07/11/2025
Mold. Let's talk about it. We are often asked about mold, as PYC is rooted in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina. We live in a Temperate Rainforest, around 2,000ft elevation, with 50-75 inches of rain annually. Mold can certainly be a part of our everyday lives, whether it be on our boots or in our gardens...
but [Not in Our Yurts!]
Why? Well... mold isn't a "yurt issue". It's a fabrication or lifestyle issue. Yurts *can* get a bad reputation for mold, but that's largely due to poor manufacturing controls or bad user habits.
None of our yurts have developed mold, in the 8 years that we've been building them. From full time living to deep wilderness sites, with some care - mold is avoidable.
For starters : mold needs 1) Food and 2) Moisture. It cannot grow without either. Take away one, and it's done!
Moisture can be a hard one to control - yurts by their nature are quite permeable and prone to v***r pressure. (more moisture tips in the bonus section)
But the Food Sources on the other hand, are pretty straight forward! Contamination comes from two vectors : Manufacturing and User Habits.
About Manufacturing Controls : "Stamps, Stains, and Soil"
Many makers of yurts, tiny houses, and even stick-framed conventional structures will unknowingly seed their structures with the potential for mold because they simply fail to re-surface their wood. Lumber yards have multitudes of uncontrollable contamination vectors, including : pollen, soiled boots, spilt soda, snack crumbs, squished insects, etc. If raw lumber is used - it's gonna grow things. We've run dozens of experiments. Leave a raw 2"x4" outside - it'll grow 6 species of mold within a week. But if you plane (re-surface) dimensional lumber and leave it out... nothing! If you see a stamp, stain, or soil - your yurt frame hasn't been treated well.
We at PYC carefully resurface and redimension every board and beam in our frames. 2x4's become 1-1/4"x3-1/4" rafters, with fresh surfaces and clear grains. We are also ultra-choosy about our wood species - favoring Black Cherry, Douglas Fir, and Yellow Pine for their dimensional stability and rot resistance. Did you know that Black Cherry is right behind White Oak in rot resistance? But it's denser and less prone to crushing - which is why we use it for our door casings and thresholds! Our frames and crown also feature this beautiful hardwood, for strength and longevity.
About User Habits : "Sticky Hands and Stinky Foods"
This is a big one! User contamination can be a prime vector for mold growth. Sticky apple sauce hands, open stew pots, flour and sugar in the kitchen! Add ambient humidity or unvented showers, and you're cooking more than dinner - you're giving mold the perfect conditions to thrive. Baking projects will obviously get wheat and sugar dust in the air and on your surfaces, which is happy food for mold. Harder to see is the volatile steam and oils coming from long crock pots and stews - these equally deposit slow accumulations of food on your yurt's interiors.
We recommend outdoor kitchens when possible. and encourage careful vector controls when prepping food inside. As simple as it sounds, washing your hands after eating goes a long way when living in the wilderness. Everywhere that sticky hands touch becomes a vector-chain that molds love eat! Simply cleanliness and hygiene help tremendously.
Some Bonus Points :
- Give it some sun! A yurt will benefit from at least 2 hours of direct morning light to help bake off/out moisture. You can also take the covers off annually to give the frame and interiors a sunning! Ultraviolet Light does wonders for natural treatment!
- Keep that air moving! Use fans and circulators. Even off-grid situations can easily make use of usb-powered units and battery banks.
- Use a dehumidifier in large square footage yurts, especially if they accommodate full time living and interior kitchens. Split-Units can also help, as "air-conditioning" does some work to dry out the air.
- Find your favourite smokes and smudges! Really! White Sage smudges have clinical experimental proofing behind them, reducing airborne pathogens by some 90% in hospital settings! Frankincense resin on a censor is equally efficacious, plus it leaves a protective smoke film on your frame and material belongings - giving lasting preventative care. During the humid summer months - we do this every 2 weeks in our home.
- Check your seams and seals on rainy days, especially if you installed your yurt yourself! I know it's not appealing to go around on your hands and knees with a flashlight in a storm - but if you can identify any direct leaks and intrusions before they soak your structure's floor or frame, you'll be beating long term damage.
We are happy to help directly support your journey and consult with any other environmental concerns. We have architectural design in our roots and build everything in house - so we have applicable expertise and years of experience to get your project sited and functioning to its highest potential!
Let us at PYC know how we can serve your vision!
