The growing health and wellness trend in the United States has spurred a new luxury home upgrade backyard saunas. Nordic dwellers have used saunas for mental and physical benefits for millennia. Now the sauna movement is gaining steam (pun intended) in America.
Normally, saunas have largely been found in high-end homes, but now this luxe touch is available to almost any homeowner, thanks to plug-and-play sauna kits.
“My parents have a sauna in their house and there is a public sauna in Portland, but since they aren’t super accessible for us, we decided to get a backyard sauna to benefit our health and well-being,” says Katherine Englishman, a freelance writer and homeowner in Portland, Maine. “Having it right outside is such a perk and it’s a beautiful addition to our backyard.”
Is a sauna right for you? Here are some things to consider:
— Why backyard saunas are trending
— What is a sauna kit?
— Types of outdoor saunas
— Prepping the site
— Cost
— Pros and cons
— Is a backyard sauna a good idea?
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Why Backyard Saunas Are Trending
Wes McMahon, owner of Sun Valley Sauna in Ketchum, Idaho, believes the rise in popularity of backyard saunas is linked to a reinvigorated emphasis on health and wellness, which peaked in the wake of the pandemic. As people spent more time at home, homeowners wanted ways to de-stress and create spa-like retreats.
Studies from entities such as the National Institutes of Health, Harvard Health and the Mayo Clinic support the health benefits of saunas, ranging from cardiovascular and pulmonary benefits to stress reduction and improvement of conditions such as arthritis, headache and even flu.
The best part is that they don’t require much physical effort to reap the benefits. “Saunas are a pretty low barrier of entry activity. You just have to turn it on and go sit down,” says McMahon. His customers include athletes incorporating it as a part of their recovery routines to homeowners of all ages aiming to live a healthier lifestyle.
What Is a Sauna Kit?
A sauna kit is a prefabricated, ready-to-build product that includes the necessary materials to assemble a sauna structure at home, including:
— Doors
— Hardware
— Windows
— Pressure treated wood
Not all kits will come with the heating element, explains McMahon. “There are a few different heater options that range in price quite a bit, so the customer needs to pick the heater of their choice based on their budget,” he says.
Sauna wood is naturally pressure treated to withstand the interior high heat and steam. Most sauna kits use cedar, making them resistant to rot, mold and termites.
“The kit was delivered in a 4-foot by 8-foot wooden crate. Everything is all neatly stacked together. All you have to do is hammer and screw things together. The company shipped directly to my house, which was great,” says Devon Loerop, a vacation home designer and builder in the Seattle area who posts short-term rental construction videos on YouTube. Loerop owns Cedar Hollow, a rental property with a backyard sauna he built from a kit.
For both Englishman and Loerop, it took about half a day, around four to five hours, to assemble their kits, not including foundation or electrical prep work. “It was really fun to put together. It all plugs into place like Ikea furniture, but in a good way,” says Englishman.
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Types of Outdoor Saunas
There are many different outdoor sauna kits to choose from. There are sauna barrels that resemble a large wine barrel. Others are shaped like pods or cubes, and some have more traditional framing structures. You can order a single-person sauna or have one large enough to accommodate up to eight people.
You can heat the sauna with wood or electricity. If you’re building an outdoor sauna for a remote off-grid cabin, a wood-fired sauna may make more sense than an electrical one.
Many saunas are categorized as wet or dry, but McMahon explains they are essentially the same.
Dry saunas, where no water is poured on the rocks, are good for humid climates. The steam can soothe sore muscles and offer stress relief. Wet saunas, where water is poured over the rocks, are typically ideal for drier climates because they add moisture to the air, helping with respiration.
“Just be careful you aren’t overpouring water into the stones; a ladle or two is plenty. You don’t want the water to touch the heating element or it will corrode the heater and cause damage,” says McMahon.
Many homeowners installing backyard sauna kits also add a cold plunge pool. Nordic saunas are designed to move users between frigid outdoor temperatures and the intense heat inside the sauna.
The switch between hot and cold improves blood flow and circulation, furthering the health benefits of the sauna. Both Loerop and Englishman opted for cold plunge pools with their sauna for this reason.
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Prepping The Sauna Site
While the sauna kit includes everything you need to build the structure, extra prep work and costs are required to get it functioning.
“The saunas weigh about 1,000 pounds, so you need a solid foundation to put it on,” says Loerop. The kit he purchased was a panoramic barrel sauna from Redwood Outdoors. It included a base of two cleats on which the barrel sits. Loerop mounted the cleats to a deck surface made of cedar, but he says you could also put it on a concrete pad.
Englishman took a similar route. “We dug a 54-inch-long by 72-inch-wide area for the base. Then we buried four concrete deck footers. We added a weed cover and poured the gravel before installing the pressure-treated wooden platform on top,” she says. She and her husband used brackets from the kit to attach the cradle of the sauna to the foundation base to hold it securely in place.
Englishman says you can hire someone to build the foundation or do the heavy lifting yourself. “We felt fully capable of doing the prep work and assembly ourselves. My husband is a self-taught builder and woodworker,” says Englishman.
“Saunas use a lot of electricity, so you’ll need 240 volts and a 30 to 50 amps electrical plug to power it,” says McMahon.
Englishman and her husband opted to hire a professional electrician to connect the sauna to their electrical grid.
“If it’s an electric sauna, you want to calculate the distance from the sauna to the house so there is some accessible spot to hook up the electricity. We dug a 30-foot long trench to run the electrical to the sauna and had a professional electrician run the wiring for us,” she says. “When we reached out to the electrician, he quoted us for about $1,500, but it ended up being $1,700 for the electric hookup because they added an interior light and a kill switch.”
It’s also important to cover the top of the sauna to keep out rain, snow and debris. A sauna is designed to have small gaps to allow space for the wood to expand when heated and steamy, explains Englishman. “So you need some type of roof covering. Redwood Outdoors offers shingling to cover the top of the sauna, but we built our own overhang cover with a metal roof for aesthetic purposes,” she says.
How Much Does a Backyard Sauna Kit Cost?
Backyard sauna kits will vary dramatically from maker to maker in addition to features, shape and sauna size. Prices for the kits begin around $3,200 and go up to $10,000 or more depending on the kit you buy. The average price range for a high-quality kit for two people is around $5,000.
Remember to factor in the additional costs to run electricity if necessary, cover the top of the sauna and lay the foundation, which can be an extra few thousand dollars depending on your setup.
Many homeowners purchase kits directly from sauna manufacturers, but you can also buy them at big box stores like Costco, Home Depot or Lowes. Make sure to research the quality of the materials and read product reviews before purchasing online or in-person, and verify it can be shipped to you. Loerop cautions that many manufacturers ship regionally and won’t deliver nationwide.
Pros and Cons of Backyard Saunas
The obvious benefit of a backyard sauna is that you can relax and rejuvenate anytime you want in the privacy of your home. You don’t have to drive to a public sauna or pay an entrance fee to a private spa that may be shared with strangers.
It’s a luxury for those who enjoy the health or mental benefits of a sauna with the ease and accessibility of it being in your backyard.
However, there are some drawbacks to consider. “It’s not buying a sweater at Nordstrom; it’s a project,” says McMahon. And it’s a fairly expensive one. You need to coordinate installation with electricians and contractors if you don’t want to DIY the foundation or roofing. There are also ongoing costs.
“Energy-wise, it’s $25 to $30 per month in the low season in summer and $80-$90 in winter,” says Loerop.
Englishman uses her sauna two or three times a week in the colder months and she’s only seen a few extra dollars on her electric bill. “We have solar panels that are tied to the grid, but the cost to operate the sauna, for us, is negligible,” she says.
Eventually, you will need to replace the roofing shingles, the heating element and stones. “It depends on how often you use the sauna, but replacement of the heating element and stones is around 300 hours of use, which for most moderate users is around two to three years,” says McMahon. The roof will need replacing from wear and tear in a similar timeline as your home’s roof.
| Pros of Backyard Sauna Kits | Cons of Backyard Sauna Kits |
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— Health and mental benefits — Ease and privacy of use — Can be an experiential or luxury upgrade to appeal to buyers or vacation property renters — Can be built in a few hours and comes with most items you need |
— Needs additional wiring from an electrician and a foundation — Needs roof protection to prevent rain or snow from entering — Is an expensive luxury item that may not add monetary value to the home at sale time — Although minimal, it requires the replacement of certain elements over time and ongoing electric costs |
Is a Backyard Sauna a Good Idea?
Englishman installed it to help get through Maine’s long, cold, gray winters. “It adds so much value to our lives, but hopefully, it will add value to the home for buyers too,” she says.
Frazier Hughes, real estate agent and residential team leader with Walker Real Estate Solutions in Roanoke, Virginia, is selling a luxury riverside Airbnb yurt resort near Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia that has a kit-built sauna in the backyard. “It has major appeal for this property because it’s a vacation rental,” Hughes says.
He feels saunas are a rock-solid move for a vacation property because it helps the spot stand out. However, when it comes to basic homes, it doesn’t have a quantified value. “It’s a luxury feature of a home and may add a small percentage of interest from buyers, but not necessarily monetary value to the sale,” he says.
Loerop chose to add a sauna to his vacation rental property because he wanted to create an experience for guests. “Homes with amenities or an experiential property are key,” he says.
Deciding if a backyard sauna is right for you is a personal choice. “You really want to think about it beforehand, and crunch numbers to see if it makes sense for you. If it’s something you can see yourself using a lot, it’s a worthwhile investment,” says Englishman.
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Should You Install a Backyard Sauna? originally appeared on usnews.com
