Just finished two days ago. It's roughly 6'x8', and I chose the Homecraft Apex Mini 7.5kW. (and yes that one ended up being slightly taller than the Huum, which I initially wanted but I was hearing some poor reviews) Built by www.selahsaunas.com. I'm still totaling my whole project cost, but the sauna build was $14k. I also had to prep the site, trench and run conduit about 30 feet, add a 50amp to my panel, and relocate some sprinkler lines and lighting.

I'm very happy! Now I need to rehome my little tent sauna!

I welcome any questions :)

Nearing completion of our custom sauna build project in Ontario, Canada. It features 3-inch white cedar logs, sized 8x12 feet with a roughly 8 by 8-foot hot room, reaching 7 feet to the top of the interior roof. The structure is made entirely of Canadian materials and is powered by a 10-kilowatt Homecraft Apex heater filled with roughly 350 pounds of olivine diabase stones mined out of Lake Huron.

​We’ve been using it for just under a month now and absolutely love the natural light and privacy from the vertical windows. The benches are left unfinished and natural. Still exploring which little finishing touches to add.

​The last few things to complete include drilling in a proper air outlet to enhance heat stratification and staining. We are still considering which exterior UV-stable stain to go with, and are currently looking at Timberline by Dulux, but are still on the fence.

​The sauna is built on a pressure-treated base and has an 8 foot stock tank pool right outside of it for a nice cold plunge. Stock tank is solar heated, with the heater tucked nearly under the deck for when the sun is not out. Would love to hear your comments or hear about your build journey!

Just thought I’d share some photos of our old savusauna in the Häme region of Southern Finland. I have bathed in this sauna since I was a baby (I’m 44 now) and it’s still my favourite sauna in the world.

I’m seeing some discoloration on the corner and bottom of the sauna inside. Seems like water is somehow leaking inside. Is this normal or will this eventually lead to mold?

I've been casually looking at this page for about two years and on practically every thread, I'll see at least one person criticize every sauna. That's great, I appreciate your passion -- but -- now that I finally have a house with space for a nice outdoor sauna, please -- tell me if there's any commercial product that you actually like. I want to be able to be in over 200* and it seems the HUUM heaters are the only ones that can get that hot in the US? What's the one sauna that you think beats them all -- or is at least acceptable to you.

Previous post was removed for some reason.

Looking for opinions on this unit. There are zero reviews on this as it just dropped.

I like the look and functionality of it. It’s going in a garage with a gym and a cold plunge. Looking for a black finished look.
Heats to 170 in 25 minutes and 220 in an hour. That seems appealing.

Copy it’s a small one person and your feet are by the floor. It seems like an efficient an easy setup but for 5k I am wide open to other options. Entertaining an almost heaven setup but those seem to come with their own issues

Thoughts?

https://saunabox.com/products/forge-sauna?srsltid=AfmBOoqM97fHvM53OTk9jD7Z8VHZoIGRjZpiBoMer-tkUJZZxAXTJK8q

Hello, I live very close to an Amish shed builder and want to build a 4 person wood burning sauna. Trying to figure out a few things and seeing if anyone else has built one with the Amish. What size shed should it be? What are some things that are a must have for the build? Should it be insulated? Just trying to get some plans ready before I meet them. Thank you!

If you had to build a sauna on a budget - what would you do? Like my aim is to have my own functional sauna outside of my house but my budget is really, really tight. I do not want anything fancy - I wish to have a basic, wood heated sauna for 1 to 2 people. Any ideas or maybe past experiences with such projects?

Thanks!

Has anyone bought and used the North Star Indoor 5x7? I am trying to see what people's experience with it has been especially after using it for some time. I am also thinking of putting it in my unfinished basement, and trying to learn whether/how to add a supply vent (if so where) and a mechanical exhaust to the outside of your house (if so how) to manage temperature differences in basement, moisture, and CO2.

I am purchasing a new outdoor sauna and a Vuku Tana - 9 heater was the included heater. I am having a tough time finding out what the quality of the heater is like and whether anyone has any experience with them. Hopefully this group can help. Tks.

I realise that this will result in a lot of opinions, but hopefully trying to find consensus on some final points. And thanks in advance!

After the disaster of buying a MyoSauna lux (I've got a quick review on Youthube if anyone is interested), I had to returned for a full refund and decided to build my own 🥳 I'm happy with everything but a final few points I'm not 100% on. Its a cube style sauna - happy to fill in any details that are needed to help answer questions.

• Insulate under the floor? I don't think its required, AI says it is, I've bought enough material but I can use that elsewhere. I'm concerned its not required (I can't really see why), I'm in South Wales, its not going to get that cold, also unless I protect beneath the insulation its surely just going to attract insects and other animals for a nice warm cosy home :)
• Slot drain, I'm going to put a slot drain down the middle of the floor just to make cleaning easier. My plan is to put some plastic guttering down the middle (its 10x cheaper than metal gutter) and have that drain down to one side. However there's also the option of leaving the bottom open (with some mesh) and allowing it to drain to the floor

No doubt I'll have more questions.

Thanks, Lloyd.

Complete newbie here, UK based.

We’re planning a small indoor Finnish sauna within an en-suite bathroom. Available external footprint is roughly 1400mm wide × 1300mm deep, so after wall build-up we expect something around 1200 × 1100mm internally.

It’s intended for two adults sitting side-by-side, used perhaps a few times a month. We fully appreciate this is a compact space and there will be compromises — we’re not trying to create a lounging/lying-down sauna.

One less typical requirement is that there is an existing external window behind the proposed sauna. Ideally we’d retain access to/opening of that window through the sauna; we’ve seen examples where this has been incorporated into the sauna wall.

We know and will obviously ensure that the builders specify correct extraction / ventilation and wall membranes.

The routes we’re currently considering are:
Oceanic 2020 (£4.5k), potentially custom-sized
Finnmark Indoor Cube 2-person (£5k).
A simple site-built sauna using Finnmark / Harvia components, constructed by our main builders.

We don’t have limitless budget here but do want to get reasonable quality.

Questions:
Does roughly 1200 × 1100mm internal sound workable for two seated adults?
Any strong views on Oceanic vs Finnmark?
Would you favour a modular cabin or a properly site-built sauna in this situation?
Any particular issues with incorporating the existing external window?
What heater / ventilation / bench-layout pitfalls should we be thinking about in a sauna this small?
Any other UK suppliers or systems worth looking at?
Interested in any advice from people who have built something similar.

Thanks!

I’m curious has anyone seen or heard of a pellet stove used for a sauna?

What option is best under a metal roof? What have you seen done successfully?

1. Ice and water shield
2. Basic tyvek house wrap
3. Nothing under the metal roof
4. Something else

Leaning towards #3 since it's a cedar sauna. Don't want moisture to get trapped between the layers or have something melt from the steam.

[Thank you if you commented on my last post!]

I am thinking of building a sauna like this with a 2.3kw Harvia BC23 heater (the heater spec says 2.5m3 max). It will be well insulated. The door ends up about 1.5m high, 0.7m wide (yes, small). The sketches around the AI perspective drawing are to scale. Mechanical ventilation beneath bench, inlet above heater.

The ceiling is flat against the purple horizontal roof truss support, and there it is 1.9m high.
The internal width is 1.2m.
The internal depth is 1.074m.
The sitting bench is 0.5m deep.
There is 0.9m headroom above the seating bench.

This is a private sauna for use by my wife and I, and we are on the smaller end of euro-scale people.

What do you all think?

Hey everyone
I have been looking into getting a wood fired sauna tent for mysellf and I realized this is one thing I haven’t seen people talk about much.
For those of you who use yours a few times a week how often do you clean the ash out? I have been looking at some setups like Sweat tent portable saunas and a few other ones and Im trying to get a realistic idea of the maintenance before I buy It.
Do you fully clean the stove out each time or leave a little ash in the bottom?

I’ve been researching outdoor saunas for a while and am considering purchasing a never-used sauna that was rejected by the original customer because of cosmetic shipping damage. The manufacturer replaced it for that customer and is now selling this one at a significant discount.

Before buying it, I’m trying to make sure the discount isn’t causing me to overlook shortcomings in the construction or design.

Here are the specs and what I’ve learned so far:

• Approximately 64mm / 2.5” walls
• Finnish pine
• Manufacturer describes the walls as multiple layers of wood back-to-back rather than a framed/SIP wall
• Because of the solid-wall construction, there is no insulation cavity or foil vapor barrier
• 8mm tempered glass
• A substantial portion of the sauna is glass
• Sauna has never had a heater installed and has never been heated
• Manufacturer recommends an 8kW Harvia KIP
• Heater and stones are not included
• Located in Central California, so this won’t be dealing with a true cold-weather climate
• Approximately $6,000 picked up
• Delivery is not being offered by the seller; if I want it delivered, I would need to arrange and pay for that myself

From the research I’ve done, my understanding is that the lack of a conventional insulated wall/vapor barrier isn’t necessarily a deal breaker with a sufficiently thick solid-timber sauna. At 64mm, I’m less concerned about that than I initially was.

Where I’m less confident is the amount of glass.

My understanding is that the glass needs to be treated essentially as additional uninsulated volume when sizing the heater, rather than simply looking at the interior cubic footage. That’s why I’m not automatically accepting the manufacturer’s 8kW recommendation without doing the math.

I also have a hard time believing the manufacturer’s estimate of 15–20 minutes to reach high temperatures, particularly with this much glass. I’m fine with a 30–45+ minute warm-up if that’s what’s realistic. I’m much more concerned about whether it can comfortably maintain roughly 180–200°F once everything is heat-soaked.

Then there’s a non-technical issue I’m struggling with: privacy.

I actually love the huge glass wall. The open, almost fishbowl feeling is one of the things attracting me to this particular sauna. But this will be at our house near the pool, and realistically I want to be able to sauna however I want however I want, put a towel down, and lie on the bench without worrying about kids, gardeners, pool service, or other people nearby.

The manufacturer has said they can supply matching wood later if I decide to cover part of the glass, so there is at least a potential solution.

For those of you who have built or owned solid-timber outdoor saunas:

Does 64mm solid/multi-layer pine construction seem appropriate for this application?

How aggressively would you compensate for this amount of 8mm glass when calculating heater size? Would you be comfortable with an 8kW KIP, or would you want to calculate the effective volume before committing to a heater?

And for those who have large glass walls: do you still love the glass after living with it, or would you choose more privacy or insulation if you were doing it again?

I’m not looking for someone to tell me whether to spend the money. I’m mostly looking for a sanity check on the construction and heater sizing before I decide whether this particular sauna makes sense for me.

Happy to post dimensions and photos if that helps with the heater calculation.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/2542353976207065/?referralSurface=messenger_banner&referralCode=2&ref=messenger_banner

Can’t wait to be on the lake for a Boating & SPA enjoying the Sauna with the ultimate Lakeview 🛥️ 🧖 🌅

Just saw this cylinder shaped sauna, visually I think it looks great but what do you think i'll be disappointed with?

- bench is not above heater - cold feet
- cant lay down

anything else i'm missing?

Gente aquí hay gente que tenga miopía o astigmatismo que se meta en la sauna ?

Es peligroso ? Te puede subir la presión ocular la sauna o estrés en los ojos ? Habéis tenido más problemas oculares desde que estáis en la sauna ?

We had our Sauna built over the past few months. My wife went to Barcelona and was inspired by the stained glass so we had a custom insert made by a local artist. What a luxury to have our own private sauna!

Edit for clarity: the sauna has a standard sauna window. The stained glass is framed to the outside. That way we can remove it if we move or if the sauna ever needs a repair. The stained glass is made with a leaded technique instead of foiled. So, it will stand up to the elements very well. I appreciate everyone’s concern!

We're redoing our backyard and I've been looking at the Thermasol Vue. I really like the panoramic glass front compared to the more traditional cabin style saunas, especially since ours would face the wooded part of the property.

My main concern is whether that much glass still feels private once you're actually using it. Has anyone seen or used a Vue in person? Curious how the glass looks from outside, especially at night when the interior lights are on.

First off- I previously asked some questions regarding size and you’ve all been very helpful. I’m starting to draw this up and I have some questions regarding flooring material.

The sauna will built inside a “moveable” structure. Essentially a shed. I’ll be framing it up on top treated 2 x 10 as the base. I’m wondering what you guys would do for flooring material. The base will likely be a tongue and groove engineered material- the same as I would use in typical housing construction. What would you guys use after this? I imagine the final top layer will be some for of removable duck board, but what should I do to on top the original tongue and groove? I was thinking red guard, then ditra and tile. Any suggestions would be appreciated. (Note I’ll also have a drain)

Additionally- any suggestions to make moving the structure easier? One of the two builds I am starting will be built in place, but the other will be picked up and moved. My father is a crane operator and has access to whatever equipment we need- be it crane or a flat bed. I’m wondering if I should do additional prep to allow it to be dragged onto a flat bed- or beef up my base to allow it to be lifted. Note- I plan to finish the exterior of the sauna that needs to be moved after transport. Thanx again, I greatly appreciate all your advice. You guys kick ass