Planning Your Sauna
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Planning Your sauna
Permanent Installation
A Custom Sauna Liner Kit is a permanent installation into a pre-framed and insulated commercial or residential room. The kit includes all the sauna room interior parts designed to fit into the rough opening (length x width x height, stud to stud) of your sauna space. In many cases, any room in a house can be converted to a home sauna (recommended at least 4' x 4'). Custom Sauna Kits are a great pricing alternative to modular indoor or outdoor saunas, especially for DIY homeowners.
planning your sauna
Download our sauna planner to help you along the way...
When you are ready to bring your sauna to life, download our sauna planner to help you along the way. Below, we have listed the major components to consider in planning your sauna, along with the general options available. As you get to the end of the guide we offer samples of design layouts, price quotes for general sauna sizes and a gallery showcasing sauna photos submitted by our clients. Fill out the sauna planner and submit it to us via email or fax. Be as detailed or simple as you like. Draw a simple line sketch or send us full architectural drawings, we can work with anything.
planning your sauna
Keep in mind...
Below are some thoughts to keep in mind as you browse the categories below. Don't worry if you're not sure about some details. Our design consultants are sauna enthusiasts that have years of experience and will be able to walk you through every step.
What kind of wood would you like? Cedar, aspen, mixed?
Roughly what is the size of the room, length x width x height? (7' is optimal for saunas)
- What are the framing specs? For example, 2x4, 2x6, concrete blocks with furring strips or steel studs, etc.
- What type of insulation is it? Fiberglass is best for saunas.
- What direction do you want the paneling for the walls and ceiling, horizontal or vertical?
- What type and size door do you want? What size is the wall and the opening the door will be installed in?
- Do you want or need windows? What size and how many?
- What's your heater preference, 240 or 208 Volt? 1 or 3 phase?
- Do you want your controller on the heater or outside the room? Do you want it to be digital or just a dial?
- What's the existing floor type where the sauna will be installed?
- Are there any ADA requirements for the sauna?
If you are looking for a price estimate, head over to our DIY Sauna Kit page. We have the sizing and plans for your most common sauna layouts. All options are available so you can adjust your pricing from the most basic sauna to one with all the extras.
Helpful Information
To get you started, here is some basic general info on saunas and items to take into consideration as you think about planning your sauna. Browse our Literature Library for even more in-depth information on the background of saunas and building a sauna, along with more residential, commercial, and unique sauna layouts. All of our sauna layout examples are actual client saunas designed by our consultants. We want your properly designed sauna to not only be a sound financial investment, but also a lifetime investment in a healthy lifestyle.
Sauna Planning Page
Finnish Sauna Society "How to Enjoy the Sauna"
"Reserve enough time" says the Finnish Sauna Society's bathing guide. Since a group of real experts has compiled the instructions they are well worth following. The brief instructions may however, need a few additional explanations.
Start the session by having a shower. This instruction probably exists for reasons of general hygiene, and is as such necessary. But showering or swimming in the summer before the sauna is also good for another reason. Bathing in a hot sauna is said to be more pleasant if your skin is wet. Many disagree though, and bathe without wetting their skin because they want to feel the sweat forming on their skin. So, there are two schools of thought: believers in a wet and a dry skin. It's a question of personal taste.
Use a bench cover or towel to sit on, say the instructions, again probably for reasons of hygiene. A bench cover is also useful because the benches in a sauna get very hot, sometimes burning hot. Sauna Towel Wraps are easy to use, which is basically a towel with convenient velcro closure.
About the heat level, the advice is that 80-90°C / 175-195T (maximum 100°C / 210°F) is enough. Add humidity by throwing water on the stove. It is also good to know that you should stay in the heat only as long as it feels good. Competition about who lasts longest is unhealthy and contrary to the spirit of the sauna.
The sauna is a sweat bath. Many bathers know very little about sweating, though, and go about it in totally the wrong way by throwing two or three ladle fulls of water on the hot stones as soon as they sit down on the bench. What follows is a sudden heat shock, a real battering on the skin enough to stop the normal functioning of the sweat glands. It takes time to perspire properly. To sweat bathers need their body temperature to rise by a couple of degrees, a kind of self-induced fever. This takes 8-12 minutes, depending on the person's perspiration capacity. Raising the temperature of the sauna will not speed up the perspiration process.
In this respect a sauna at 80°C / 175°F is comparable to one where the temperature is 100°C / 210°F. If the sauna is too hot and dry, the sweat dries as soon as it reaches the surface of the skin. Continue bathing in the steam and finish off by beating yourself with a soft sauna whisk. The culmination of the steam bath, to beat yourself gently with a whisk of birch fronds or cedar boughs, is when you have reached the high point of sweating.
A rapid change from hot to cold is not recommended. That means a really sudden change! You need a suitable length of time to adjust first. Otherwise, too, cooling off and resting are an essential part of sauna bathing. The worst shortcoming of town saunas is the lack of a suitable terrace or balcony where the bather could cool off. The advantage of a waterside sauna is that you can plunge into the cooling water straight from the heat and exchange your steam bath for a watery one. In winter the bravest take a dip in icy water or roll in pure white snow. Only the rugged North can offer such wintry pleasures.
Before washing, warm yourself up, then after washing you can go back to the heat, say the instructions. Cleanliness is an essential part of sauna bathing.
Folk tradition recognizes all types of sauna, except one for washing in. Researchers have calculated that in the olden days only 2-3 liters of water was used per bather. Today things are different. Lots of water is used and far too much soap. Less would suffice, because the thorough sweating opens up the pores and cleans them of sebum, bacteria and all sorts of dirt. After sweating and a good rinse the bather is squeaky clean. Mothers should be particularly aware of this and not pester little boys with horrid washing routines!
The instructions allow repetition of the sauna/cooling off process as many times as the bather likes.
Washing and swimming are followed by a gentle after heat. How many times should you go into the heat? As many as you wish. Once is enough if that's how you feel. Three times is perhaps the average moderate number. Finish the bathing session by rinsing yourself with refreshing water.
Then rest and drink something refreshing. Only dress after you have stopped perspiring altogether.
After a sauna bath you should not be in a hurry to go anywhere. Even dressing can wait. Although you may have a heavenly feeling, you should keep your feet firmly on the ground. The Sauna Society, with its authoritative voice, therefore concludes its instructions to all bathers saying: Before and while in the sauna avoid anything alcoholic and over eating. A light snack and a refreshing drink are the perfect ending to an enjoyable sauna.
Written for Virtual
Sauna Booklet for Fun & Education
Traditional Versus Infrared Sauna - Comparison and Contrast
Sauna Types
Key Features of Sauna Design
Heat Stratification Diagram (For proper sauna ceiling height)
Sauna Woods Health & Ecology Information
Sauna Care Instructions
With very minimal maintenance you can keep your sauna room looking great for many years! The following guide will help you along the way.
- Do not paint, varnish or stain the interior portions of your sauna. The wood needs to breathe (absorb and slowly release heat and humidity). Also, artificial finishes make the wood surface much hotter, creating the possibility of fumes from the wood treatment and taking away the softness of heat and steam penetrating the wood. The only exception to this rule is Sauna Wood Treatment paraffin oil. This sauna wood treatment is tested and proven safe to use, as it helps keep sauna wood looking clean by not allowing excess moisture to soak into wood fibers.
- Door handles and floor boards are an exception, as these two points of the sauna can get dirty easily. To make cleaning easier, you can treat the handles and floor boards with a good wood sealant or polyurethane finish.
After Sauna Care:
Step 1: The simplest method of sauna maintenance is to keep a hand brush in the sauna. The last person out dips the brush in the water bucket (plain water), and does a quick scrubbing of the benches, walls, backrests, etc. This 30 to 60-second ritual will keep your sauna looking great for years.
Step 2: After you're finished using the sauna, and your cleaning process is complete, prop the duckboards off the floor. Leave the sauna door open, to air it out completely. The heat remaining in the rocks and in the wood should dry the sauna completely, and even can help dry down the shower area, if it is adjacent to the sauna room. For snap-together Ipe wood floor tiles, clean surface daily to weekly in public facilities or as needed. It is suggested to remove Ipe floor tiles semi-annually to clean the sub floor. Water and cleaning solution runs through Ipe tile grid to drain.
Step 3: If you get dirt, stains or mold developing anywhere in sauna from missed cleaning procedures, you can try the following:
- Cleaning with water and Sauna Clean, an excellent product for maintaining a sauna and keeping it looking new. Sauna Clean is an environmentally friendly disinfectant, bacteria remover and odor eliminator used by commercial saunas and steam baths. Sauna Clean is also authorized by the Norwegian Food Control as a disinfectant and used in the fishing industry.
- To get the benches looking like new, you can lightly sand your benches about once per year. It will lighten them more to their original condition.
Step 4: Depending on how often you use your sauna, occasionally wet-mop with a liquid deodorizing cleaner such as Sauna Clean. Commercial facilities should use Sauna Clean at least once a week and residential saunas at least once a month.
With these simple maintenance tips your sauna will stay inviting, fresh smelling, and enjoyable to be in. The main rule is: ENJOY!
Sauna Room Framing Example
Detailed 5 x 7 Example Sauna Plan
Examples of Standard Sauna Layouts
Plan your sauna
Order a Free Lumber Sample Pack To Get Started
Our complete Sample Pack of sauna building materials includes samples of:
Tongue & Groove Paneling: White Aspen, Western Red Cedar, & Hemlock
Bench stock: White Basswood and Western Red Cedar woods
Flooring Tiles: Easy snap together tiles in IPE wood
Cove Molding & Door Trim: Basswood and Cedar samples of our Interior Trim Package
Nails & Finishing: Stainless Steel finishing nails for easy paneling install, fits finish nailer guns, will never corrode or leave stains on sauna walls
Paneling & Trim Options
In a typical traditional sauna, the walls are made of tongue and groove wood paneling. Each of our tongue and groove boards starts out as a 1" x 5" or 1" x 4" board, milled to perfection. Our paneling is kiln dried to 6-8% moisture, which stabilizes the wood and reduces warping and shrinkage of the boards once they are properly installed in a sauna. Tongue and groove paneling can be installed either horizontally or vertically. We offer several types of paneling with differing looks and various benefits.
