Are you an owner of a summerhouse with a gorgeous garden and looking for ways to improve it? Would you like to treat yourself to your own special place where you can relax? Then make building a garden sauna your next big DIY project!
A sauna can have many benefits: from health to improving your mental state. And, when it comes to having your own personal sauna, you don’t need to share it with anyone! Spending some time in the sauna, especially after a good workout, can really help your blood circulation and leave you feeling fresh and invigorated. It’s considered a great way to detox both the body and mind.
So, if you’re convinced that having a sauna in your garden, like Audacia, is an excellent idea, let’s move right on to construct. Saunas can be sold as kits that are assembled. It’s quite popular to set up saunas in storage spaces such as sheds or even garages. But if you are leaning towards building a sauna from scratch, this article will take you through some easy steps.
Here’s a list of tools and materials that you will need for your DIY project:
- Saw
- Hammer
- Safety goggles
- Gloves
- Power drill
- Circular saw
Next, you must choose wood to build the sauna. Keep in mind that not every type of wood will be suitable. By far, the best and most popular choice of wood is pine. It will last a long time, works well with high temperatures, and has a very pleasant aroma.
Saunas come in all shapes and sizes. There’s a great variety of sauna designs to choose from barrel, cabin logs, box, standard rectangular saunas, and many others. Decide on which sauna design will best suit your garden. Some types of saunas are known to take up quite a lot of space, while others are compact. Keep this in mind when choosing the design – if your garden is on the smaller side, then it would be better to build a more compact sauna.
In every building project, making the base is one of the most important steps. A proper base should be strong, durable, and well-leveled. Visualize where you want your sauna to stand. Make sure the ground is flat with no bumps or uneven patches, or else you would have to level it out yourself with a shovel. Concrete can be a good foundation for your sauna, and making a concrete slab for the base is quite easy. For more information, watch a How-To video and learn about different types of concrete and what they are used for.
Once the foundation is ready, it’s time to move on to the next stage. Measure out the height and width and cut your wood accordingly. You will need some long wooden beams to make the frame of the walls and floor. Assemble each wall separately by covering the base with planks and nailing them in place. Don’t forget to make cut-outs for the door and windows. Some modern sauna designs have gorgeous panoramic windows, so you can also consider incorporating this into your design. Repeat the same steps for the roof and assemble each part together.
INSULATION
To make your sauna extra warm and toasty, you would want to keep the cold air out. This is done by insulating the walls and floor of the sauna. If your sauna is fire heated, you must choose a non-flammable insulation material for obvious safety reasons. Rock wool will be a very suitable material as it’s non-combustible and can resist temperatures as high as 1,000ºC or 1832ºF. The ceiling is the most critical part that needs the best insulation because hot air always rises upward, thus escaping through the ceiling. Regular fiber-glass insulation will also do the trick, and adding a barrier out of aluminum foil will give you an even better result.
INTERIOR
A sauna is not a sauna without a heater. The type of heater mostly depends on the size and inner volume of the building. They can be divided into 3 main categories by heat source: wood source, gas, and electric. Gas heaters are considered to be the most efficient and budget-friendly.
Think about how many benches you want to go to in your sauna and where you want to place your tools, accessories, and towels.
Don’t forget about the lighting. LED lighting will give the interior a chic look, and LED strips are perfectly safe to use in a sauna. If you’re going for a more traditional look, you can install standard ceiling lamps.
