We traveled through the the landscape of upstate New York, then hopped on a ferry in order to reach our final destination on the east coast. Upon delivery, we topped off the rocks and lit the fire.
When we travel,the ever-changing landscape becomes the backdrop for our photo shoots.Our sauna design was inspired by the shepherd’s hut of the British Isles and one that specifically draws their identity from the land. It’s the wanderlust spirit that draws us to the creeks and into the woods for the most special sauna sessions.
The curve of an arched roofline softly settles into the landscape that surrounds.
One of the reasons we promote outdoor saunas is to experience the ebb and flow of nature when taking saunas. There is a good reason to get outside no matter how snowy, rainy and gray—you will be surprised how good the body feels with wild spindles steaming off your body in the cold crisp air. Read more about Sauna & Nature Connection > and Sauna Glamping>
Our latest sauna delivery parked next to a historic berry farm and sweeping willow tree.
Pine is Fine.
We would love more people toask us about using Pine (wood) for not only the exterior but the interior of our saunas. We think pine is fine and an affordable option when building a traditional and authentic sauna, especially in light of the increased cost of Western Red Cedar (due to tariffs). In the US sauna tradition, many of the old Finns built their saunas with Pine (including Podunk), but be aware of the sticky sap tears you will see (and feel) forever. If Pine is used for interior finishing we do recommend at least a Cedar backrest and Cedar benches.
We promote access to sauna, and to everyone, so if that means using Pine in order to afford a sauna of your own, that is great.
The typical scene at the sauna shop: back walls lined with Western Red Cedar (stk and clear), Pine and Douglas Fir all of which are used daily. Arches for the mobile sauna roof are ready to install are balanced on a pile of 2×4’s.
Arches balancing upside down—daily works of art.
Most of our customers prefer to finish the interior of their saunas with Western Red Cedar or Northern White Cedar and for good reasons. These woods are a great choice among the commonly available softwood species due to it’s very low density which makes it a good insulator and it does not feel hot to the touch like hardwoods. Its low weight makes it easy to handle and is key for reducing weight in our mobile saunas. (about heat tolerances in Cedar Woes post>). There are different types of cedars that you should be aware of, but unfortunately, the rot resistance of cedar is because of the slightly toxic nature of the resins. Some of it may be more toxic, like juniper (aka eastern red cedar or closet cedar,) so please do not repurpose that. We suggest wetting samples and smelling them to see if you have adverse reactions.
Western Red Cedar is not to be mistaken for what is commonly called Eastern Red Cedar (a misnomer), but is actually Juniper—something you’d find in your old closet and is toxic to moths and humans.
We also have our reservations about the deforestation of the old growth trees in British Columbia, Canada which is the primarily source for the clear Western Red Cedar (regularly seen in sauna kits). Clear Cedar is free of knots, easy to work but may still have a lot of color variation. Vertical grain (aka quarter sawn) Cedar is the premium stuff (at a premium price) but the heartwood found in vertical grain cedar has more of the toxic resin. We usually recommend using Western Red STK (select tight knots) which is often sustainably harvested from smaller trees—not old growth.
The nature of wood is that it is imperfect, but installing the boards carefully with joints so tight that we don’t need edge trim is part of the wrangled joys of being good finish carpenter.
Sauna Building Class & Workshop
This fall ’25 we welcomed another round of very enthusiastic students from all over the US to learn about traditional sauna building, the building science behind saunas, and learning the practice of taking sauna! To those who have now taken our class, you have learned that there is more than meets the eye for these small structures. Students come with the dream of building their own saunas then graduate with the knowledge and the confidence to build their own.
For builders and fledgling sauna businesses who take this workshop, it has been a game changer but not only for them, but for us as well. This master class with Rob is on par with any college credit course you would receive or continuing education certificate for professionals in the trades, architecture and design. Kudos to our classmates for completing an intensive class!
We are not just building saunas; we are building a community of sauna builders. For us, it is a win-win. By educating new builders, we are making a difference because we know it is for the benefit of everyone to have access to safe and long-lasting saunas that function as a sauna should.
“Rob doesn’t just teach you how to build a sauna; he teaches you the why behind every step, from wood selection to airflow design & proper craftsmanship.”
“I left the class not only with practical skills but a deeper respect for the craft and the people who keep it alive.”
Portlight
One of our trademark designs is the round window—which, since it does not open, is properly called a portlight not porthole! Thankfully, one of our class attendees, a Coast Guard veteran, corrected us on the proper usage of the nautical term. Our customers love the look especially if they’re near coastal areas. The round forms are soft and related the body which is in-line with our curvatures and design aesthetic in the landscapes. It also satisfies our need to keep challenging our woodworking skills.
Portlight on the “Purist” mobile sauna model and recent sauna boat design with salvaged portlight.
It’s ALL Sauna Business
We try not to talk about “the sauna business” when we are taking sauna and away from work but it inevitably happens. Sauna has been an integral part of each of our lives for a long time and so much that the lines blur between life, art, work & play. Maybe you can you hear the sauna bell ringing?
There is no better way to spend your wedding day than taking sauna!
We don’t normally take photos while a ladle of water is poured on the rocks löyly but this day was an exception! ❤️
Having grown up around and in the waters of Cayuga Lake, whose long finger touched the shores of my childhood stomping grounds, it is no wonder that my dreams often turn to things nautical. When my friends and I first started taking saunas at Podunk in our early teens, the fantasy topic of floating saunas came up frequently. We loved swimming in the lake, but its waters are only warm enough for swimming from the beginning of July to about mid-September. What better way to extend that season than with a sauna? A sauna on a boat! Sweating not just near the water, but on the water. (Oh, but we did enjoy running naked to the creek!)
I’ve had an ongoing affair with boats. Especially a love of canoes that goes back to my discovery of the Adirondack waterways that form an almost continuous route from civilization into the deep wilderness and back (the caveat being that short carries are required).
I started making a boat years ago: a strip canoe affair. Not strip, as in naked, but strip as in thin bands of cedar, all joined and sandwiched between two epoxy and fiberglass layers. I never finished that boat; its progress was aborted midstream after I broke my collar bone in three during a trail running race. The unfinished shell still looms over my shop as a reminder, high up in a loft space. So, suffice it to say, that when a client approached me about building a much bigger boat, I had my hesitations.
Mark initially wanted a beachfront sauna. Then zoning and other issues steered us to thinking of a floating sauna. My childhood fantasy! Granted it is not a new idea; in fact, there are several in Norway and other places. But on Cayuga Lake? This was to be a first. It made sense, in a fantastical way. He had ample dockage but limited beach. He was willing to invest in the idea and take the risk, and he was a nice guy, with just enough chutzpah to make it happen.
Client Mark and Family on Maiden Voyage of Sauna Boat, Cayuga Lake, New York.
The design phase took over a year. It was a real challenge because it entailed not just carpentry but nautical engineering. Precision was required, and my hand-drawn methodology needed some sharper pencils. Some thirty pages of drawings later and we were ready to build. We had a great fabricator for the frame, ladder-stair, and railing (Service Machine Tool in Elmira, NY) and some other great help along the way, but the whole thing—all twenty-six feet of it—was assembled in the shop. It was a predicament as the beast took over, floor to ceiling, and there were threads of self-doubt along the way to trip over.
I am not a boat builder, so there was as much learning as doing, but we pulled it off—including the challenging assembly of four round cedar windows trimmed with authentic ship-salvage port light windows.
There were a lot of other finicky details. (I’ve come to understand that boat building is all finicky details.) The biggest challenge was loading and transporting the beast on an oversize low-boy flatbed truck. At one point, we had the 10,000-pound hulk levitating on three forklifts as the low-boy flatbed backed under it. The guys at Lansing Harbor Marina gave us confidence, especially after it passed its initial float test. After a few months of tweaking, we took the maiden voyage, complete with a champagne toast.
A unique feature of Mark’s sauna is that it is a fully navigational boat with twin electric motors. The sauna is heated with a gas-fired heater and has 12-volt electric lights powered by a solar-electric system. Ideally, it will be used on calm days when friends and family can drift out to the middle of the lake, experience sauna, jump into the clear waters, cool off on the roof deck, and repeat until the fantasy has been fulfilled. Maybe even under the stars or northern lights.
Thanks to everyone who helped make this possible. Thanks especially to Scarlet, who believed in the dream, and Mark and Karie, who supported it.
If you look Podunk up in the dictionary, it will tell you it is a hypothetical or insignificant town.
The folks who live there think otherwise. In reality, Podunk is a place name on the map, the location just a short ski south of Trumansburg, New York, where I grew up. The smattering of residents, will all tell you that Podunk is very real and very significant.
In the 1960s, Ozzie Heila settled there with his family on an old farmstead established by an even older Finn who first built his sauna (above) before the house in the 1930s. It is also where I learned all the important things in life. In the 1970s I spent countless winter hours there at the ski center that Ozzie established, becoming a damn good Nordic skier and developing a life-long passion for the sport.
In the summers, I explored the creek with his son my good friend Daniel and learned the value of immersing one’s self in nature. Daniel’s mother, Ethel, was my art teacher in middle school; she helped me become the artist I am today, and we still have wonderful conversations about color theory and art composition. The sauna was the heart of the complex of dated farm buildings; there I learned to channel my need to experience extremes into something healthy and life affirming. We loved going from the hot to the cold.
Jumping in the creek in the dead of winter after a searing round in the sauna, we felt more alive than ever. That feeling has never died; each cold plunge I take during sauna takes me back to that creek.
Today, Daniel and his family were back in the area and we went to Podunk to visit the old homestead once again. This time we took our Finnish Blue mobile sauna and parked it next to the ramshackle old sauna, which is now defunct and awaiting a rebirth. Of course, many things have changed in that memorable place. The trees have grown huge or have died; the old purple Lilac, with the rusty sauna bell hanging from its branches, is gone and the brush has been cleared away from the old sauna, revealing the sagging bones of the century-old structure. But the building itself is as recognizable as the last day I took a sauna there about twenty-five years ago. The inside is a sadder story. It turns out that squirrels like the sauna too, and they have made it their own. In an expression of horror at the mess, the Lämpimämpi stove I welded up for Ozzie in the 90s sits with it’s mouth rusted wide open.
The path through the field to the creek is the same but with a detour to the left towards a new dipping hole: a makeshift stone bathtub—with a strategically placed rock to help keep your butt moored—in the midst of the rushing current. The run down to the creek had an awkward familiarity: running all out before cooling off while maintaining stable footing. Still a challenge. And the sensation! Whoops and hollers of twelve-year-old boys came out of us as we braved the icy April stream.
Real or not, Podunk is the same as it will always be. What are memories but unreal fragments of experience in our minds, ready to be stirred up by whirling waters in a cold stream or by the exhilarating steam of a sauna?
The old next to the new will always appear old, until we make it new again and live our lives to the fullest, with no regrets, in the now, and with dreams, not of memories, but of tomorrows.
New sauna and parked it next to the old sauna near the creek.
Traveling with one of our mobile saunas to the lake and delivering to new owners.
We have been building mobile saunas for the past ten years! And because of their growing popularity and versatility, they now make up most of our business. Each unit is still handcrafted with many layers of details. The owners each get a unique product tailored to their specifications. It’s also an easy way to avoid zoning and permitting restrictions and the hassles of a site-built project. Investing in your dream sauna makes more sense if you know you can take it with you!
We hear from our customers all the time that their friends, family, and neighbors are as excited as they are to have a sauna!
Mobile wood-fired sauna, on a trailer.
For many people, owning a sauna feels like a bare necessity during the winter months!
This recent sauna build is just steps from the owner’s historic, New England homestead. Our saunas are designed to blend in with the home and environment. The classic details of this historic house are elegant rustic with dramatic rock outcroppings and a fire pit, making for a perfect gathering spot.Our wood-fired mobile saunas travel well and can be parked in beautiful places.Scarlet by the lake ready for a cold plunge
Having a sauna at home is a low maintenance life upgrade.
Our 5’x8′ mobile sauna parked in town with 100 gal. cold plunge tank.Interior of our larger mobile sauna. With a large pile of rocks, our saunas can get as hot as you like. We aim for 212° F (100° C)We build many mobile saunas in our shop in Ithaca, NY. Working in our 3000 sq. ft. shop is more efficient than building on-site.Two sizes of mobile Saunas on display at our shop in Ithaca, NY
We offer building plans for DIY sauna builders or your local builder for one-time usage only. Thanks to our valued sauna plan customers, and the growing popularity of DIY sauna building, we have taken the opportunity to launch our new & improved mobile sauna building plans! Our sauna plans are fifty plus pages and include detailed notes, drawings, photos, and material lists for a wood-fired, 5’x8’/6.5’x10′ build. If you are thinking about purchasing our plans or building a sauna, we offer you an opportunity to build your own sauna using construction plans. Rob Licht has developed the best practices of sauna building with thirty plus years of experience.
“The blue of our lakes and the white snow of our winters.”
—Zachris Topelius, poet
Colors used on this mobile sauna were inspired by the Finnish flag.
Our Finnish-Blue Sauna is in the News: Read Our Story > Stay posted on the latest Finnish-blue mobile sauna outings on Instagram @saunasbyrob and facebook @custom-saunas We will use this sauna for pop-up and promotional events in the Finger Lakes region of New York State to showcase our saunas and promote sauna culture.
Mobile sauna interior with the Lämpimämpi sauna stove, tiered benches, and large window with a beautiful view of the fall foliage.Wood-fired from the outside.Lämpimämpi sauna stove.Stick hardware by Rob Licht.
THANK YOU for you enjoying my blog about saunas and sauna building. If you value the info you glean from my sauna blog consider dropping me a TIP via Venmo or via PayPal @RobLichtStudio or writing a google review. For press Inquiries please contact me directly.
