Sauna in the Time of Coronavirus

Sauna in the Time of Coronavirus

Mar 20, 2020

The other evening I came home from work, stressed out about the Coronavirus, as many of us are, and decided to light the sauna to ease my anxiety. As it was a nice day, I decided to use the time it took the heat sauna to rake up those leaves that got matted into the lawn under a November snowfall. The breeze was out of the south which helped push the leaves into the hedgerow, but it also apparently helped fan the fire on my mobile wood- fired unit. By the time I put my rake down and stripped down for a relaxing sauna, the thermometer was pinned at 235 degrees! Not one to shy way from heat, I jumped on in anyhow.

Always inquisitive, I use such opportunities to add to my knowledge about the sauna. I wondered how hot different surfaces really were with the heat so high so, with only a towel on, I ran to the shop and grabbed my digital temperature gun. I use this gadget to test my saunas to make sure they are hot but also safe. The ceiling and walls were close to 300° near the stove, the walls were 230-250° above the bench, the benches were °200 and the lower benches were about 175°. The rocks were 450°- perfect for a good löyly- and the stove body glowing visibly red in the afternoon light, so about 1000° (the brightness of the glow corresponds to specific temperatures). The floor was predictably the coolest surface at 125°.

According to the Center for Disease Control, viruses cannot tolerate heat above about 167° F. Therefore, everything in a hot sauna from the lower bench up is guaranteed to be virus free! No fears or worries as I bask in the heat.

That being said, despite what we all wish, the sauna will not kill a virus that has already infected you, nor will it likely destroy a virus ejected in a sneeze. The sauna will not cure you or protect you if your sauna mates are sick; in these desperate times, it’s probably best to avoid group saunas with strangers. But, taking a regular sauna will lower your stress level, boost your immunity and help you sleep better- all in a virus free space. Maybe it’s time to think about having your own sauna so you can create your own virus-free and worry-free sanctuary.

Mobile Hot Yoga

Mobile Hot Yoga

Mar 7, 2018

My latest mobile sauna project started when a customer contacted me wanting  a mobile sauna she could use for hot yoga. It’s my standard five by eight foot  trailer sauna but without the benches. The arched roof allows for plenty of room for stretching out  and the floor is soft cedar. The heat comes from a Scandia propane-fired heater. It’s a cute little unit that weighs under 2000 pounds. Tow it to the next yoga retreat  and show off your downward facing dog

A Modest Affair

A Modest Affair

Oct 20, 2016

Finishing a job is always a sweet endeavor. I usually budget in one day of fussiness—a day when I can pay attention to all of the little details, get the stove in place and then, as a last step, give the sauna a test run. This is when I get to see how my efforts have paid off and take note of how the sauna actually fires. Is it hot enough? Is it light and airy and does it have that right sauna “feng shui”? Does it reach a good temperature and would Ozzie, the Finn who started me on my sauna-building path, approve.

The job I just finished is a modest affair: bare bones in that Finnish sort of pragmatism. I converted a kit-built garden shed, the type you’ll find parked on the edge of a big box home store parking lot, into a simple sauna with no dressing room. I liked the challenge of working within a modest budget, and I liked the folks: down-to-earth modern day Helen and Scott Nearing types. I had to remind myself that a sauna does not have to be a luxury item, affordable only by those in the higher income brackets, but that a sauna should be essential and ubiquitous as indoor plumbing.

I lined the inside with knotty pine—a low budget alternative to cedar. Sitting on the top bench I noted that the smell of pine reminds me of my forays into woods here in the east and is a close and familiar smell—unlike the rarefied smell of cedar. Aside from the knots, which will bleed sap forever and inevitably find it’s way into someone’s hair, it is a fine wood to use. It is not as stable as cedar but the inevitable cracks will open the sauna up and let it breathe. We always said that Ozzie’s old sauna at Podunk, with its gappy knotty pine walls and sagging ceiling, felt better than any other.

My Lämpimämpi stove fired fast and hot. The rocks quickly reached good löyly temperature and the first splash of water had me moaning in ecstasy. At no point did I feel that claustrophobic locker-room-sauna feeling of not being able to breathe. The dual windows filled the space with light. The benches will hold the couple, their kids and several neighbors. In term of the essentials, it is a perfect sauna. Nothing more is needed– no fancy tile work, no dressing room, no fancy cedar trim work. It works, plain and simple, and it works well. It was the best sweat I’d had in a while and a good sweat is almost payment enough.

 

The Tardis

Oct 23, 2014

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 one had its own bright little shell for me to work with, perfectly placed a few paces from the kitchen door. The exterior had its own 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—which, for those of you not up on Dr. Who, of the popular British TV series, is a time machine in the form of a phone booth; when the door is opened, an enormous interior  is revealed (Tardis is an acronym for time and relative dimensions in space). My challenge was to make this 64 square foot 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 2 or 3 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.