Sauna's

yoshytoshy

Howdy ,looking into home saunas at the moment. Was going to build one myself ,but there seems to be infrad-red ones available for €1500 ,which seems like good value.

Anyone any experience with this stuff?

Hootanany

Wood like to know about it myself

antoinolachtnai

I built one earlier this year. It's a finnish style sauna, not infra-red.

It is in an old georgian house. It is in the basement, under the steps at the front. The diagram doesn't show it but the corner that the sauna is in is at the lowest point of the steps. So it isn't very high, and this isn't a very useful spot for any purpose other than a sauna (or maybe storage). The design of the bathroom means that it doesn't really impinge on the usable space in the bathroom. It is long enough that most people can lie down flat on the upper bench.

I've added a little sketchup diagram of the new bathroom it is part of, and a photo of the interior of the finished sauna.

I had a carpenter/handyman build it for me. There is no way I could get a prefab one to fit.

The way it is built is: You stud out. Insulate with 4" of fiberglass. You line the fiberglass with aluminium kitchen foil, the largest, strongest rolls you can get (the foil is impermeable to water and heatproof, and pretty cheap. Don't use a plastic sheet, because that will become brittle with heat.) Lap the foil over so that any moisture will run down the foil. Then you put the boards on it. I used white deal tongue-and-groove floorboards and they work pretty ok though you could get something finer and with less knots in the wood. (Although I believe it is important that the wood is at least 12mm or so.) Leave a little space at the bottom to make sure water can drain off the foil.

I used the 4.5kW heater from this crowd: http://www.oceanic-saunas.eu/ . This is not one of the famous brands, but it seems fine to me, and my electrician, an experienced sauna enthusiast thought it was pretty well built. It needs an electrician to run a spur and wire it in. Make sure you have the correct type of heatproof five-core cable (available in decent electrical wholesaler).

I had built a bench out of obeche timber, which I purchased from Kantor (http://www.kantor.ie/)

The door. Ah. The door. Proper sauna doors are really expensive, especially anything custom. I have made do with a glass and aluminium door from IKEA.

It is worth reading this for more general, big-picture information. http://www.kalle.com/sauna_faq.html It is oriented towards bigger saunas but it will give you an idea about things like ceiling heights and seating arrangements. (You will probably not want to build a natural gas sauna unless you have a very big family!) Ventilation is not really an issue for a two- or three-person sauna. Bear in mind that some of the woods mentioned in the article to be more readily available in the US than here. The white deal you get in Chadwicks is spruce from Scandanavia and I don't think it is that different from what they use to build saunas traditionally in Finland.

The wood has to be as dry as possible, obviously, when you put it up. If it is wet, it is going to change size and shape when it is heated (although this will always happen to some extent). If you had a way of storing it yourself within the house for a few weeks to make as sure as you can of this it would be a good idea, especially in this damp weather. At the very least, make sure the builders providers has a very dry shed.

If you have a space where you can fit a ready-made sauna, that is probably the handiest thing. Aquasun in the north have these and sometimes have deals on display models. It is worth emailing them, they are friendly (although I did not buy anything from them in the end). I quite fancy this one they offer: http://www.aquasun.co.uk/products/236

Hootanany

Thanks for that but does anyone know where to get the infrared heaters cant find them anywhere

antoinolachtnai

I looked a few years ago, and I found them on either German or Austrian eBay, listed in German. I was just checking prices, didn't buy any.

I believe there is a significant difference between the different types of infrared heater, so there is some investigation to be done.

a.

Hootanany

I have been told to try redsauna.co.uk just going to try it now will keep all posted

Daniel S

I've a 6 person infra red sauna if anyone wants it?

Hootanany

How much and how big

Daniel S

It's 6'6" wide and 5' deep. Looking for 4.5k. I don't think I'm allowed advertise on the forum, so I can't give a link.