The Art of Sauna Building Paperback – January 1, 1981

This was my "go-to" resource for planning and building my sauna. This book has clear instructions and drawings. I highly recommend it if you are planning and building your own sauna.

There are a lot of imitations of this book out there. This is the original, from an actual Finnish sauna enthusiast who has helped popularize them in America. This book is laid out in an 88-page magazine format, and includes everything you need to go from a total newbie to building your own sauna. The book only assumes basic carpentry knowledge. If you've ever built a shelf or a cabinet from 2x4, you probably have the skills to frame and finish your first sauna. The exceptions to this are electrical for the most common style of heater, and plumbing if you'd like a drain, which should always be handled by licensed professionals.Includes:Absolute beginner information, through to all the details. What are the health benefits and risks of sauna use? Will a sauna affect humidity in your home? It's all here. One super common misconception - the Finnish style of sauna involves only brief bursts of water thrown on hot coals, which is similar to running a humidifier with only a few pints of water. This style of sauna will not pose a moisture problem in most homes.Instructions are mostly for a Finnish-style steam sauna made of fragrant wood, which doubles as a Russian-style dry sauna depending on whether you toss water on the coals. You'll only get major moisture issues if you build a "Turkish bath" or "wet" sauna, which isn't really covered in this book. There is also information provided for installing a steam generator to a regular bathroom, which can be used to convert most types of shower stall into a steam sauna if you don't have room to build a separate sauna.Actual blueprint-style drawings on proper grids, and grid paper for you to sketch your own sauna. Many competitors talk about saunas in general, but never give you more than a few measurements. This book gives you absolutely every measurement you need to frame and finish common styles of sauna, especially focusing on interior builds which are more common in America. Instructions are included for how wide to space studs, how tall your ceiling should be, and whether you should insulate the floor.Charts, graphs, and figures. One example is that the book gives you charts and rough mathematical formulas for figuring the proper size of your sauna and its heater. A heater which is too large will not uniformly heat the wood in the sauna, leading you to feel like the heater itself is blasting you in the face. A properly sized unit leads to uniform heating, so you're sweating as much from the walls as the heater itself.Lots of alternatives. Want to know the pros and cons of building your sauna with red cedar, nordic spruce, or even whether it's acceptable to finish the outside with plywood? There's a two-page chart that just compares the pros and cons of each type of wood, with plenty of explanatory text. Instructions go all the way from an economical 3'x4' "closet" sauna to spacious cabins built with showers and foot supports. Whether you want to convert an old cedar closet to a sauna, or build a luxury shed with shower and cool-down room, it's all here.Many professional tips and gotchas. Thinking about installing double-pane thermal windows? Think again! The temperature gradient is a major problem which can cause condensation inside the window, so it's generally better to build single-pane. Heat loss is also negligible since saunas are rarely run for more than a few hours at a time. There are even bonus tips on how Finnish people use their saunas throughout the year - ever thought about using a sauna to rise a loaf of bread?Overall:Just the best. The secret behind this book is that there's a sales pitch. Every book comes hand-numbered with an offer to call the company which produced it, to get a small discount toward the purchase of a sauna. I'm totally okay with that, because they earn your business with this book. If they can show me how to build a sauna, I have confidence they have mastered the process. Using this book, I can definitely do the frame myself, but when it comes to sourcing the cedar planks for the interior I may just give them a call.

Written in the 90's to an audience that is ill informed on SaunasI would say it gives enough info to build a sauna but uses quotes that are unrealistic.All in all it was dorky but fun to read

Some of the advice is dated, like using asbestos for insulation. But most of the info has stood the test of time. I didn't know much about building a sauna. After reading this book and some on-line sources, mine turned out great!

I purchased the new 11th edition, thinking it would be current. Well, it isn’t. For instance, the book recommends using the yellow pages to find a contractor.I am an architect and was looking for technical advice, but the book doesn’t provide much detail or specifics on building products such as insulation.That said, the book is useful if you want to learn basics about sauna use, culture, construction, etc. However, you can find a lot of this information online.I did enjoy the ‘70’s style hand illustrations of the naked people in the saunas. They’re pretty funny.

This seems like an excellent source of info as I embark on building my own sauna in an old barn in the Colorado Rockies. Accessible, comprehensive, filled with good tips and insights. Who knew there are special sauna friendly wood finishes?

Built my wood-burning heater sauna years ago and used this book as a great guide.About the only thing I disagree with the author is the sauna-room ceiling height, in case when using a wood-burning sauna-heater!Based on my experience since most wood burning heaters are much taller due to firebox, crate & ash collection tray, the sauna-room ceiling height should be 8 feet, in order to have the users feet at about the same elevation as the top of the sauna-heater rocks are, when sitting on the upper bench with your feet on the lower bench, and using the sauna as intended!This is not likely possible and your feet will be close to a foot lower than the elevation where top of the sauna-heater rocks are located, if the sauna-room has a 7 foot ceiling height like the author recommends.I made mine to 7 feet ceiling height as recommended in the book and regret it.It would be way too much work to change it afterwards, due to the nice Western Red Cedar paneling etc. on the inside walls.PS.That's just a photo from the net of someones nice looking typical beachfront sauna in Finland, but I wish it was mine!

Good info, might need to be updated with newer products that are available but it has a wealth on information.