When it comes to building sauna rooms, you don’t need a lot. But it’s important to know a few things behind. Clear cedar panel looks beautiful; so your sauna will look welcoming no matter what. But you still want to plan your sauna rooms. Take a look at a few considerations discussed below.
1. Sauna Heater – Your Power Source for Your Sauna
There are different power sources for saunas. Consider following power sources of sauna rooms.
Gas – Natural or propane gas sauna heaters are much larger and more costly alternatives than wood fired or electric heater. For its installation, you should have a 7’x 8′ room or larger. You need to install the heater on the outside wall.
Wood-Fired – Generally, wood fired sauna heaters are installed in outdoor hot tubs. You should install wood burning sauna heaters like a wood stove or a fireplace. Different options for wood heaters include water jackets and shower plumb for heating water.
Electric – Majority of sauna heaters are electric and require 20, 30, or 40 AMP dedicated circuits for residential applications. It’s better to set some horizontal brackets between the studs to mount your sauna on the wall easily.
Infrared – Infrared heaters provide full spectrum of light frequencies i.e. near, middle and far infrared wave lengths. The whole infrared spectrum is compatible with cellular procedures. More importantly, these lights don’t produce any electromagnetic field.
2. Sauna Vents
After choosing the heaters, you should know where you should vent your sauna heater. All you need is some cooler air entering from an adjoining room to outside. It’s wise to consider a sauna vent low on the wall. Some people cut the door short to let the air come under. But you may consider using a vent grill to cover the vents on both sides.
3. Ceiling Height
Heat rises always and there’s no surprise at all. It means your ceiling should between 6’6” and 7’0”. You don’t require a lot of head space else you will need to mount the sauna heater and benches higher. Otherwise, you’ll have to pay more operational costs.
If you prefer, you shouldn’t lower your ceiling height. You should consider investing in DIY prefab modular sauna packages. They use 6’8” wall panels and are often installed in a larger size room, basement, cabin, or sometimes under the outside shelter.
4. Ambiance
If you want a solid sauna door without any window to allow outside light, make sure that it has an existing light fixture and switch or wire them in. There is a huge availability of sauna lighting fixtures like wet or dry recessed lights, salt lamps, rope lights, lights on a dimmer, infrared lights, etc.
If you want to invest in a little extra budget, you should choose lights that can really set a good mood. Of course, you can use candles. With those considerations, you should prepare a sketch of your sauna room. You may need to consider where to place your sauna benches – low, high and double wide.
5. Safety
While planning your sauna heater, you should keep some space for a guard rail around the sauna heater. You can place Handles and grab rails in strategic places to add stability when the sauna patrons get tired and clumsy. Some people like adding a double wide lower bench so that you’ll get more room to maneuver while lying down.
Bottom Line –
These are a few important considerations you should focus on while building sauna rooms. Whether you want professional help with sauna room layout or design, feel free to contact Northern Lights Cedar Barrel Saunas at 1-800-759-8990.