Congratulations! You may have just found the single most important page on the internet when it comes to learning how a sauna should be built! Weather you choose us as your builder or not, I will explain some of the crucial elements to look for when choosing your home sauna. 

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There are a lot of products out there on the market that look really great, but are they built properly? The short answer is no! Unfortunately, the sauna market is saturated with problem products built by people who either are not up to par on general building sciences or they just do not care necessarily how the product will perform long-term, but rather put all the emphasis on the "look' of the sauna. 

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Here are some very important things to consider when choosing your next home sauna:

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Avoid saunas with no dedicated attic space

Does the sauna your considering have a dedicated attic space? Why is this important? 

Many saunas on the market have no attic space or soffit vents. We feel this is a major disaster waiting to happen. In our Green Building Course for Built Green BC Homes, we learn that in a normal house, one staple hole in unsealed poly vapour barrier can allow ingress of up to 80 litres of water, per season, into an attic space. This is a incredible amount of water for a house at a fairly consistent average humidity level of 40% and a temperature level of 20 degrees C. Whats to speak of a sauna with a average temperature of 90-100 C and an environment where water is constantly dumped on the heater rocks resulting in a drastically humid environments of up to 100%? The answer is vast amounts of water that may or may not get into this space. When we have a cold space (roof), and hot humid air (sauna air), and they meet, the result is condensation. Its imperative for any moisture to have to ability to escape and dry out. Standard building practices ensure that homes are built with a dedicated attic space, soffit and gable or ridge venting to allow any moisture that accumulates in the attic space to be vented properly. We feel this is absolutely crucial to the longevity of your sauna to prevent rot, mould and water damage. 

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Avoid saunas with sloping ceilings

Does the sauna you are considering have a sloping ceiling? Although not absolutely horrible, its not the best way!

Ceilings over 7 feet in height are asking for problems with efficiency.  Never do we sit on a upper bench and utilize the 7'-8' ceiling height. Does it make sense for the hottest part of your sauna air to be constantly hovering in this zone? whats the purpose? Although they may have gained what they think is an "added touch for aesthetics", its purpose is served as just a huge waste of energy.

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Does your sauna builder place the shower on the deck?

I can not think of a better way to wreck a structure, pressure treated or not, then designing a sauna where water is meant to pour constantly over the structure. When a builder places a shower on the deck, there is not much thought to the longevity of the sauna, but rather how it can look for the customer. We feel the longevity of the product far out-weighs the style or look of the sauna. Most cases this is done for instagram marketing purposes, but serves no real purpose to help your purchase last many decades. A better option is to put the shower off the side or back wall and finish the wall in a way where no water from splashing shall hinder the construction materials of the build. Sure its a few more steps to get to the shower, but this way your sauna is never going to have water rot issues. 

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Does your sauna have a proper wall assembly?

A wall assembly is a make up of many different components to ensure your sauna performs properly and is well protected from the elements. They are Standard in building a house to pass code. There are many different wall assembles out there but they should consist of some key components.

Siding - Used to prevent bugs and weather from entering the structure and provide protection and aesthetics. 

Rain Screen- Used to create an air space between the siding and air barrier to allow any moisture to drain and dry out.

Bug Screen - To prevent bugs from making their way up behind the siding and infiltrating your sauna as a home. 

Air Barrier - To prevent moisture and air from making its way from the outside of the structure, into the structure. 

Proper Insulation Values - To ensure your sauna stays warm and cozy and doesn't allow condensation into the wall cavity.

Foil Vapour Barrier - Special foil vapour barrier should be used not only to prevent moist sauna air from making its way from the inside of your sauna into the wall cavity, but its also safer than plastic poly vapour barrier and resistant to high heat. Its especially made for this purpose of sauna building.

Dedicated air space inside the sauna -  This is a dedicated space between the sauna wood finishings and the foil vapour barrier to give the sauna a much added insulation value. 

Clear cedar finishings -  Although not absolutely necessary, we feel that clear cedar is the best option and it is the most stable wood product compared to knotty cedar which can warp and move over time. Knotty cedar also has a high chance of loosing the round knots which will result in untimely holes in your wall and ceiling finishings. Also knots in wood can become much hotter than the rest of the wood and should be avoided at all cost when considering using it for benches.  

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Thermal mass saunas

What is thermal mass? This is where instead of a wall assembly to gain insulation values for a wall, they use a very thick wall comprised of solid wood. Although this may be one of the most strongest way to build a structure, it's also the most inefficient to heat. Imagine this: Its a freezing winter day, and you go light your sauna with a single pane glass window. You put your hand on the window, and the temperature of the window will be the same temperature as outside the sauna. Freezing cold! When you go and light the sauna, the window has to heat drastically, due to being so cold, and also constantly steal the heat from the inside air due to the fact there is not insulation value between the outside air temperature and the window. A thermal mass sauna works the same way. Constantly stealing crucial heat that accounts for no insulation values between the outside and inside of the sauna. This is called thermal bridging. Thermal bridging is where there is no insulation break between outside cold air and the inside warm air. Insulation acts as a thermal bridge, stopping the cold from its path inside. So thermal mass is cheeper to build, but drastically the most inefficient and expensive to heat long-term. A barrel sauna is a slight example of this as they have zero wall assembly, and full thermal bridging, but lack the benefit of even being strong, as most times the structure is not more than 1.5" thick and relies on the tension bands to keep it held together. 

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Double Pane windows in commercial frames

A double pane window in a commercial frame is going to out perform anything else on the market. Sealed units are built with a manufacture warranty of a minimum of ten years. Single pane windows are not only cheep, but extremely inefficient for keeping heat in your sauna. You will be constantly paying to heat the sauna to keep that window hot. Even if the sealed unit needs to be replaced in ten years, the amount of saved energy over that time pays for the sealed unit many times over. A commercial frame is a metal aluminum frame specially designed with a thermal break in the frame. This stops the cold from entering the sauna and these frames are built to last a lifetime. Avoid sauna with no proper window frames or builders who choose to case their windows out of wood. These will. not last very long as windows do condensate and water will eventually rot out any wood it in in contact with. 

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Locally manufactured sauna heaters

I know, I know, everybody wants the fancy HUUM heater you see plastered all over social media for your sauna build. Not hating on HUUM necessarily, but as a sauna builder, I am hating on any stove that is NOT manufactured locally. Although these fancy over-seas heaters look great, you cannot deny the fact that there are THOUSANDS of people complaining online in forums and groups and horrible customer service and parts availabilities. Why would a builder even mess around with them? Well it's not that they want you have to have no issues with your sauna, but rather they either do not know, or are only concerned about how the sauna will look for that instagram post. Choosing a local manufacturer means if your heater breaks down, they will most likely have you replacements parts the next day, rather than waiting months and months fighting for replacements meanwhile being without a working sauna during the whole time. Today we have installed over 30 heaters, all locally manufactured, with only one issue, and they did have parts to us the next day!

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Wooden floors and decks

Again they look nice for that first social media picture right? Well guess what? in about one month of walking on it, its going to look used and ruined. I am not a fan at all of doing wooden floors. Even with as much safe wax protectant or exterior stain for deck as possible, its going to look like absolute trash after awhile. Whats the point? Would you rather have a sauna deck and interior floor that is going to look good forever and never need to be replaced? A better option is composite decking for exterior and tile or poly-vinyl for inside the sauna. 

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Sauna kits and barrel saunas

Well you found a barrel sauna online for 8 grand and its a screaming deal! Barrel saunas are like the new 1990's Hyundai car - looks good but is really just a piece of junk that will only last a few years before it presents a barrage of problems. A barrel sauna of kit contains nothing that any BC build structure should contain. Its wood is the inside and outside of the entire sauna. No wall assembly, siding, insulation, nothing.  We have had a hand-full of clients make the mistake of purchasing these barrels only to have wasted money and have them rot out and come to us for a proper build. They could have avoided the mistake in the first place. 

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"stuff" in the sauna

We have never been a fan of adding bells and whistles to the inside of our saunas. Blue tooth speakers, cabinets, switches and plugs are all off the menu. Why is this important? Its all to do with Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC's). These are things that may or may not off-gas toxic substances into the sauna. We do not feel adding so many options inside the sauna is a good idea. Besides you can always bring a blue tooth speaker in your sauna anyways, and put it on the floor. If it dies, you do not have any per-wired components to replace. Simple is better. 

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In summary

This page is meant to educate people to the problems with the sauna industry and what to look for when buying a sauna and why. The sauna market is unregulated and notorious for being full of junk and builders who don't know what they are doing. Over the years we have had so many clients who bought kits, barrels, or hired a builder who improperly built a sauna. Its disheartening to see someone invest thousands of dollars in something that didn't last, only to come to us for a proper build. Too bad it couldn't have been avoided in the first place, and this page hopefully will be helpful in teaching more people to avoid this mistake. We have consulted many builders over the years who really had no clue to some of the most crucial things the sauna should have, and in almost every case, ended up costing more money for the clients in the long run due to the learning curves then just hiring a professional. As builders we only get a hand full of clients, as most people have a mindset that a sauna should only cost so much. This is because the market is full of junk and has painted a cheep picture as to what a home sauna should cost. Well, you get what you pay for. We would rather build 30 saunas a year, and have all of them last a LIFETIME, then build 100 junk items that deceive people as to how a true sauna should be built.  We have built so many saunas over the years with no problems and only extremely happy customers!

I hope this page has been educational on your journey to choosing a home sauna and what to look for!