There are multiple benefits to having your own personal sauna that reach beyond the convenience. Going to a sauna has been proven to have beneficial effects on stress, sickness, and more. The act of sitting inside the heat and sweating out the toxins in your body not only makes you healthier, but it gives you more energy, a clearer mind, and eases many of the negative effects of stress. The sweat also helps to clean the skin, removing dirt from pores. Within six weeks or so of regular sauna treatment, the majority of people will see major improvements in their skin.

So how do you go about getting a sauna? There are several ways. You can install it yourself, or you can pay someone to do it for you. The most important thing to know is what’s available.

Types of Saunas

 

There are two main types of saunas, and two locations for them: dry and wet saunas, and indoors or outdoors.

Dry saunas are usually heated with wood burning stoves. This dries the air inside the sauna out, giving a very intense, very dry heat. However, by pouring water onto the hot rocks in the floor, you can create steam and turn the dry sauna into a wet sauna. The steam in the sauna helps to open the pores and induce sweating.

If you don’t feel like going through the trouble and work of heating a sauna, there are also infrared saunas. These maintain a cool temperature inside and work by heating the skin with infrared light. The light heats the skin directly, rather than heating the air around you. This has the same effect, causing you to sweat and shed toxins. However, some people are weary of the effects of infrared light on their health.

Sauna Construction

If you’re installing a sauna in your home, it’s good to know the available options. For outdoor saunas, an existing structure can be altered and made suitable for just around $1,500. On the other hand, you could purchase a sauna kit, a sort of snap-together do it yourself kit that allows you to easily put together a working sauna in several hours of work. They also come in a variety of sizes that are suitable for just one person or as many as necessary.

 

Indoor saunas are a bit different. You can get a pre-cut sauna for your home for around $2,700 cut exactly to your specifications, making installation much easier than if you built it yourself. The total time to construct the entire sauna shouldn’t take more than a day or two, making it a great weekend project. If you don’t feel like you could tackle that, freestanding saunas can be purchased for around $3,000. The only additional elements necessary to make these units function is the floor, a power source, and the towels.

A third type of sauna is known as a ‘knockdown’ sauna, built of two sections that can be built and deconstructed quickly and easily. These are useful for people who would need to carry a sauna with them, and start at around $3,200.

Sauna Sizes

The most common sizes for saunas are 4x4ft, 4x6ft, 6x6ft, and 8x8ft. While the smallest are perfectly suitable for a single person, the largest saunas can hold as many as ten people at once. Sometimes it’s preferable to purchase a large sauna for the sake of lying down inside of it. Which ever size you chose, a sauna is always a great addition to any property and is a renovation definitely to consider.