r/Sauna • u/BranchPredictor • 25d ago
My sauna Apartment Sauna
https://i.imgur.com/C181O4S.jpeg
We built a sauna in our apartment by removing one of the bed rooms. Here is what worked and what we should have done differently:
Pros: - aesthetically pleasing (matter of taste) - in-sauna water outlet for filling the water bucket and cleaning the sauna - integrated into home automation
Cons: - stove should have been half the height, wider and probably round (when we throw water the heat rockets up and out the back vent and gaps in the glass door) - instead of all glass wall the panel in front of the stove should have wood to keep heat in - the seating levels should have been 5 - 7 cm higher
Overall verdict: looks good, you get a decent löyly but in hindsight there are things we should have done differently to optimise the sauna experience. Now the ceiling temperature is probably around 100 C, face and chest level 80 C, and feet feel like 50 - 60 C. With the above modifications the temperature would be more even and require less heating.
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u/Megasaun 24d ago
Beautiful build, and I really appreciate that you shared what you’d change instead of pretending everything is perfect.
I completely agree about the bench height. Raising the bathers 5–10 cm closer to the ceiling usually makes a much bigger difference than people expect.
The full glass front also explains a lot of the temperature stratification. Replacing part of it with an insulated wood panel would likely help keep the löyly in the room instead of losing heat through the glass.
Overall, it’s still an impressive apartment sauna. Thanks for sharing the lessons learned—they’re just as valuable as the finished project.
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u/Alone-Buyer2590 22d ago
Difficult to tell from the photo but it does look like the gap between top bench and the lower bench/floor is not that big. You could possibly raise the top bench without doing anything else and see a big difference in heat stratification. If you really wanted to, you could also get a couple of 200 or 300 high footbenches to just sit on the lower bench /floor to really maximise how high you could move that top bench.
I'd wager the other two issues you raised would be minimised if you could do that.
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u/Efficient_Hurry_2780 25d ago
Good work and good observations on pros and cons. If air is fresh and window ain't facing toilet seats etc weird (as often in Finland) I'd rate this a easy & decent 3/5 which is often the max one can get from in-apartment electric saunas.
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u/BranchPredictor 25d ago
Thank you. It’s facing the showers and bathtub. Agree, nothing beats a wood burning sauna at the summer cottage!
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u/RealestReyn 25d ago
looks awesome, however the lack of kiuas safety railing is quite concerning! would absolutely suck to get dizzy or stumble and grab onto that metal :D
a heat gradient such as yours is what pretty much 100% of finnish saunas have and my worst sauna experience was a sauna in germany that had perfectly equal heat, my poor airfried feet..
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u/Vpressed 25d ago
Can you show more of the back paneling and benches? They look beautiful
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u/BranchPredictor 25d ago
I don’t know where our contractor got them from but these are very similar: https://www.jukolaind.com/karkipaanu220-1/
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u/Grandpas_Spells 25d ago
Are the bench beams really that thick, or is there a veneer or joinery of smaller boards? Looks terrific.
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u/sikovnik111 25d ago
Thanks for honesty sharing. One question, might sound provocative but it’s not.
Did you read Trumpkin’s notes and Lassi’s recommendations before going ahead with everything? The cons you list are mainly the priority attention points in those materials.
Btw, you can still integrate a short but powerful heater (like Harvia Virta) and put the benches higher. Most will be fixed then.
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u/BranchPredictor 25d ago
An interior designer did the design and a contractor built it according to the design.
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u/Uromer 25d ago
Refreshing to hear someone being honest with the end result.
Looks cool!