1. Load wood from the outside
2. Load wood from the changing room
3. Load wood from inside the hot room

Options #1 and #2 involve using a ”throat” add on to a wood burning sauna stove.  Also, one needs to brick around the throat and sauna, usually a three foot border, for fire retardant.   In the old days, most saunas were built #1, loading wood from the outside.  The main reason for this is that old saunas were inefficient, basically home made iron boxes that burned hot and fast, requiring a pretty much constant supply of firewood.  Finnish ingenuity gave way to the idea that the door to the sauna stove could be steps away from an outdoor wood pile.

As stoves became a bit smaller and somewhat more efficient, people began building wood burning saunas to feed from the changing room.  The theory here is that a small amount of firewood could  be kept dry in the changing room and added to the stove from there.  The main advantage to #2 is that the sauna stove can provide some heat to the changing room.  It is estimated that between 10-15% of a sauna stove’s heat comes from the front of stove.

#3 is my choice.  Today’s sauna stoves are very efficient.  The Kuuma Stove is so efficient that I can take a sauna with 4 pieces of firewood.  By feeding from inside the hot room, I capture 100% of the heat in the hot room, and don’t have to mess around with extensive brick framing.  Also, I can monitor the fire from the sauna bench.

1. Double doors. Why do grocery stores all have a double set of entry doors?  Imagine you are a check out clerk at a grocery store and it’s below freezing with 25 mph winds and some old lady is standing in the doorway adjusting her hat.  Now imagine that you build your own sauna without a changing room and some old lady is standing in the open doorway adjusting her hat.  Close the door!

2.  Equalize your body temp. A backyard sauna with a changing room is a wonderful hang out space between rounds.  After a well deserved cold outdoor shower, it’s nice to sit in the changing room and hang out, visit, indulge in a sauna music play list as your body equalizes.   This is not only fun, but important!

3.  Expand your space. A sauna changing room is critical for a sauna party.  Offering hang out zones gives your sauna party structure and expansion.  How come people hang out in the kitchen at parties?

I built my mobile sauna with a changing room for all the above reasons, oh, yea, and you

4.  have a place to hang your clothes.

Click here for the ultimate sauna plan.  It’s the perfect design for a Minnesota sauna or a Finnish sauna or a backyard sauna or even a mobile sauna.

The creative thing about using doors for walls (despite the obvious) is that being 6′8″ tall, they are a pretty ideal height for sauna walls.

Nice work Jonathon, and thanks for the kind words.  Check out his project here.

Ah, outdoor shower: welcome back, and about a few weeks early to boot!  I laid out my garden hose in the spring sun, softening it up, then hooked it up to my backyard shower.  Happy to report that even in a cold climate like Minnesota, one can enjoy an outdoor shower 8 months of the year.  Here’s my post on the last outdoor shower of the year.

Everyone should have their own outdoor shower, and here’s a way to rig one up for $15.00.

• 2×6 green rim joists.
• 2×6 green studs at 16″ or 24″ on center.
• 3/4″ subfloor,  et voila.

Stephen, I know your sauna has a cement slab, and i’ve built a couple saunas with a cement slab base (which could be argued is the “A” job) yet I find with a wood base to your backyard sauna it can be:

1. built quicker.
2. leveled easily, even down the road.
3. moved if you move, of if your partner gets wiggy.
4. called a ‘temporary structure’ for frowning building code inspectors.
5. extended easily as a header for a deck (yet I prefer a slate patio with an outdoor sauna, so as to reintroduce the stone medium from sauna rocks to your feet whilst between sauna rounds).

• Use outdoor speakers – made for rougher conditions.
• Keep your speakers on the floor – out of the way under your benches.
• It’s actually not that hot or humid along the floor of a sauna – heat rises.
• Build a box around your sauna speakers  – use the same tongue and groove cedar for a nice look.
• Venting your sauna with a crack along the bottom of the sauna door is like a cool blow dryer – fresh air is good for the speakers.
• BONUS: consider playlists of 4-5 minute songs, allowing you to keep track, roughly, of how long you’ve been in the sauna.  I’ve been known to get wrapped up in a 20 minute Fela Kuti or John Coltrane song, and end up needing to be shoveled into bed at night.

for more hot air, click here:

www.saunatimes.com

Josh..

Good question on the sauna door.  I make my own. Here’s what you can do:

1. Frame and your interior wall, frame for about a 26″x6′5″ sauna door.
2. Cut a piece of plywood sheathing 3/4″ less than your height and width.  This is the basis for your sauna door.
3. tongue and groove panel the outside face of your plywood.
4. Staple foil bubble wrap insulation to the inside face of your plywood.
5. Tongue and groove cedar the inside of your door, on top of the foil wrap.  Tip: run your siding the opposite direction as your walls, it looks better.  If you really want to be resourceful, you may be able to use your cedar t&g cuts from your walls to make a really cool pattern.
6. nail in a door stop to your door frame.
7. Screw in some hinges and a funky wood door handle.
8. Hang your door.
9. Leave a slat towards the bottom for air flow. This is the best way to vent your sauna.
10. Door window:  It’s easy to use a skill saw to cut out for a window.

The end result is that you have a nice solid 2″ door.  (5/8″ plywood, 2@ 5/8″ paneling).

Josh, you going with a Kuuma Stove from Tower?

g.

for more hot air, click here:
www.saunatimes.com

Josh

on scratch paper in a dimly lit changing room, with a couple beers, taking a sauna with an architect and contractor friend, while at my island lake cabin:

1. Compact: 8′x12′ overall dimensions.  Most building codes don’t require a building permit for structures less than 100 sq. ft.
2. Efficient: a 6′x8′ hot room is a nice size.  Big enough to accommodate as a one person sauna to a six person sauna, yet small enough to heat quickly and efficiently.
3. Divine proportion: the golden ratio of architecture, harmony within nature, plus all your building materials come in dimensions that offer minimal cutting and waste (to burn in your sauna stove).
4. Two rooms: Critical in cold climates.  Just as grocery stores have double doors as an energy saver, your sauna should have a changing room.  It’s impossible to have an efficient sauna if the door from the hot room opens to the outside.  Close the door!
5. Dual benches: Consider pushing your internal wall a few inches, 6′4″ bench length is a magic dimension.  One person can stretch out, laying on the sauna bench or three people can sit comfortably.  Duel benches allow for good flow.  One can alter the two bench plan, and there is a good argument that having an “L” bench instead, modesty, privacy wise.
6. Versatile: A great sauna party by night can also be a nice home office escape or kids play area by day.  Storage above your hot room, and allow yourself to make a cabin style patio, that flows out from your changing room.  Turn your 8×12 sauna into a backyard escape.
7. Odds & Ends: A few tips to consider:

• Put a dimmer light in your hot room.
• 7′ internal ceiling in hot room, never higher.  Less unneeded cube mass to heat.
• Before cedar paneling your sauna/changing room, wire for sound and Ovi/Nokia mobile device technology.  Plus, I’m a fan of music in the sauna.

1. Stake off the area. Mark off your 8′x12′ rectangle area with carpenter string.
2. Prep the area. Pull off the sod and try to level off the area as best as possible.  If your sauna is going to go on uneven ground, don’t worry about it, you can level the area with block.
3. Prep the perimeter. Dig around the perimeter, extended out a few inches from your perimeter.  Back fill the area with some gravel to assist drainage and to give your frame a nice resting area.
4. Use a level. With a long board, check your bedding to get it as level as possible.  Here is where you can use block to level out the ground where you’ll be building your sauna.

I suggest building your backyard Finnish sauna right on this grade.  If you move or want to drag your sauna to a sauna party, who knows, you may just want to back up a trailer and take it with you.  Chances are, you’ll fall in love with your own authentic Finnish sauna.