After a few visits to our Finnish neighbor's hand-built log sauna, I decided it was time to think about building our own. Traditionally, sauna was wood-fired and used for bathing. It was the first structure built on a new property when a Finnish relocated. Aside from being incredibly relaxing and therapeutic, it is also something of spiritual experience. I love the traditional log sauna, but due to the lack of timber available in my part of the country (prairies forever) and not trusting my skill at scribing logs, I opted to use post and beam joinery. Once the frame structure was erected, I used standard 2x4 framing to infill the places between the timbers. The woodstove is fed from outside to keep the sauna room clean. The changing room boasts a beautiful stained glass window which was salvaged from an estate demolition. Building footprint is 10x14 on a poured slab. All mortise and tenon joinery was done with a hammer and chisel by hand. Posts were joined with 3/4" oak pins/dowels. Since the sauna is "off the grid" it was built entirely with hand tools or the battery powered power tools that came in my Ryobi starter kit with batteries being charged on a generator. The building is lit with solar power. I did all of the planning, measuring, purchasing, cutting and joinery but my husband and sons helped with the heavy lifting. My Husband also put the steel roof on and installed the chimney for the woodstove. A mason was hired to do the brickwork.
After a few visits to our Finnish neighbor's hand-built log sauna, I decided it was time to think about building our own. Traditionally, sauna was wood-fired and used for bathing. It was the first structure built on a new property when a Finnish relocated. Aside from being incredibly relaxing and therapeutic, it is also something of spiritual experience. I love the traditional log sauna, but due to the lack of timber available in my part of the country (prairies forever) and not trusting my skill at scribing logs, I opted to use post and beam joinery. Once the frame structure was erected, I used standard 2x4 framing to infill the places between the timbers. The woodstove is fed from outside to keep the sauna room clean. The changing room boasts a beautiful stained glass window which was salvaged from an estate demolition. Building footprint is 10x14 on a poured slab. All mortise and tenon joinery was done with a hammer and chisel by hand. Posts were joined with 3/4" oak pins/dowels. Since the sauna is "off the grid" it was built entirely with hand tools or the battery powered power tools that came in my Ryobi starter kit with batteries being charged on a generator. The building is lit with solar power. I did all of the planning, measuring, purchasing, cutting and joinery but my husband and sons helped with the heavy lifting. My Husband also put the steel roof on and installed the chimney for the woodstove. A mason was hired to do the brickwork.
