5.Make your knots permanent. If everything is working correctly and looking good, you should take the opportunity to use a liberal amount of some strong, fast-drying glue to soak all the knots that you made. This will help prevent the knots from becoming undone over time. An alternative to glue is silicone. Do not forget the knots on the roof poles. While the framework is standing, pace out (or measure) the inner diameter of your shelter at the ground in several directions. You’ll want these measurements in the next step.
Creating the Roof Canvas
Now we will turn our attention to the canvas cover for the roof and sides. There is a wide variety of materials available for you to choose from, from water-, fire- and rot-proof heavy canvas and plastic-laminated cloth to more modern tent fabrics. If you plan on using the lighter tent fabrics, you need to consider that it will be noisier on windy days and that you either should not have an open fire/wood-burning stove inside, or use fire-resistant canvas for at least the first yard surrounding the roof ring. Even so, there’s always a risk when mixing fire with modern tent fabrics. Old fashioned cotton tent canvas, unless it’s waxed, will leak where it’s touched by roof poles or other objects so is not a good choice here. I made the mistake of using it once for a ger and ended up having to silicone the entire roof canvas!
What material you choose, then, really depends on your preferences. I have generally used the heavier-grade water-and fire-proof waxed canvas. The main disadvantage is its bulkiness when packing up the ger and, to some extent, its weight, though generally, you’ll be using a vehicle, so weight is less of a concern. Another downside may be that it’s much more difficult to sew heavy canvas with a home sewing machine (though very much doable). Most materials are produced on rolls about 5 feet wide, in which case, you’d need approximately 20 yards for the roof and 17 yards for the wall.
1.Transfer the roof to the ground. There are ways to calculate the exact shape and size of the canvas roof, but I prefer instead to shape the canvas to the roof, rather than rely on math. In order to make the measuring and fitting easier, set the roof up on the ground by itself as follows:
Hammer two strong pegs deeply into the ground, the width of your doorframe. Tie one end of the tension cord to one peg, and the other end to the other. An alternative method is to lay your doorframe on the ground instead of two pegs. Lay the existing tension rope or webbing strap out in a circle, using the measurements or amount of paces you took of the inner diameter in the previous step when gluing the knots. Make sure the rope forms as perfect a circle as you can get, as it represents the circumference of your shelter at roof height. Using the tension rope as a guide, hammer 8 to10 more pegs into the ground at roughly equal spaces, just to the outside of the circle formed by the tension rope. Place the roof ring toward the center of the circle.
2.Raise the roof ring. Take three roof poles, and insert two of them into the roof ring in such a way that the loops at the bottom ends of the two poles end up looped over two of the pegs you hammered into the ground. Pop the third roof pole into the roof ring, while raising it up, and carefully place the loop at the bottom end of the third pole over the most conveniently placed peg. Just like when you were erecting the roof on top of the wall, the structure ought to stay up, albeit not in a stable manner.
3.Place the remaining roof poles. Using more roof poles, use each hammered-in peg or stake to place another roof pole into the roof ring in the same manner. The handiest way to select the correct hole in the roof ring is to place the pole over the peg and try the most likely hole. If it slides in smoothly, all is good; if the roof ring forces the pole to move away from the peg, select another hole right next to it. Once all pegs are occupied, go around the outside, and carefully place the tension rope or webbing strap over the end of the poles so the poles are pushing against it. Fill up the remaining holes in the roof ring by slotting poles in place, ensuring that the back end of the roof poles are kept in place by the tension band. Of course, just like before, you are now left with the gap where the door is meant to be. The easiest way to cover that gap is to lay a plank against the inside on the initial two pegs, and pop the roof poles against it in their correct order. Another option is to slot these 4 roof poles in place, and hammer a peg into the ground at their back end to keep them in place. If it all went smoothly, you should now have a perfectly shaped roof sitting on the ground. Enjoy the view; it’s a rare one!
Now that the roof is at a workable height, it should be accessible for fitting the roof canvas over most of its surface. When you need access to the center, you can always remove a couple of poles temporarily to create walking space.
Sewing the material together in order to cover the shelter will require the use of a sewing machine. I promise you that it won’t hurt to try this, even if you’ve never used one before. Simply use a couple of inches of the material you’re using and make some practice stitches. When I put my first ger together, I had barely touched a sewing machine. Considering that the ger is still doing well and the stitching strong, yours will be too. Especially as the instructions below should produce far superior seams than my first attempts!
The exact pattern you decide to use is up to you, of course, but for the purposes of this demo ger, I will be laying the canvas on in long bands.
4.Place the first band of canvas. Start at the left side of the roof, and lay a band of canvas over the roof, so that the left side of the canvas overlaps the left side of the circle by 4 inches and the band runs all the way from back to front, ensuring that at the right-most corners of the band, a good 4 inches is left available outside the roof. You can use clamps to hold the canvas in place correctly. Mark the left side of the band of canvas so it follows the curve of the roof, again ensuring that there are 4 inches left over outside the circle. Cut off the excess.
5.Place the next band alongside the previous one. Make sure, once again, that there are 4 inches of material sticking out over the edge of the roof. You’ll also want to align the left edge so that this new band overlaps the previous band by about 1/2 inch at the minimum. You will find that, due to the curvature of the roof, with the best will in the world, you will not be able to have a constant 1/2-inch overlap. Instead, if the band is aligned so there’s 1/2 inch of overlap in the middle of the long edge, coming down the roof, the overlap will increase.
