Anyone builod their own sauna?
 

I have a lot of downtime compared to most folks, and I spend hours a day working out. So to compliment my home gym I want to build a sauna. Anyone done this before? And if so what are the pitfalls and the gotchas?

My buddy did one for himself and one for his father, they turned out great. Individual shower heads with pull strings was the best feature.

Ugh, first let me apologize for the fat finger in the title. I was thinking about a "Finnish" style dry heat sauna, the kind with rocks and a heater. I'm not great with woodworking, but I'm learning fast. "My old man is a television repairman, he's got this ultimate set of tools." Jeff Spicoli ~ 1982

No, I know what you mean and these are "dry saunas" as I understand them. Got the heated rocks and all that. But...each position has a shower head and a pull string to "refresh" you if it gets too much. It's a great feature that you don't normally see and it allows you to stay in longer.

That is cool, I'm going to consider doing that for sure. One thing I learned from home ownership is how to sweat pipes.

Sounds like a cool project...keep us posted on what you come up with. I'd love to have one. Heck, I'd love to be able to work out that much and then pop in for a nice sweat.

By the way, just curious...why do you have so much downtime? Glad to hear you are spending it working out. I'm jealous!

JA

I was formerly employed by IBM as an IT architect, the 100 hour work weeks and constant global travel led me to a pseudo melt down. I took an R&D job with another financial/IT company and I'm now down to w@h most days, and at the most 8 hour work days, more often six. (and an occasional pampered trip to Phoenix.)

I made one with a friend a few years ago. We used Pine on walls and the ceiling. The bench + floor was clear Red Cedar. We used foil type vapor barrier and the electric heater had a stove type HD hookup. You cannot just use any type of rocks either. I could be wrong but I think certain types can break apart even explode when cold water is poured on them when they are hot. I think the book we had was "how to build a Finnish Sauna" or similar.

Reg

PS If you use Pine place the knotty boards strategically as they get really hot to touch when its sauna time. Definitely not on the bench!