciousness 10 8
Floor and platform 10 10
Plumbing and electricity 9 10
Ease of transport 7 9
Highest in luxury 10 10
Total (Out Of 90) 80 85
Tiny House Is A Winner In The Fight “Yurt Vs Tiny House”.
But this does not mean that yurt is not worth buying.
In fact, I love yurt and tiny house as they both have
their own benefits and experiences.

Freedom of location

Yurt: 10 Tiny House: 9

Literally, with a yurt and tiny house, you are free to choose any location you want to live no matter it is urban, rural, or remote. You have 100% freedom to build your yurt anywhere unless the laws of that area say no.

If you’re planning to build a tiny house in your backyard you need permission to do so but if it is on the wheel it is just considered as a dwelling that does not fall these permits as they are now under the laws which govern RV life.

On the other hand, many counties consider yurts a temporary structure so they do not ask for permissions if the yurt in your backyard is temporary and does not cross boundaries. If you doubt what I am saying better read the post on living permanently in a yurt.

Permit process

Yurt: 7 Tiny House: 9

To put a tiny house on your own land you need to be aware of zoning and building regulations in your states which can vary county by county depending on the local situations.

Like a tiny house must have at least one full bathroom with a ceiling height of at least 6’4″ and a ceiling height of 6’8″ in common areas. Aloft tiny house should have a stair or at least a ladder, every tiny house must have one window for emergency exit, and also they should comply with IRC which stands for International Residential Code or IBC which is International Building code.

While you need to consult local authorities as the rules can vary so real local research is needed.

On the other hand, yurts do not require a certain ceiling dome height or width however they must comply with all the building codes and energy codes like the yurt exterior should have the strength to stand strong for 14 minutes in 140 degrees Fahrenheit fire and during construction, they should go through less energy wastage and all appliances should be energy efficient.

Also, you need to clarify whether your yurt is temporary or permanent. Here’s a quick tip, a temporary yurt is considered like a normal tent which doesn’t often require any permits as they saw you like campers camping for a few days or weeks.

But permanent structures do need to go through a hard process. Read the post on this topic here.

Like tiny houses, the yurt building rules can vary.

The one most obvious thing that I can guarantee according to current situations is that a permit process to build a tiny house is much easier than yurts. The permit process of the yurt is more difficult when building in populated and developed counties as compared to building a yurt in a remote place.

On the other hand, a tiny house can be built in populated cities by following all the building codes and wheeled tiny houses consider as dwellings so they only need to obey RV rules to get free from legality headaches.

Complete cost construction

Yurt: 9 Tiny House: 10

According to estimations complete cost of erecting a yurt is between $11,500 to $44,000 including the price of labor in this price the material cost covers most of the percentage. You can reduce the labor price from $3,003 to $4,998 when the unit cost is $4.29-$7.14 if you do all the work without hiring laborers. (Check out howmuch.net to get a complete breakdown to build a yurt)

Further, the yurt price can go up according to the type of electricity generation you are going to and how expensive are the appliances and interior is.

However, you can build a yurt almost for free if you are in a forest and want to go natural because this is what ancient Mongolians do.

But to make the comparison fair I am considering modern yurts over ancient yurts.

On the other hand, according to business insiders, Sullivan interviewed some first-time builders and they find that the cost of building a tiny can range from $12,000 to $35,000 where it is completely possible to build a tiny house under $10,000.

For example, there is a couple who have built a tiny house of 24 feet long, 8-feet wide, and 13 feet tall by paying only $8,000.

Similarly, Teri Page from Homestead Honey paid $8,270 for her 348 square feet tiny house. But her neighbor paid $21,000 for a 120 square feet tiny house.

The huge price gap is because the one who paid $21,000 includes the labor price which is $7,000 while Teri Page’s husband did all work so they only paid $7,800 on materials alone.

To make it easy let’s only view the complete yurt and tiny house building cost estimation including labor. This is as told $11,500-$44,000 for the yurt and $12,000-$35,000 for tiny house.

With overall numbers, it is completely fair to say that a tiny house is a winner in this case because to build a successful yurt we need to take care of many things which increase its price.

Weather protection

Yurt: 8 Tiny House: 10

Anyone can say that tiny house is the winner of this round! Tiny houses are more like a typical house the only difference is there in size as the name suggests.

So if we take into account that you have not compromise in building materials then a tiny house is safe in category 3 storms and can withstand heavy rains even if it builds with light but durable materials.

On the other hand, the yurt is not strong like a tiny house due to its structure and dismantling capability.

It is always recommended to not build a yurt in any area that faces strong hurricanes periodically.

However, most of the modern yurts are safe in winds less than 100 miles per hour which hugely depends upon how much are you involved during the construction process.

Who provides more spaciousness in fewer square feet?

Yurt: 10 Tiny House: 8

Let’s compare the tiny house and yurt with the same area of 700 square feet. The yurt and the tiny house have their own benefit here, where a tiny house can provide concrete rooms easily, a yurt can provide a more spacious experience.

The shape of the yurt is the main cause that polishes the roomy experience inside the yurt. A bundle of text is not a good idea to give a clear picture in this round.

So while scrolling youtube I’ve found random videos on 700 square feet of the yurt and 700 square feet of a tiny house.

Watch these videos and you’ll know why a yurt is more spacious in experience than a tiny house.

700 Square Feet Tiny House

700 Square Feet Yurt

Floor and platform

Yurt: 10 Tiny House: 10

Here I am not counting temporary yurts which do not need any floor and foundation as they are considered portable camping tents.

But if you want to convert your yurt into a permanent structure you need a strong and stable foundation, however, the foundation can be of wood or complete concrete but keeping the foundation diameter the same as the diameter of the yurt is needed.

The same implies to tiny houses, yes, they are not like a yurt in any way but tiny houses are considered permanent structures and so you need a stable and strong foundation no matter if it is on the wheel or the ground.

So they tie in the foundation but they have a completely different floor plan. You can not simply build a yurt based on a tiny house floor plan or vise versa.

Hence, they both score the same points because they both need a stable and tough foundation.

Plumbing and electricity

Yurt: 9 Tiny House: 10

Tiny houses are way easier to get plumbing and electricity facilities because of ease in the permit process. Tiny houses are considered as homes when on the ground and as RV and in both cases you need permits but the process of getting approved for a tiny house is much more likely and headache-free than getting approved for yurts.

This makes it easy to get approved to hooked with local utilities. On the other hand building, a yurt in populated areas is no easy task but if you have built it successfully with all the government support then you can also hook your yurt with all local utilities like electricity and plumbing.

However when your tiny home is on the wheel and you just want to live off the grid in a completely natural way and if you’re a yurt man who wants to go all-natural then having yurt outside the city or to say in a remote place in your property do not require permits but with this, you are completely restricted from the public electricity and plumbing services.

In this case, both tiny houses and yurt can benefit from other ways to generate electricity like solar energy or generator.

To avail plumbing, we can use rainwater which can be stored and filter, or your farm tubewell. Another breezy way is to go to a nearby city or any local village to request to fill your water tanks.

Villagers are so kind that they fill your water tank without any cost but it is good to give them some on a weekly or monthly basis for helping you.

You still have another option which is to go to the nearby river to bathe and of course, to fill all your cans for the day.

So yes in this case electricity and plumbing is a little problem for yurts in counties that do not allow to build yurts but yurts and tiny houses share equal opportunities of getting water and electricity supply when they are off the grid by doing some practices which I’ve already covered.

Ease of transport

Yurt: 7 Tiny House: 9

The TIny house is easier to transport than the yurt. Why? A tiny house is normally set up on the trailer and it does not require any special permits if your towable tiny house width is 8.5 feet or less.

On the flip side, the yurt is considered portable as it can be mantled and dismantled but with a permanent structure, you need to be aware because it takes a considerable amount of time and money for transportation.

For this reason, it is good to think ahead in the future about your potential transfer and then think of building a permanent yurt.

Highest in luxury

Yurt: 10 Tiny House:10

In this case, both yurt and tiny house can provide high-level luxury. As you know, money is important to factor in making a place luxurious, however, a place can be comfortable yet not a doodad.

How much luxury you can add depends upon the square feet of your tiny house or yurt separations and above all your creativity.

As they are completely different structures the type of luxury they can accommodate varies.

So yes, this is a tie.

Conclusion

After going through this virtual fight between a yurt and a tiny house. If we give numbers the priority and not the personal opinions then it is clear that tiny house wins this fight.

But, if you want to know what I think then I prefer Yurt over the tiny house because yurt is something that resonates with me if it is surrounded by nature’s beauty.

At last, I just want to say that you should not select anything merely on scores at least when it comes to something like a yurt and tiny house which are the winner in their own areas and experience.

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