Nomadic move brings yurt company to Wimberley

Typical home builders are concerned about making sure everything is square, but Zach Ricks isn’t building typical homes.

Formerly from Michigan, Ricks moved to Texas to found the Texas Yurt Company, sister company from the Great Lakes Yurt Company, as he builds or sends building kits to people who want to own or build their own Yurt.

For Ricks, building Yurts was something he got into when he and a friend built their first Yurt for a documentary film.

“I built my first yurt six years ago,” Ricks said. “It was for a health documentary that we were filming, which was about this guy trying to get his life together and live healthy, and we wanted to get him reconnected with nature. I don’t know how we came across a yurt, but we saw one and we were thinking, “Ah we can build one of those.” It was a very small version of our current ones, but it was cool enough that we were like, “Hey that wasn’t too hard. Let’s try and set up another one.’ We then set one up for a friend, then another friend wanted one before it was just snowballing from there.”

With the demand of people wanting him to build them their Yurts, Ricks and his family made the decision to move from Michigan and make the nearly 1,400 mile journey all the way out to Wimberley.

“We came to Wimberley about six years ago,” Ricks said. “I had been coming to Texas for work for a while doing other stuff, and I wanted to stop traveling so much because we were living in Michigan. We were open to anywhere in Texas then we visited the schools and the area in the Wimberley Valley and we were immediately sold. The country life with a little bit of the hippy vibe was an easy sell for us.”

The yurt housing structure originated in Central Asia as a nomadic house that could be easily transportable.

Nowadays yurts are being modernized into a variety of things as Ricks explained.

“It’s essentially a round house covered in a vinyl canvas,” Ricks said. “The draw is the lattice walls, and it’s the interlock lattice structure that holds up all the rafter support that goes under the center ring. The Yurts are an invention of the Mongolians, and it is essentially the first nomadic version of what they were using to cross all over Mongolia. Those were wrapped in deer skin and made from raw timber, and so we updated the thing and now you can get these Yurts passed by code and do whatever you want with them. There are some people who fully furnish them and live out of these things, a lot of people are using them for Air BNBs, yoga studios, anything you can do. It’s a cool and inviting space.” Building a yurt is not as easy as some people may think due to the circular shape of the structure.

“It starts with the lattice walls,” Ricks said. “Then we hand put all the nuts and bolts you see, and then we cut the rafters. The rafters hang from a metal cable hung from the lattice strips and rise from the cable to the center ring.”

Perhaps the most difficult piece of a yurt structure is the center ring.

“The center ring is the next thing we build,” Ricks continued. “It’s the most intense piece up there because each piece is a specific cut and angle to match the circle. Then a guy fabricates a nice plexiglass dome that goes on top and then finishes out with the 2x4 studs underneath each rafter, which is our snow and wind load package that helps support the extra weight… The unique ones we are building are the glass windows we put in. A lot of companies put in vinyl windows, but they let in a lot of air and don’t look quite as nice.”

Ricks said he has received a positive reaction from the Wimberley Valley community.

“It’s been great and everyone has been super supportive,” Ricks said. “We’ve had several people come and visit, and I didn’t really start advertising until a couple of weeks ago. It’s just a lot of people wanting to do cool stuff with the yurts. Some have wanted to use them as facilities for the underserved community, and it’s incredible. You walk into a unique space, and you want to meet people with unique ideas and people want to do all sorts of things.”

If you want to own or perhaps build your own yurt, contact Zach Ricks by email at [email protected] or by phone at (512)787-2702.