backyard sauna build

[JONNYROTTEN]

Awesome build.
I cant believe you did all that work and money and built it on CCA directly on the dirt. It will rot in time. Should have used a concrete footing

 

[itsnotrequired]

Awesome build.
I cant believe you did all that work and money and built it on CCA directly on the dirt. It will rot in time. Should have used a concrete footing

i'm sure it will rot in time but i'll be long gone by then. the grade timbers are uc4b, the heavy duty stuff, rated for permanent wood foundations. soil is all compacted sand with excellent drainage, i have no concerns.

 

[itsnotrequired]

02/03/14 update

top bench on adjacent wall installed, getting ready to install bottom bench:

 

[itsnotrequired]

02/05/14 update:

i realized i never took any pics of the corner bench supports during the build so i grabbed a couple yesterday (12/3/18). i ended up scrapping the sliding bench option in favor of installing a more rugged support at the bench corners:

okay, quite a bit going on in the above photos. the support on the left is a 4x4 (cedar, of course). hard to tell from the angle but it is located on the joint between the two lower benches. it extends down to the floor, resting directly above a floor joist. the support on the right is really for the upper benches. similar to the lower support, it is located at the intersection of the two upper benches. it extends down to the lower bench where it is 'broken', transferring load through the bench to another 4x4 below. the lower support didn't quite line up with a floor joist so i laid a 4x4 across the floor, spanning two joists. this thing is rock solid.

you can also see the vent in the far back corner. this is adjustable and allows hot air to travel the 'chase' beneath the upper bench to the changing room. this is the exhaust for the hot room, with the intake between the hot room and changing room located at the floor near the heater.

i also got the window installed between the hot room and changing room:

a view from the inside. note the hot room door is installed as well:

another shot of the door, with the hot room light installed:

i ordered the door per-manufactured, rather than building my own. it is really nice, all clear cedar. stainless hinges as well:

this was a busy day, moving on to the heater install:

heater mounted and wired up. the haze you see isn't a bad photo but rather manufacturing oils burning off during the first fire:

we have heat!:

 

[itsnotrequired]

02/09/14 update:

bad contrast in the photo but building some duckboards. these are removable floor 'panels' located in the hot room, in the area in front of the benches. nicer to stand on that than painted plywood. they are made of 1x3 cedar boards on 1x2 cedar sleepers:

duckboards installed. not the timer and thermometer/hydrometer installed on the wall:

sitting on the top bench, looking out through the hot room window and exterior door window to the backyard:

some towel/clothing hooks by the exterior door:

exterior view. snow is pretty deep and the sauna is operational at this point so the final siding/trim work will need to wait until spring:

 

[itsnotrequired]

06/08/14 update

finally got around to putting up the last bit of siding and trim. i also put some pavers in front, was dragging way too much grass/sand/leaves into the sauna:

 

[itsnotrequired]

06/06/15 update:

its been a year and the siding is (predictably) showing signs of fading. a new coat of stain and this should be good to go for several years. i probably should have put something on the pavers, you can see a bunch of stain spilled on them:

 

[itsnotrequired]

08/15/15 update:

finally got around to putting a shower on this thing. to date, warm-weather sauna sessions involved walking over to the hose and spraying myself off. it wasn't until i set the spray head in the playground jungle gym and let the hose shower me that i realized i needed this all the time. so nothing fancy here, just a shower head with an iron pipe riser and a shutoff valve. it is still hose-powered and connects at the bottom (i bought a separate hose just for this and leave it coiled up at the side of the sauna). we have an in-ground sprinkler system so i try and time my sauna to when that is running, so i can hook the hose up to the irrigation pump and get clean well water, as opposed to chlorinated from the hose bib on the side of the house:

and one more mini project, i took some of the old t&g that got ripped down for the top wall pieces and made back/head rests out of them. the sides are leftover 2x6 from trimming the exterior corners:

 

[pantherburn]

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing!

 

[Boilinginsc]

That is a great build!
We have been thinking of adding one and your step by step is very helpful.

 

[Skippari]

Cool project and nice traditional looking sauna. That heater looked quite small and was there only small amount of stones on purpose? I see the elements in open space there and it looks wrong.. Swedes are not to best experts on sauna, so maybe it was supposed to be like that, but in a "real sauna" you fill the heater full with the stones so the heat moves from the elements to the stones evenly. Wood heated is always better in my opinion as it makes the air change quickly, though you can make a decent sauna with electric heater also as long as you take care of the ventilation.. I have made few saunas and the next will be some sort of a cave sauna with huge heater and hundreds of kilograms of stones. My previous electric sauna had some 120kg (264 pounds) stones in it.. more stones smoother the steam. Here is a photo of the Sauna I built to our apartment where you can see the heater in the background.

 

[Boilinginsc]

Great looking sauna projects in this thread!

 

[itsnotrequired]

Cool project and nice traditional looking sauna. That heater looked quite small and was there only small amount of stones on purpose? I see the elements in open space there and it looks wrong.. Swedes are not to best experts on sauna, so maybe it was supposed to be like that, but in a "real sauna" you fill the heater full with the stones so the heat moves from the elements to the stones evenly. Wood heated is always better in my opinion as it makes the air change quickly, though you can make a decent sauna with electric heater also as long as you take care of the ventilation.. I have made few saunas and the next will be some sort of a cave sauna with huge heater and hundreds of kilograms of stones. My previous electric sauna had some 120kg (264 pounds) stones in it.. more stones smoother the steam. Here is a photo of the Sauna I built to our apartment where you can see the heater in the background.View attachment 619025

the tylo heater has three vertical 'chambers', with the middle one filled with stones and the two outer ones as 'open'. idea is that the heat from the exposed elements in the open chambers send all their energy into the air, rather than first heating cold stones. thought is that it will heat the sauna faster. likely a marketing gimmick more than anything else but i don't have any complaints. i spent a lot of time researching heaters and the tylo seemed to be quality product. i think there are 46 lbs of stone, certainly on the light side compared to a big wood burner but on par with other electric heaters that are completely full of rocks. the heater is a few inches wider than a 'typical' electric heater so it isn't like it is sacrificing a lot of stone volume for the open chambers. yes, there are high-end electric heaters out there with much more stone but those were out of my price range.

ventilation was another item i thought quite a bit about. fresh air intake is near the bottom of the heater, with the exhaust on the opposite corner of the hot room. the heater creates a natural chimney effect and readily draws in fresh air and it travels across the entire space to the exhaust.

 

[Skippari]

Yeah, you see I'm a Finn so it is mandatory for me to question a Swedish sauna heater Anyways on thing common here is to have fresh air coming in somewhere above the electric heater so it mixes with the hot air that rises from the heater. If done in such way it needs some fan to push the cold air in.

Still I would say your sauna looks just great.. much like traditional Finnish saunas are. Saunas are big thing here, almost every apartment has one, even the small ones.

The sauna I plan to build next to my cabin will be something special. I already have a wood heated sauna there in the cabin, but I would like to turn it to a small bedroom and build a separate sauna closer to the lake. There is an ideal spot, but would require me to build it underground next to a rock wall... If I manage to make it.. well it will be quite cool thing..

I might make it in similar way as this firm is doing them:
http://www.holvisaunat.fi
sorry that is only in Finnish, but you see the photos and get the idea.

 

[wyowolf]

interesting, I had no idea they were Finnish...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna

Yeah, you see I'm a Finn so it is mandatory for me to question a Swedish sauna heater Anyways on thing common here is to have fresh air coming in somewhere above the electric heater so it mixes with the hot air that rises from the heater. If done in such way it needs some fan to push the cold air in.

Still I would say your sauna looks just great.. much like traditional Finnish saunas are. Saunas are big thing here, almost every apartment has one, even the small ones.

The sauna I plan to build next to my cabin will be something special. I already have a wood heated sauna there in the cabin, but I would like to turn it to a small bedroom and build a separate sauna closer to the lake. There is an ideal spot, but would require me to build it underground next to a rock wall... If I manage to make it.. well it will be quite cool thing..

I might make it in similar way as this firm is doing them:
http://www.holvisaunat.fi
sorry that is only in Finnish, but you see the photos and get the idea.

 

[Skippari]

interesting, I had no idea they were Finnish...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauna

Now that you mention it, yes at least so they say, though as the wiki mentions there has been some versions of saunas in quite many cultures.

BTW I have to totally disagree with the start of this topic "Sauna not really related to brewing but...", because it is:
1: in modern Finnish there is a term "sauna beer", which means usually a cold beer you take when you go out of the sauna, sit and cool down a little. Quite many also drink beer in sauna. I do it every time and most my friends do the same. Sometimes quite a few beers as the sauna can go on for hours.
2: In historical times sauna was even more important part of Finnish life. As sauna is almost sterile due the hot moist air that kills bacteria and the similar properties of the wooden seats, women gave birth in sauna. Also the sick were taken to sauna and even the dead who were washed before they were buried. So the life of a Finn started and ended in sauna. Not only that, but beer was made in sauna. Yes beer was made in sauna and there are even special words in old Finnish for it. The old style "beer" that I am talking about was called Sahti and there was a place in the sauna for the beer barrels that you could call "beer bench". The seat in sauna in called laude in finnish so the place for the beer was Sahti laude. = it was important thing as it has it's own special word. The heat of the sauna, which I think was not as hot as in modern days, was used to create the beer. I do not know the specifics, but some people here still make Sahti, though maybe not in sauna. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahti

Now few tips related to sauna and beer:
1: Koozie (thing I learned in US) with a can is good in sauna, a broken bottle in not
2: if you have such heater you throw water on it, then try adding a little beer in the spoon of water and then throw it on the stones. The smell is amazing. (lager, not dark beer. have never drank or tested dark beer in sauna)

So if you guys ever visit Europe and the far corners of it, then you might end up in Finland. If you do, then I guess you should check out some saunas I'm heading to my cabin in 2 days and going to heat the sauna there, maybe you wont make it, but maybe the next time. It's there, you can't miss it, close to the arctic circle and only few miles from Russia

 

[Kharnynb]

as @Skippari said, Here in finland we take our sauna very seriously, we have 2, one at home and one at our cottage, both wood fired, my parents and my mother-in-law both have an electric sauna at home, but my father-in-law has 2 at his place, both wood and an "instant" electric one.

 

[pantherburn]

I love getting in the sauna at my gym after workout. It is just a basic electric element heater with the rocks on top. My question is what are your temperature preferences and time spent in the sauna?

I think I’ll sneak a beer in sometime - great idea!

 

[Kharnynb]

a good sauna is betwen 85-100 degrees celcius, more depending on the specific sauna than anything else, some can be great at lower end while some need a bit more heat.

the personal "heat" preference is more based on how much water you throw on the rocks.

 

[Skippari]

a good sauna is betwen 85-100 degrees celcius, more depending on the specific sauna than anything else, some can be great at lower end while some need a bit more heat.

the personal "heat" preference is more based on how much water you throw on the rocks.

True, I would say with really good sauna with large amount of stones it can start from as low as 60 (140F) and go to 100 celsius (212F). You just control the amount of water in the air and make it feel good. Most important thing is that the best temperature it the one that feels the best to you

Sometimes I like to just relax in low temperature and lie there for long times and sometimes I enjoy really hot and sharp steam, though 100 c is a bit too much for me.

There are even gods and goddesses linked to the steam that rises from the stones in Finnish mythology
Auteretar is a goddess, a spirit of löyly(the steam from sauna stones)
https://finnish-mythology.fandom.com/wiki/Auteretar

 

[pantherburn]

I believe the sauna at my gym maxes out at 185F. I can usually stay in at that temp for 15 minutes, but sometimes not. I can’t imagine 212F! How do you keep from fainting?

 

[itsnotrequired]

i use mine around 185-190f in the winter, more like 175-180f in the summer. taking breaks/cool-offs are part of the sauna experience. i like 15 minutes in, 15 minutes out. if it is wonky cold in winter, i might only do 10 minutes out. if you only pop out for, say, 5 minutes and then jump back in, you'll typically want to get back out after a very short time as your core never really cooled from the last round. not the biggest fan of beer in the sauna, i like to enjoy outside between sessions in the hot room. 15 minutes in with some water, 15 minutes out with a beer, 15 minutes back in with water, repeat.

almost all electric units sold in the states have controls on them that limit the max temp, i couldn't get mine above 160f at first. the temp sensor for my unit is behind the heater and is lashed on a 'handle' near the top. i took off the restraining wire and was able to physically lower the sensor closer to the floor. i only had to drop it 8" or so and i could easily get up to 200. crazy how that small change in elevation had enough temp change to 'trick' the system into thinking it is cooler than it is.

 

[Kharnynb]

most sauna's here in finland, especially the "shared" ones in the cellar of apartment blocks, max out at 85 celcius. With a wood burner, a bit hotter feels less hot than electric.

I prefer to drink the beer in the dressing room/outside, but adding a a few drops of beer to the löyly is always nice.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

Fascinating thread. I got hooked on saunas while going to college in the UP, (Michigan Tech.) and would really love to have one in the back yard here. Guess I'm going to have to arrange our next vacation to be to a place with a sauna, to see if my wife enjoys one. (Saunas aren't really a thing in the Philippines, you can sweat just standing in the shade most days.)

But if I build one, I'll need a cold pool for taking a plunge afterwards, that's the way we did it in the Keweenaw. Nothing quite like stepping out of a hot sauna and diving into Lake Superior!

 

[Kharnynb]

we use lake saimaa, but yea, a lake or sea is the best cooldown ever.

 

[LovePirate]

Great build @itsnotrequired , thank you for the detailed walk-through.

How did the under seat return air vent workout? I have been seeing conflicting designs of high vent vs mid height vent, and I do love your convection to the change area idea.

I am just about to start a build and would love any sharing on lessons learned or what you would do if you were to build a sauna 2.0?

Thanks

 

[Kharnynb]

With sauna it depends on how, where and what.
-how are you going to heat it?
-will it be in house or it's own building?
-what is your location like? Lakeside, in town or countryside.

 

[itsnotrequired]

Great build @itsnotrequired , thank you for the detailed walk-through.

How did the under seat return air vent workout? I have been seeing conflicting designs of high vent vs mid height vent, and I do love your convection to the change area idea.

I am just about to start a build and would love any sharing on lessons learned or what you would do if you were to build a sauna 2.0?

Thanks

i agonized over the venting situation, probably an unhealthy amount! the fresh air vent and hot air exhaust really need to come from the same space to function properly. vent/exhaust directly to the outdoors can be problematic, especially on a windy day. pressure differences can be such that the vent functions as the exhaust and vice versa. it 'works' but is not ideal. this doesn't tend to be an issue with an indoor sauna as they typically exhaust into the interior space of the residence. this is where the changing/transition room on an exterior sauna comes in handy, sort of like an indoor sauna brought outside.

exhausting through the exterior walls back into the changing room was not an option. an exhaust on the shared wall with the changing room could also work but it 'short circuits' airflow with the fresh air vent on the same wall. i considered a chase in the 'attic' above the hot room, with a grille at the ceiling to exhaust back into the changing room but i felt an exhaust up high would also result in a lot of heat loss. in hindsight, it probably wouldn't have been a big deal, the hot room stays plenty hot. the under bench venting through a chase creates an elegant compromise between function and aesthetics. air moves fairly well and there is no visible exhaust grille in the room. i've taken a few saunas the last couple weeks and it is very hot/humid where i am at, it has felt uncomfortable in the hot room. i like to think it is due to the ambient conditions and not cooling down enough between rounds but maybe it is airflow? i actually looked into this today and the little fresh air vent i have near the floor under the heater is the perfect size for a computer fan (4"). i have a fan with usb connection that i use in my keezer that will fit in the vent and there is a receptacle nearby. next time, i am going to try to force some air into the hot room and see if it is a different feel.

what would i do different with my build? i would raise the window in the shared wall between the hot/changing room about 4" or so. i still get a decent view as-is but have to look down somewhat. another item is raising the benches a couple inches. there is an unwritten rule that when sitting on the top bench, you should be able to put your fists one atop the other on top of your head and touch the ceiling. the higher you sit, the 'cooler' you can run the sauna. one final one is moving the hot room light away from the heater. it is a good spot logistically and the fixture itself is fine but the plastic box i put in the wall is toast, as is the insulation on the conductors. i don't think a metal box would have helped much with the conductor insulation issue. it is a 'safe' installation in the sense that the conductors are away from any grounded surfaces. the insulation appears damaged (it isn't as if the conductors are bare) but it very well could just be some discoloration and everything is fine.

i like talking sauna