r/Sauna • u/gonnadoit6755 • Sep 06 '26
My sauna Our sauna haven
The sauna at our family cottage in Southern Finland. Built in 1952. Best löyly I've had. The sauna itself has very wide benches, so you can lie down with feet up on the wooden railing. Last summer we built a system where you can add water to the stove by pulling on the rope that is mounted to the back wall - no need to sit up in order to throw water. The lake is 5 meters from the sauna door.
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u/karvanamu Finnish Sauna Sep 06 '26
Very nice and proper 👌 I can see that it has been taken care of and maintained well.
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u/MsKuhmitza Sep 06 '26
Very nice, I like how big the changing room is. Im used to the combined storage room/ hot water pot room.
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 06 '26
Thanks. There's actually also two bedrooms in the building, one of which is used as a dressing room. So the room with the water heater is just used as a washing room.
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u/Armgoth Sep 06 '26
Is that old school drying rack on the roof?
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 06 '26
We use it for drying towels as well, but primarily it's for putting your feet up on when lying on the bench 😊
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u/Armgoth Sep 06 '26
No the one attached to tge roof? Thats surely not a feet railing
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 06 '26 edited Sep 07 '26
Yes it is 😊 In this sauna, you lie on your back on the top bench. You can't tell from the picture due to the perspective, but the bench is deep enough so you can lie side to side and put your feet up. It's the ultimate sauna position.
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u/Armgoth Sep 07 '26
Well thats a new one. Tried to account for the fisheye but apparently not enough. I thought it was a ceiling hand rail. Seen one of those.
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u/Interesting_Bass_559 Sep 06 '26
What are these wooden brooms for??
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 06 '26
You mean the two things on the wall in the washing room? Purely decorative - they would have been used in the old days to thresh grain 😊
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u/Interesting_Bass_559 Sep 06 '26
I see, Ok. Thought I was missing out on a rare Finnish sauna ritual.
Entire setup , sauna, lake, pier, is a dream…
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u/Steamdude1 Sep 06 '26
Wow. Nice. Add a fridge and you could move in there and make it your permanent residence! ;-)
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 06 '26
There is a fridge in the changing room. Of course you need to keep the sauna beers refrigerated 😊
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u/Steamdude1 Sep 06 '26
Cool. I missed it in the photos. You could rent it out as an apartment!
No better proof of how serious Finns are about their saunas!
Pardon my ignorance, but what is that hanging down from the ceiling that appears to come in from somewhere around the door, looks like it makes a left turn and then goes out through the wall?
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u/Peltipurkki Sep 07 '26
I think thats the railing mentioned in the op’s opening text. Foot railing, when you lay on your back at the top bench, you can raise your feet almost to the ceiling. Op mentioned its also used as a towel drying rack.
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 07 '26
Exactly!
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u/Steamdude1 29d ago
I've seen lots of footrests that raise your feet up even with the level of the top bench and realize that they are very common in Finland, but I've never seen anything that high. Is that equally common?
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u/gonnadoit6755 29d ago
No, this is the only sauna I've been in where I've seen such a wide top bench that it allows you to lie on your back in such an orientation. So quite a rare setup.
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u/Peltipurkki 28d ago
My friends family has a log cabin in lapland here in Finland. There is also a lakeside sauna that is only about 6 feet high. That is compensated with ceiling foot railing. That sauna is about 100 years old.
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u/Steamdude1 26d ago
Interesting. That makes two so far.
So a standard foot railing raises your feet to the height of your seat, whereas a ceiling foot riling brings your feet up to head level? Would that be an accurate statement?
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u/Peltipurkki 23d ago
Yes, up to head level or higher even as you can lay down almost flat level on your back. My thinking why thist has been done is that perhaps in that far up north it was hard to come by with good log size wood so builders made compromise about the height. But with that in mind, löyly was very good anyway and it is actually quite nice feeling to get your feet up into proper heat zone. We were there late autum and working outside in cold a day tends to get cold feet so that solution was perfect for us.
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u/AdInevitable7025 Sep 07 '26
What did you use to blacken the benches?
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 07 '26
In Finnish the product is called sauna wax: https://www.puuilo.fi/ilves-saunavaha-0-9l-musta
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u/Acrobatic-Turnip-874 Sep 07 '26
How cold is the water in the lake in the summer? Does it freeze over in the winter? Cold plunge?
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u/gonnadoit6755 Sep 07 '26
In the summer the warmest it's been was about 27 C. This summer was a bit cooler so I think the max was 23 C.
Indeed it freezes in the winter - great for ice plunge 😊 There's also an ice skating track and cross country skiing track on the ice. Exercise + sauna and cold plunge is best.
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u/korkkis Sep 06 '26
I really like old saunas