How to Build Your Own Sauna

Installing a sauna can be less complicated than you may imagine.  You can buy pre-built saunas that can be installed in less than half an hour or if you have some woodworking skills you can buy a kit and assemble it yourself.  The ultimate challenge, of course, is to build your own sauna from scratch.  This is a project that could be undertaken by anybody with basic carpentry skills.

The most important consideration when building your own sauna is location, location, location.  Your sauna design will depend a lot on whether it will be in the city or the country, whether it will be freestanding or installed in an existing room, and whether it will be inside the house or built as an exterior building.

Once this basic decision has been made, you have to decide what kind of stove you are going to use.  You have a choice of electric, wood-burning, gas, or oil.  If you're building your sauna in the countryside, a wood-burning stove would be the obvious choice.  A city sauna, on the other hand, would be better off with an electric, gas or oil heater.  Electric is the most popular choice for saunas in the city.

Finally you need to decide how to integrate washing and changing facilities.  Ideally, there will be a shower just outside the sauna for people to wash before they enter the hot room.  The shower will need hot water so your plumbing facilities will play a big part in deciding where to build the sauna.

Location

The best location for a sauna would be in the countryside close to a lake or river so that you can jump in the water after a sauna.  Next to a swimming pool would also be a good spot.  If neither of these are possible, you should plan on having a shower installed next to the sauna.

Saunas that are built in the countryside are almost always a separate building from the house.  If your sauna is going to be in the city it is more practical to install it inside the house.  It should be close to a bathroom so that bathers can wash before the sauna and take a cold shower afterwards.

If you plan on converting an existing room into a sauna, you have to take into consideration the moisture that will be present from the sauna.  The room will have to be insulated and have a vapor barrier to prevent moisture from damaging the structure of the house.

Sauna Heater

Most sauna enthusiasts agree that a wood-burning sauna heater provides the most satisfying sauna experience.  This is the obvious choice for saunas in the countryside.  If your sauna will be in the city, a wood-burning stove is probably not practical, so the next best choice is an electric sauna heater.  You could also use a gas or oil heater, but many people complain about the odor that these heaters give off when they are being used.

No matter which kind of heater you decide on, it has to have the proper connections.  This might mean hiring an electrician or plumber.  Installing the connections is one of the first jobs that should be done when building your own sauna.

We have discussed how to choose a location for your sauna and how to prepare it by installing the necessary plumbing and electrical connections. 

You are now ready to construct the actual sauna!

If there is no existing framework you will have to install your own framing.  This is the wooden studs that the sides and ceiling of the sauna will be attached to.  Framework can be made from 2 x 4 or 2 x 6 lumber, and there should be upright posts regularly spaced every 16 inches.

Once the framing is in place, the room needs to be insulated.  Insulation is placed between the framework studs in both the walls and the ceiling.  It is necessary to keep the heat in the room and to save energy.  The insulation is covered with a vapor barrier to prevent moisture build-up within the insulation.  Foil vapor barrier can help to reflect heat back into the sauna.

You can now start constructing the walls.  You need tongue-and-groove lumber to avoid exposing metal nails in the sauna.  If the nail heads were exposed, they could burn the skin in the high heat of the sauna.  Saunas in Finland are often constructed with Nordic white spruce, but you can also use western red cedar to cut down on the cost a little bit.

Begin at the floor and start nailing the lumber to the studs in the framework.  Angle the nails through the tongue portion of the wood so that they are hidden.  Cut the wood so that it fits evenly from one corner to the other.  Work will go a lot faster if you have one person cutting the wood and another person installing it.

Continue adding rows of lumber checking from time to time that they are remaining level.  Each wall is constructed in this manner and then finally the ceiling can be finished off.  For the door, the easiest thing is to install a pre-hung door rather than trying to hang one yourself.

Molding can be applied to the corners of the room to give it a finished look.  After this, the benches can be installed.  You can construct your own or you can buy benches from a sauna supply store.  Make sure there are no nails or exposed metal parts in your benches.

Once all the woodwork is finished, you can install a ceramic floor.  This is simply a matter of gluing ceramic tiles to the underfloor and filling the spaces in between with grout.  Be sure to allow time for the ceramic cement to dry before applying the grout.

When the ceramic work is finished, you need to build wooden flooring panels to place over the ceramic floor.  They need to be removable so that you can clean the ceramic floor.  The flooring panels are necessary because the ceramic tiles would be too hot to stand on in the heat of the sauna.

With all the interior work finished the sauna heater can be put in place and connected to the electricity.  To finish it off you can panel the exterior walls of the sauna and install towel racks outside the sauna door.

And that's it!  Turn on the heater, let it warm up for about 30 minutes and enjoy your sauna!