Sauna Scene

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Our son Tom added a sauna when he and his wife remodeled their older home. Tom’s sauna measures 7-by-9 feet, and it is located on the concrete floor in the basement. The sauna room is heated with a 6,000-watt Polar electric stove.

“When purchasing and mounting the stove, keep the level of the top of the rock bed as low as possible,” Tom says. “There is a large temperature gradient across the entire room below the level of the rocks, and I would try to keep the rock bed even with the bottom bench if I were to do it over again. That way your entire body is in the higher temperature area of the room.” He would also install the electrical outlet low enough to accommodate that stove position.
For those using an electric stove, Tom says the installation of a separate timer on the outside wall is ideal from both a convenience and safety standpoint.

To make the room easier to heat and to keep it dry, he suggests insulating all the walls and ceiling adequately and encasing the room in plastic. Installing an exhaust fan, such as a bathroom vent fan, in the ceiling, will allow the room to air out after use, preventing mold.

“Last, but not least,” Tom says, “mount an electric-actuated water valve in the ceiling – for example, a 110-volt dishwasher valve – a discharge pipe and small nozzle extending down directly over the stove with a push-button above the bench for ‘push-button steam.’”

Margaret Haapoja enjoys the good life, including routine trips to the sauna, at her home in Bovey, Minnesota.

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