Tis the season to build sauna, fa la la la la

All the leaves have fallen.

Crisp cold mornings are met with fat squirrels running around like mad, stocking up for the winter.  We know what’s around the corner, and more and more people are embracing the cold weather inevitability by building their own authentic Finnish sauna.  Taking a bite of a fresh apple, hammer in hand, “If I can get the exterior buttoned up before the snow flies” becomes the primary focus.

Mornings have been spent sipping coffee.

Drawing up the design, and like squirrels, many have collected their building materials and have dove head first into the pile, turning a stack under black tarp into a semblance of an actual building.  What pride comes with shelling and finishing the exterior!  The satisfaction of turning a drawing into an actual building.

Saunatimes gets lots of inquiries this time of year.

And we try to dispel the mystique of building your own sauna.  There are many tips, like:

1. Foil Bubble Wrap. A sauna without it is just another word for nothing left to lose.

2. Bottom Drip Edge. The perimeter base for the first course of t&g cedar to rest on.  Kids can have a water party in your sauna, and the drip edge is an integral first step toward shedding water.  (NOTE: Speaker wire along the base of sauna hot room where it’ll work just fine, away from the heat).

Most saunas are electric, inside the house.

And we understand this reality.  Ease of use, flip a switch, “My wife won’t go outside in a bathrobe.”  “I don’t have time to light a fire, it’s such a hassle.”  Yet there are folks who relish the authenticity of a wood burning sauna.  Today, wood burning sauna stoves are safe and extremely efficient.  They light easily and reliably via Nate’s Firestarters, and get up to serving temperature in about the same time as an electric sauna stove.  BONUS:  As an anonymous Finlander quietly announced: “wood keeps you warm three times.  1) when you cut it.  2) when you stack it.  3) when you burn it.”

There’s a movement away from mass culture Miller Genuine Draft and over to hand crafted microbrews.

These same folks are moving away from infrared light bulb closets and into authentic Finnish saunas.  Come join us.