Sauna: mission accomplished, lessons learned (buying, construction, live)

[r11]

So I fired ‘er up for the 1st time this past Sat. Spent may 2 hrs, going in and out, taking strolls (in me shorts only) under the most beautiful falling snow and gentle wind around 7-9pm.

A refresher: being from Russia, having a sauna on the lot was an absolute must so I went about it with absolute dedication. Being rather handy with tools, did the whole thing (outside of buying a shed) myself, with no help from anybody else.

## Location ##
Wanted to have it as a separate unit on the lot. Wood fired stove. Basement location or electric heat were never considered.

## Buiding ##
A-frame shed, 10x13'. Decided to have it log-faced, to give it that special appearance. Decided against 'true' log construction, too pricey (would have to be cedar logs, bocu $$$$$). After looking around, gave the biz to Amish Farmer Market on Rt.115 . Took em about 2 weeks to build/deliver. Used the waiting time to get the permits. Net total for the shed was around $2600, no insulation.

## Basic layout ##
In Russian tradition, there're 2 sections to the sauna: the "cold" entrance room and the steam room. The entrance ended up being about 6' deep, the rest is sauna.

## The stove ##
Looked around, couldn't find anything I liked. Me being handy with all kinds of metal working, decided to fab my own: 2'x2'x3' long.

Bought about $200 of metal: 1/8 for L/R and back side, 3/16 for top and front.Front plate has a 12" square opening, there's a 5" round hole toward the center top of the rear plate.Oxy cut.

Found a scrap piece of may be 4" long 6.5" OD pipe, welded it up over the opening in the back, became the flue flange. Had a 14" square plate cut, became the front door. Bought a pair of $3 weld-on hinges from me fav supplier: McMaster.

On the inside, welded up 3/8" rods to act as support for firebricks on both sides and the back. Reinforced the top, from the inside, with a piece of 2" angle iron. An overkill.

Welded up a supporting mesh atop - to support the stones.

## The insulation ##
R13 fiberglass, with common cooking foil stapled over it (a single 18"-wide roll @ Costco was just the ticket, at $34). Dropped the ceiling to 7'. Overall $ - about a $100, fiberglass rolls being $7 @ Lowes.

## The T&G interior ##
The steam room can not use SPF (spruce/pine/fir) - due to extreme temps, the pitch/tar would boil out of wood, creating a mess. Has to be poplar, aspen, cedar, birch. Went with common 6' cedar T&G from Cramer's on Rt 940. For colder entrance room, SPF T&G is fine. Total bill for wood: ~$1600. Ouch !!! On a funny note, I guesstimated the amt required, but ended up using like 98% of it. 80 of 8' cedar, 60 of 8' SPF. Shopping around would have saved some $$, but I had no time and/or patience

## Flooring ##
Bamboo, $64 for 24 SQF, Lowes. Floor stays cold, no special reqs, outside of being water resistant. Bought 4 boxes.


## The Flue ##
Bought the 6" double (tripple?) insulated through-the-roof kit @ Tractor Supply Co (Rt 940), $150 special, plus a single run of double insulated stainless 36" pipe. All fit together like a glove. Something like $300 in parts. All DuraVent, highly recommended, great looking, well-thought out parts !

Installed a cast iron dumper.


## The stove position ##
The stove is positioned so that it is fed from the entrance room . Its front is exposed so that it provides some heat to heat up the entrance room. I bought some natural stone slabs: 2 of 4' x 1', two of 18"x12". Wedged em between some 2x4, came out looking nice. The stove sits with it's "face" flush against the stone. $99 for the stone. Provided enough distance between the stove sides and any wood. She sit atop of cinder block - and those rest on galvanized duct sheets from Lowes ($10 for 2'x3').

## The lighting ##

Bought a 5m (16') flex watertight strip of LED lights. It is fed by 12V DC, so there's no danger of electric shock. Positioned it around the wall, may be 12" from the ceiling, so that around 5' are in the entrance room and the rest is in the steam room. Pleasant warm glow, plenty of light. $65 at Amazon. You can feed them from a smallish battery or whatever. 9V DC is what I use , plenty of light at that voltage.


Lowes does carry some really nice white aspen planks in different sizes - cheap too ! Got some for accents here and there.

The stove has a bunch of stones atop - these are what makes steam and they also even out the heat output. Ended up getting "Grade 4" granite-like stones at Pocono Stone Supply (greatest stone yard I have ever seen, Rt 940). Prolly $10 worth.

Overall, it came out looking and working great. At high steam, one can not breathe in the air at ceiling height, has to lower his/her head . 2 levels of benches - at 18" and 36" high.

That's all folx. Total amt spent is around $6K, took a few days to get er done, just the way I wanted it. I was quoted $15K, so great deal of money saved. Quality stuff used throughout, no corners cut.

I already had saws - miter & table, air compressor, framing and stud nailers, portable tools, welder, so didn't have to buy much of extra tools. Have a 16HP 7KW portable generator - used it to provide power at the work site. All of the tools and the gennie are from Harbor Freight, dirt cheap but they all worked out great, no issues. What helped a bit is the fact I made a 4x8 trailer (kit from Harbor Freight), so I was able to move stuff around with ease. My trusty Sorento 4x4 towed it all in style, driving in a foot of snow in the yard, no issues.

[Riverside4ever]

Well How about some pictures ?

Sounds like a good job..

Kudo's

[JamMan]

Yes, sounds wonderful. I would like to see pics, too.