I just completed my second mobile sauna for a client and brought it home to give it a test run.
The premise is simple: take a small trailer and build a sauna right onto it so the client can move it back and forth between their lake house and their regular house. As simple as it sounds, the challenges to pulling off such a project are many. First, creating a roomy design for a 5’x8′ space without creating a claustrophobic box takes some planning. A big window with a generous view really helps. So does the gently arched roof—which means that even a tall person doesn’t have to stoop. And the white cedar I use creates a world of it’s own. Upon entering the sauna, you are bathed in the aroma of the north woods. The color and gentle pattern of the grain is soft and welcoming to the eyes. It is this cedar, which I get from Northern Vermont, that makes this little vessel possible. It is the lightest North American species, yet it is no weakling. Favored by boat builders, cedar is easy to bend, strong, and stable. It allows me to keep the trailer under its listed gross weight limit. The entire roof structure weighs less than a hundred pounds!
This second mobile sauna is heated by propane with a Scandia heater. The ample rocks make good löyly—in fact, after a few hours, the rocks were still warm when I went out tonight and looked through the sauna window to check out the Moon chasing Jupiter and Venus across the heavens.
Several years ago, feeling a need for a change, I sold my house (and sauna). But the new mortgage rules discourage banks from lending to self-employed folks like me and have kept me in a renters trap. I don’t mind the mobile existence for now, but I do miss my sauna. The trailer sauna is the perfect solution. No matter where I end up, I can take it with me! So, if you are a renter but dream of owning a sauna, there is a solution.
Interior in white cedarMobile sauna by Rob Licht Custom Saunas
Recently, I was visiting my good friend Daniel, in Eugene, OR, and had the fortune of being able to help him put the final touches on the sauna he has been building in the backyard of his urban utopia. He moved there seventeen years ago from Ithaca, leaving behind the sauna on the family homestead in Podunk, just outside of Ithaca (yes, that really is the name of the hamlet). That little weathered building was where I was indoctrinated in the way of the sauna; it was the catalyst behind my sauna building career. As was typical with the Finns, Willie Uitti (the property’s first chicken farmer owner) built the sauna at Podunk was built first and it served as rudimentary shelter while the house was being built. Daniel has had to dream for the past seventeen years before he was able to build his sauna.
We worked together for a day and a half installing the heater, hanging the door, and getting it ready. Needless to say, the first firing of the new sauna was nothing short of perfect. It reached a good temperature, it made good löyly, the reclaimed cedar boards gave off a rich odor, and most importantly, it reached down to the pit of our sauna loving souls and transported us back to that cherished time and place on the banks of Taughannock Creek.
To the Finns, Sauna is not just a building or the simple act of sitting in a hot room, it is a quotidian ritual, a centuries old tradition, and a centering of one’s soul. The beautifully funky little shed behind Daniel’s house isn’t just a man shack, it is his identity. My role in helping was more midwife than carpenter, the honor of sharing the first sauna more like best man.
So it goes in the sauna building business, I don’t just make little buildings for people, I help them hold onto their identity, their heritage, and their dreams. It’s an honor and a privilege—and always a joy to share that special excitement of the first heating.
Podunk aficionados will recognize this bell that used to hang by the old sauna. Traditionally, the bell was used to alert bathers that a round was over or that the sauna was hot or that someone was approaching from the outside world.
The electric heater, although a far cry from wood, can still give off a nice glow. If installed correctly, it will provide plenty of heat and good löyly.
The inside as it should be: simple and dimly lit. The heat should be felt and almost seen as a shimmering veil that falls over the stress of daily life. Detailing here is clean and rustic, newly built but as old as the tradition of sauna.
My latest project came about because of the enthusiastic insistence of the client, who, with typical Finnish ingenuity, decided that her tiny “garden shed” needed to become a sweet little sauna. Typically, for the electric saunas I build, I carve out space in the recesses of a dark basement or some other unused corner of the house. This space had its own bright little shell for me to work with, perfectly placed a few paces from the kitchen door. The exterior had charm, so I left that alone except for the new galvanized metal roof, which mirrors its surroundings. It is clandestinely tucked into the yard, so that unbeknownst to the neighbors, there is a whole world of warmth inside.
It immediately reminded me of a Tardis. For those of you not up on Dr. Who, of the popular British TV series, a Tardis is a time machine in the form of a phone booth. And Tardis is an acronym for Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. When the door is opened, an enormous interior is revealed. My challenge was to make this 64 sq. ft. shed completely functional as a sauna and feel larger than it is. So far it has surpassed my expectations. It feels roomy, airy, and comfortable for two or three people with a heat that burns deep and a löyly that lingers just long enough. I even fit in a foyer/disrobing area. Stepping out of it in a cloud of steam, it is hard to reconcile the size of the outside with the comfort of the interior.
Like the Tardis, the sauna is a time machine. Once inside, the heat takes you to another dimension as minutes turn to hours and worries melt away like the face on a Dali watch. Sometimes, I want to thank my clients more than they thank me, for the inspiration to create something so perfect and for taking me out of my world and into theirs.
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