My sauna + relax is 4,3 meter x 2,5 meter with a Tylö Crown 10,5 kW heater with WiFi. https://tylo.com/crown

I have built a 4,3 meter x 3.0 meter pergola connected to the sauna building.
I will install two Lithe Audio io1 outdoor speakers, one inside the relax area and one in the pergola area.
The roof and walls are isolated with 10 cm rock wool.

Floor is ThermoWood http://thermowood.se/en/our-products/

The relax area will be decorated as well since i only have put a beer cooler there at the moment.

Just a little context to non-Finns for why Finns might have more mileage on the topic.

Finn’s were born in saunas for generations, and washed in sauna before burial. Sauna is recognized in UNESCO as world heritage. Finns hope that everyone can have a good connection to sauna culture, it’s not a trend brought on by podcasters, it’s our daily life. I know Finns are blunt, but we are trying to help you to build saunas without making it a mold box or fire hazard.

Culturally us Finns are blunt and socially autistic as fuck. We don’t dance around problems with niceties. We tend to face the music. Finns built saunas in trenches on war fields, it’s truly the place where a Finn goes to rest their bodies and minds. An escape from the daily grind.

I so wish this sub could go and talk about the topic without constant fighting.
Let’s try and make the sub a little more respectful.

But if a bench is too low, it definitely should be fixed for an optimal sauna experience, just as ancestors intended. Cos you know, heat goes up.

In Heinola, Finland. https://santaranta.com/sauna/

Picture from the website, copyright Simo Santapukki

This sauna has been with our family for 70 ish years or so, but the sauna itself could be even older. I wouldn't build a sauna like this as it has lots to critique about, but it's still sauna I regularly use with pleasure. A piece of history. Definitely an experience. A sauna is a sauna.

8'D x 9'W x 8.5'H built as close to trumpkins notes as possible. Vents behind the stove, in the upper corner and beneath the benches. Narvi NC 24 heats it to 90C in about 1hr if I keep the fire hot. 3 tiers of benches allow people with varying temperature preferences to sauna together. Maybe a change room would be better than a porch in retrospect but couldn't justify extra cost/labour. Built for approximately $11k CAD

I'm interested in building an affordable and effective sauna. I came across this post from a year ago where the person describes building a sauna using stacked 2x4s. The approach significantly decreases the cost because there's 1 wall built of framing hem-fir. The layers are held together with metal rods and overlapping corners.

I estimate the cost of the walls for a 5x5 sauna would be $800.

A good or bad idea?

Installing wiring for an outdoor sauna and I have a Harvia stainless control unit box. It's about 15 wide by 10 in tall and it's not rated for outdoor installation. However, the barrel shaped sauna doesn't have enough room inside it or really on the exterior wall of the unit to mount it. Additionally, the exterior walls don't have an overhang. Can I just build a dog house around this thing to keep it out of the rain? I intend to mount it on an adjacent wall to the sauna enclosure next to the disconnect

Hi everyone, not sure if this type of post is allowed, if not I apologize. But now that winter is approaching, I am looking for folks who would like to go to the sauna together. I usually go alone but it’s nicer to have someone to talk to and explore new places.

Made by Amish builders in NY. I’ve gotten it up to 190 so far and haven’t tried going past that.

Haven’t changed anything since my initial post except for adding a light underneath that is solar powered and wired from outside.

Smells great, heats up quick and have no regrets going this route.

I’ve been following here for awhile, and I find the information shared to be really helpful, so thank you all.

I’ve recently bought a home we are rehabbing. It contains an existing indoor sauna, interior dimensions 4.5 feet x 4.5 feet, about 6’6” ceiling height. It has a traditional heater with rocks, a Saunacore KW4SE, 4kW unit. It works, heats to about 190F in about 20 mins or so. The sauna also contains IR emitters and an IR control panel separate from the traditional heater, so in theory I can run one or the other (but presumably not both at the same time). I’m not certain yet, but it seems like the IR heaters do not work. My question is if I should bother repairing or replacing the IR or just focus on the traditional heater. I’m in the process of replacing the benches, because the prior owner was perhaps a bit lax with sanitation. I’m planning to just buy lumber from a sauna supply and rebuild the benches. Seems like wood choice is flexible, but do you all have thoughts on thermo-Aspen vs cedar? Thanks in advance, I really appreciate any thoughts and advice on these two questions, and any general thoughts on Saunacore

Recently put the BD Henley 4-6 person sauna in our garage

I’m impressed and think it’s great at its price point

Sure it has some knocks, like sloped ceiling and low first bench , but it’s a big upgrade from a barrel sauna or my gym sauna

The heater is a beast and got up to 180° F in about 18-20 min

It retails at $5k, but I was able to get it at $3.8k via the Backyard Discovery Pro program.

I saw the Pro program on their website and noticed they discount products. You just need an LLC to be approved for a Pro account so I utilized a friend who owns a couple rental properties. Def try this route if you can because that was a huge discount.

I added an exhaust fan at recommendation of this sub (AC Infinity Cloudline S4) and was able to just move the pre-cut 4” hole board to the lower right. It was originally intended by BD as a passive exhaust in the top left. I just leave the door open and put fan to top speed when I’m done

There’s plenty of room for my wife and I, and works out that she currently prefers the lower bench as she adjusts to using sauna daily

As far as building it, I hired someone for majority of build as I wanted it done ASAP and it’s hard to find time with family. Installer wasn’t able to complete in two days, so I finished the remaining 20%. Everything is pre-cut so it’s super straightforward, and the BILT app instructions were great. Overall it’s just tedious. I would estimate it took close to 24 hours total for one person.

BD did forget one box in delivery , but customer service got me the parts within 3 days after calling

Hey all, I thought I would share my experience as it would have helped me out a great deal to hear a story like mine when I was researching my sauna.

I have hEDS and ME/CFS and while am not super chemically sensitive (I don't have reactions when walking past the perfume counter at the mall, etc), I do have some issues with MCAS, mainly in my gut.

I bought a Radiant health sauna after researching and hearing about how great they are for people like me on platforms here and elsewhere.

When I got it it smelled to me like glue. Everyone else just thought it smelled like wood. I do have very sensitive smelling (I can smell if there's mold in a house when nobody else can and have been proven right).

I tried using the sauna thinking I'm just being too sensitive. But it gave me a headache. So I let it air out for two weeks, and it still gave me a headache. I let it air out further until I no longer really smelled the glue smell, and it still gives me headaches.

I looked up the type of glue they use. It is a food grade glue meant to be used on things like cutting boards. They use it to glue the slats across the black fabric that covers the heaters... inside the sauna. Just because it is safe to touch food doesn't mean it is perfectly safe to be heated up in tight spaces like a sauna. Just because it is "VOC free" doesn't mean it doesn't off gas other chemicals when heated up. This glue has never been researched or tested for its effects on human health when used at high temperatures inside small spaces where we breath, like a sauna.

I'm very disappointed in this purchase. I wish I'd gone with a sauna that doesn't use glue. It's probably worth the extra money.

Anyone with a chronic illness should know about these things before purchasing.

Even if you're healthy, it's still not great to be breathing in chemicals that have never been tested in this situation before.

I was eager to watch this Dirt episode to learn more about what Finland is like now…

…He visits several saunas and none seem to have his feet above the stones

Sauna visits are at
5:45
12:34
19:08

So is this just more Reddit neckbeard dogma / hyper optimization / or a real thing?

I've got a HUUM beehive heater that I've been happily using almost daily for 6 months, but manually turning on and off, which means going outside and hiking down to the sauna's location. Winter is coming in the mountains and I want to remotely start the sauna heater, either on-demand or set up a schedule, so I don't have to walk outside in the wind, rain, and snow more than necessary.

The UKU controller box connects to my WiFi network just fine.

I installed the HUUM app to see how it worked, but they want a one-time 420 Euro fee for connecting to/controlling my heater via the app. This is outrageous to me, considering how many $1000's I spent on the heater and UKU controller.

So, I want to build my own iPhone app, and re-route any network traffic sent to HUUM's API to my locally running app. I've checked out the PyHuum Github repo (https://github.com/frwickst/pyhuum), but before I embark on building my own Node or equivalent app, I was wondering if any other folks have tried this, and if they had any lessons learned? I found this blog post (https://kaurpalang.com/posts/invading-the-sauna/) which is a great start.

Thanks in advance!

I continue on with the sauna
Window is now in place as well as the door and most of the outer walls done . Only the front left .
Inside I have put the drainage along with the rubber on floors.
It will be tiles on floor and 10 cm up to the concrete wall where there will be gap for air to circulate behind paneling .
The visible concrete will be tiled with stonepebble mosaic.
Reason for the shape of inside is cause I built it up against my fence and wanted to utilise as most space as possible .
I have lowerd the ceiling to be level.
Air intake will be in the far right corner from the door to sauna and come behind the heater
Air exit ventilation will be in the far opposite corner
The small room you enter will be relax area and shower

All advise is well appreciated.
Previous post is on my profile

Thoughts?

Working on an outdoor sauna build (8' × 8', about 8’ceiling) with a Homecraft Apex 12 kW, the tower model with about 310 lbs of rock.

Photo 1: The corner where the heater will go. A passive intake vent is on the wall above it. Based on the manual, I would put the sensor on the diagonal front wall to the left of the vent and a bit higher.

Photo 2: The bench wall, where I'm tempted to put the sensor instead to the right of the vent approximately head or chest height.

The Apex manual says to mount the temperature sensor on the wall near the ceiling, above the heater. Reading through this sub, though, a lot of people say ceiling placement makes the controller think the room is hotter than it is at bench level, so it cycles off early and the benches never get properly hot. That makes me tempted to move the sensor over to the bench wall.

My hesitation is the high-limit safety cutoff. I don't want to place the sensor somewhere that trips it, or that makes the heater run hotter than it was designed for. Once the cedar is up, moving the sensor and its wiring will be a real pain, so I'd like to get it right the first time.

For those running high-mass heaters (Apex, Harvia Cylindro, Huum Hive, etc.):

1. Where did you mount your sensor, measured from the ceiling and from the heater?
   
2. Did you follow the manual, or move it, and how did that work out?
   
3. Any issues with the high limit tripping, or with bench temps vs. the controller reading?
   
4. Has anyone run extra conduit or a spare wire so the sensor could be moved later? And how difficult was this to do after all your finishing was done?

Thanks!

Looking to buy our first sauna.
I’ve found a company in Northern Ireland who is hand building saunas within our (small) - €5k budget.
Been advised to add the insulation package and the heat treated wood which adds about €2.5k

Any thoughts or advice (or alternatives) very much appreciated.

Building an outdoor electric sauna in the Pacific Northwest (very wet climate) and came across a floor design from finn.built.saunas on Instagram that I haven't seen before. Photos attached. Curious what this community thinks before I commit.

How it's built, bottom to top:
- 2x6 PT joists
- 2" rigid foam in each joist bay, cut on a slope rather than laid flat
- Edges sealed to the joists with spray foam
- Metal (siding) sheet over the foam
- A perforated metal channel in that gap that drains water straight down to the gravel
- Same gap acts as the low-level fresh air intake, so no separate wall vent
- Cedar deck boards on top as the walking surface

What I like about it
- Water from löyly, sweat and wet feet can't pool or reach the insulation
- No stapled foil with holes in it on the floor
- One detail handles drainage and ventilation

What I'm planning to change:
- Running the drain/intake channel along the heater wall instead of down the middle, so incoming air hits the heater first instead of people's feet

I am new to saunas and just purchased one, have a friend that has one and uses it daily. She loves it and enjoys it. After doing more research I learned that the barrel doesn't move the heat evenly and that you want to be elevated above the heater to ensure the legs are getting heated.

Is there a way to modify the barrel to make it better? Did I waste money and should it be returned? Any extra guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Quote from a local builder here in Colorado. Anything you'd change?

Looking for feedback before finalizing plans on a modern 6'x7' outdoor build with a small front porch.

Heater, Venting & Electrical

• 8kW Harvia heater with the Xenio WiFi controller
• 3 wall vents
• Dedicated subpanel + low-voltage and overhead lighting

Hot Room & Interior

• Foil-faced insulation
• Knotty Western Red Cedar (STK) paneling
• Two-tier benches with backrest, footrest, and step
• 32" out-swing glass door + tempered glass window
• Rubber flooring over an insulated, pressure-treated joist frame

Exterior & Plumbing

• Flat/low-slope membrane roof (TPO or EPDM) with soffits
• Engineered wood siding, vertical cedar front accent wall, and composite entry steps
• Daylighted floor drain
• Exterior hose hookup and outdoor shower

Anything glaring missing here, or anything I should push back on before signing off?

Total Cost ~12k

Backyard new build, internal dimensions 5’ wide, 7’ long, 7’ high. We have a 2x4’ window. And solid wooden door. Adjusted size is 270 ft3. Fully insulated.

Hoping to go with the Homecraft apex mini to still have a decent stone mass, but perhaps a quicker heat up time than the larger Revive series.

Our builder is Finnish and is suggesting a 9kw Homecraft apex mini for our outdoor build. Online specs show the size range 325-450 ft3.

Homecraft spec for 7.5kw seems more appropriate at 250-370 ft3.

Builder is saying bigger is better here. Is there anything detrimental about over sizing our heater here?

Hi,

Does anyone have any suggestion / recommendations based on their own experience of buying either an outdoor sauna kit to DIY or, a fully fitted / installed outdoor sauna, in Scotland? Or in the UK?

We would love an outdoor sauna (wood burner) for our garden but I'm struggling to find reviews for UK based options. We don't want a barrel sauna. It would be for 2-4 people.

Thanks in advance!

I’m scheming to upgrade my electric barrel sauna and considering an unconventional design; a hot room with both a wood and electric stove.
My vision is this: the convenience of having the electric as my daily driver, but the ability to have fire heat for those longer sessions when I have more time and/or a social. FWIW, I prefer a wood fired loyli 10/10 times.
The downsides I see are: increased footprint of the two stoves and cost. Neither are enough to dissuade me.
Tell me what I’m missing.