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Building Your Home Sauna
Stress has urged more people to find physical and mental relaxation plus well being, and sauna is a wonderful solution. There are many health benefits gained through the use of a sauna. Whether you have a professional install a sauna or you install it yourself by purchasing the parts or a kit, a sauna is a great addition to any home spa.
Many people who have had the experience of relaxing in a sauna have enjoyed it so much that they decided to have a sauna experience right in their homes. Owning one’s own sauna can be a true blessing in life. Your home sauna is going to be your haven of peace and relaxation.
Having your own sauna is a very expensive endeavor. Before you proceeds with the ideal, make sure to take time to understand how the sauna will work in your home. Will your home have enough electrical power to support the operation of your heater? Do you require new plumbing connections? You may also need to consider the size of your sauna. How many individuals do you want to fit in your sauna cabin? How much space do you have? Make sure that the size is correct before you purchase one.
If you are serious about building one, it is also important that you know where to look for the right materials and supplies. Here are the steps and the things needed to build your very own sauna:
1. Determine what type of sauna you wanted to build. There are electric, gas or wood variations of a sauna. To decide which, check the availability of these fuels within your area. If you are living in the country where firewood is plenty, you can construct the wood type. Gas is ideal if you have a good source of it near you. Otherwise, electricity is what you should chose, that being the most convenient of all.
2. Determine which room you wanted to use for the sauna. You can use a regular-sized existing room or you can construct a new one. Just try to make sure you seal off the place to prevent heat from dispersing unnecessarily.
3. Get a sauna construction kit corresponding to the type you selected. While it is possible to build a sauna from scratch, it will be more advisable to get a kit because that is relatively easier to build. Follow the directions therein and the work is halfway done. A pre-fabricated kit is the best decision for those who have trouble deciding the elements to include in their sauna.
4. Ventilation provide fresh air in a room. It is especially needed in an enclosed space to remove stale or a rather noxious air. It really does not matter if your home sauna is a wet steam room or if it uses dry infrared heat. A ventilation system is definitely vital, because it would allow complete air exchange by the hour, every hour.
Fresh air is imperative in a sauna. In reality, leaving an open space at the bottom of the door should be enough to qualify as a ventilation system. The open space can be as little as a fourth of an inch. That would be enough to provide the room with fresh recycling air. With a crack just that big, a comfortable sauna session is already in place.
A ventilation system is also built so as to encourage safety for the people who have it. The extreme heat produced inside the sauna would cause the floors, the walls and the ceiling to be very hot. This condition would further dry out the wall panels. And that could turn the whole place into a potential fire hazard instantly. If you wanted to keep fire out, you sure have to install a good and working ventilation system.
And besides, without proper ventilation, the oxygen content inside the room will be reduced. You know what happens to a person losing oxygen. He may begin to feel lethargic and it can even be fatal.
The ideal ventilation system should be installed on a wall just behind the sauna room heater. It should be placed several inches above the floor too. Its outlet must be on the opposite wall preferably near the ceiling. This set up would surely make your home sauna fresh anytime you intend to use it.
5. Some wood for building the room. The best kind of wood for conducting and transmitting heat is cedar wood. Measure the length and width of the room to determine how much wood you will need. Since most kinds of wood used in building saunas is expensive make sure that you get the measurements exact. Having too much or too little can be costly in the long run. Insulation will be necessary for placing between the wood and the existing walls and ceilings. The insulation will help maintain the heat inside the sauna. It will also help protect the walls and ceiling from the extreme heat temperatures.
6. Load your rocks. Rocks are the main things that are used to produce heat for the rest of the room. Usually, the sauna kits already contain these rocks. But you can very well add a rock of your choice. Some people choose to add special stones to their sauna. These stones absorb the heat from the heater and continue to heat the room long after the stove has been turned off. Adding these stones to your sauna helps to extend the amount of heat that you can have. The best ones to use are usually quarried rocks. Choose the one as big as a large potato and remember to heat only to a maximum of 1500 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Build a provision for a cooling area. After an intensive sauna session, there will be a need to cool down. The best cooling area will be a natural one. It could be a lake or a pond, if there is one near you. Otherwise, a covered pool or a cold Jacuzzi will do.
8. Install benches. By putting benches in the sauna, you are adding a place to sit. This will add to the relaxation factor the sauna provides. Before you decide that you want to put benches in your sauna, you first need to make sure that there is enough room for the benches. Measure the space that you have for adding benches. Then also measure the benches that you are considering. If there is not enough room, then you should not attempt to add benches to your sauna.
Even if there is enough room to install the benches, you still need to make sure that there will be enough room left over for you to move around in the sauna. There should be enough bench space and space for moving around for as many people as you plan to have using the sauna simultaneously. It isn’t a wise decision to compromise the amount of space that you have for benches.
Keep in mind that benches will need replacing every so often. If you purchase your benches through a manufacturer, there will be instructions on how often the benches will need to be replaced. When you build your own sauna, you will need to use your best judgment to determine when they should be replaced. This will require some extra time or money or both.
9. Make a washing room. A washing room is similar to a bathroom where one can take a bath and wash off sweat. You can use your regular bathroom if you like. That should be fine. Just make sure the sauna room is near the bathroom.
10. Provide a dressing room. A dressing room near the washroom and the sauna is going to be convenient for people who use the facility. They can cool off, wash and dress all too easily. A sauna is all for relaxation. The rooms should be ideally near each other for optimum sauna experience.
11. A good contractor. Building it all by yourself? If one is not familiar with this type of work, the sauna, to put it mildly, will be utterly worthless. It is far better to leave the construction of the sauna up to those who are knowledgeable in the creation and design of them rather than fumble one’s way through sauna building that is nothing more than guess work.
There should be a few basic criteria that need to be adhered to so that the right person for the job is hired. The first is track record and experience. To hire an inexperienced person is just as bad and fumbling through the job yourself. And more expensive too!
Next is customer service. Basically, does this person answer your concerns and questions as to the type of work he will do? Is there a warranty or repair policy? Does the initial price include any follow-up work or do you need to pay extra for additional services? These are all important concerns. Sometimes a sauna can have complications for a variety of reasons. One should not be left out on the window ledge if one still has concerns or questions when it comes to the issue of the follow-up service. If the contractor has a reputation for not being reasonable in this area, pass on his services.
The last is a payment plan. While most contractors are reliable, sadly, there are a few that can not really be depended upon to do the work they have been contracted for. If you pay everything up front and they do not finish the job, then you are stuck with half a sauna which is totally worthless. So, in that regard, see if an installment plan can be worked out if the references are not one-hundred percent to your liking.
Do all of these and you will be enjoying a sauna without leaving your home. You will have an exceptional haven of relaxation. And for sure, your house will be relatively more peaceful to live in.