Many land owners dream of a wood-fired sauna. Where else can you relax so much after a hard day and feel the healing power of hot steam and icy water? In fact, you can build a good bathhouse yourself, and our article will help you cope with this. Content:
- Preparation for construction
- Bath design
-
Construction of a wood-fired bath
- Site preparation
- Foundation device
- Walling
- Roof construction
- Floor installation
- Interior decoration
- Furnace installation
Plato, Socrates and Hippocrates mentioned the miraculous properties of the bath in their writings. The salubrious air of the steam room, which has a refined aroma, which is characteristic of wood-fired baths, and contrasting douches, turn a visit to a Russian bath into a real holiday. To build a wood-fired bathhouse with your own hands, you need to consistently go through several of its stages.
Preparation for the construction of a wood-fired sauna
Before designing a bath, it is necessary to determine a place for it on the site. It must comply with sanitary standards, fire safety rules and not create problems for neighbors. The relevant documents can be found on the Internet. For ease of use, the future building is oriented with its entrance to the south, and the windows to the west. This will reduce snow drifts at the doorstep in winter and save electricity for lighting the premises in the evenings. It is not superfluous to think about the drainage of polluted wastewater from the bath. They are transported to the sewer or drainage ditch. To facilitate this process, build a bathhouse on a small hill.
Plan in advance the approach to the construction of utilities. These include water supply, sewerage, ventilation, heating and electrical wiring systems.
Estimate the number of possible visitors to the bath at the same time, taking into account the composition of your family. This will help to correctly calculate the area of the bath and the volume of its steam room. For a private bath, the area of the steam room is usually 6-12 m2.
The choice of a stove is also a very important point in planning a sauna building. They are gas, electric and wood-fired. For the Russian bath, only the latter are good, as they emphasize its traditions and effectiveness. Choose to install a wood-burning stove made of metal or brick of your choice.
Designing a wood-fired bath
After realizing the above, you can start developing a wood-fired bath project. The project takes into account how many people the bathhouse is designed for and what tasks it should solve. It's one thing to just take a steam bath or wash, and it's quite another to organize in it, in addition, a full-fledged vacation with a pool, tea drinking and many guests.
When planning a family steam room for 5-6 people, you can limit yourself to its small volume and take procedures in 2-3 runs.
A large bath is considered to be a two-storey building, with a steam room of 10-12 m2, a twenty-meter relaxation room, two swimming pools and showers, a billiard room on the second floor and a jacuzzi. To take care of such a bath, you will have to hire a person.
Today you can find a typical bath project for every taste. If you take it as a basis, you can develop your own project for the construction of a wood-fired bath, taking into account your wishes.
Construction of a wood-fired bath
In order to build a comfortable and safe sauna in operation, it is necessary to apply common sense at every stage of work, use high-quality material, avoid unnecessary savings and comply with all norms and rules. An inexpensive bathhouse can be built if you work independently, but professionally. We will deal with this now.
Preparing a site for a wood-burning bath
The breakdown of the building plot must be carried out according to the project, which indicates the location of the building. The work can be divided into several stages:
- Clear the place for the future foundation from debris, roots and stumps.
- Remove the vegetative layer of soil from it.
- Using pegs, a cord and a tape measure, determine the axis of the perimeter of the building on the ground.
- The correctness of its right angles is determined by the cords stretched along the diagonals. They must be the same.
After completing this process, we proceed to earthworks.
Foundation device for a wood-fired bath
For the construction of baths, columnar or strip foundations are used. Columnar bases are made on dense and heavy soils for small baths made of wood, and tape ones are made for large baths made of stone or brick.
A columnar foundation can be made of asbestos-cement pipes with a diameter of 100 mm and a length of 4 m. For a small bath, they will need 30-40 pieces. The pipes are cut in half and installed in pre-prepared boreholes of one and a half meter depth and 200 mm in diameter. The sinuses near the pipes are covered with sand, spilled with water and compacted with special care.
A strip concrete foundation is performed in the following sequence:
- A trench 0.5-0.8 m deep is dug along the perimeter and internal bearing walls of the future building.
- The bottom of the trench is covered in layers with sand and gravel, the thickness of such a cushion is 100-150 mm.
- The boards are used to make formwork panels, which are assembled in a trench and secured with stakes and spacers.
- It contains a reinforcing cage made of metal rods with a diameter of 12 mm and mounting sleeves made of pieces of plastic pipe 50-100 mm in diameter for laying utility lines in a bath.
- The formwork is poured with concrete up to the design level. Removal of air bubbles from the mixture is achieved by using an electric depth vibrator.
- After the concrete has polymerized, after a few days, the formwork is removed, and the surface of the foundation is covered with waterproofing in the form of bitumen mastic or two layers of roofing material.
Erecting the walls of a wood-burning bath
Logs or wooden beams are most often used as material for Russian wood-fired baths. Often, foam blocks or bricks are used to build its walls. Which one to choose from them depends on the wishes and capabilities of the owner. Of course, a wooden bath is traditionally the best option.
Baths from a bar are made according to frame technology, excluding the presence of a powerful foundation. It is especially suitable for people who do not have solid experience in construction work, since all frame elements are sold ready-made. Therefore, the entire building is assembled on the foundation almost like a children's designer. Nevertheless, the walls of such a bath are being erected in full accordance with the project, and the installation of its elements is controlled by the building level.
Do not forget about the window and doorways in your working impulse, otherwise it will be difficult to get into the new bath. The process of installing windows depends on their design and material of manufacture. The window frame is fixed in the opening with anchor bolts. The resulting small gaps on the outside of the frame are sealed with polyurethane foam. The beautiful framing of the frame is completed by the execution of the slopes of the window opening.
Doors are installed in the same way. On the prepared door frame and door leaf, hinges are hung and locks are cut in. The finished door is decorated with decorative elements.
Construction of a roof for a wood-fired bath
After installing the enclosing structures, we proceed to the installation of the roof. This requires the following sequence of actions:
- We carry out the installation of the base of the roof. This structure is made of heavy timber and is laid along the perimeter of the walls.
- The rafters will be supported by the Mauerlat. They are assembled in the form of a compass with a cross bar. The assembly takes place below on the ground, and then, in finished form, the rafters rise to the wall and, with the help of bars and boards, are connected into a single structure.
- On the slopes of the roof frame in the transverse direction, a crate of boards is installed, which are attached to the rafters with screws. In it, you need to leave free space for the passage of the chimney.
- The vapor barrier film is fixed with a stapler to the bottom of the rafter legs.
- Insulation is laid in the crate, most often it is mineral wool.
- The insulation is covered with a waterproofing polyethylene film.
- To allow ventilation of the roof, an additional counter-lattice is installed on the rafter structure.
- Roofing material is laid: slate, profiled flooring, metal or ondulin.
Installation of a floor in a wood-burning bathhouse
When the roof is ready, we turn to the flooring for our wood-fired sauna. To do this, you need to perform the following operations:
- Insulate the inside of the basement of the foundation. As a heat-insulating material, we will use mineral wool, which, after installation, should be covered with a waterproofing film.
- In the dressing room and steam room, lay wooden logs on the floor, wrapped with roofing material from below.
- Perform heat-insulating backfill of the floor with expanded clay, and on it place mineral wool slabs covered with a vapor barrier material.
- It is recommended to make a heat-insulated concrete floor in the washing department, and then tile it. In this room and in the steam room, floor drainage ladders are installed for the discharge of contaminated water into the sewerage system or drain pit.
- In the rest of the rooms, a plank floor is laid on logs, which consists of edged boards tightly fitted to each other. As a means of preventing their decay, liquid glass is used.
Interior decoration of a wood-fired sauna
Within a year after the completion of the construction of the bath, it is better not to finish the decoration of its premises, since the new building should give a slight shrinkage. During this time, you can perform thermal insulation of the walls, ceiling and install the oven.
Finishing work in the bath is almost no different from similar activities in an ordinary residential building. The exception is her steam room. In particular, the insulation before cladding the walls and ceilings of the steam room is covered with foil-coated heat-reflecting paper, and the floor and walls near the stove are protected from overheating by special screens.
In this room there are special fire safety requirements that must be strictly observed. The overwhelming majority of owners of bath buildings use lining made of valuable species of wood to decorate steam rooms, which fills the hot air with a healing and pleasant aroma. Such cladding makes the room environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing.
Deciduous wood does not emit resin, so linden, aspen and alder are often used to decorate steam rooms. Linden, when heated, saturates the air with essential oils that have anti-inflammatory and bactericidal properties, and alder and aspen do not rot in a humid environment.
Properly arranged lighting can give a special charm to the steam room. Numerous examples and photos of a wood-fired bath with its beautiful finish can be found on the Internet and in specialized publications.
Installing a wood-burning stove
The focus of the Russian bath is a well-made stove. Its location should provide heating for all rooms of the bath: steam room, dressing room and washing department.
To create a comfortable temperature regime, a metal oven is quite applicable. Its heat transfer practically corresponds to the heat dissipation power inside the firebox. The physical properties of a brick oven and fire safety rules do not allow it to emit more than one hundred degrees of temperature. A separate foundation is arranged for the heater in the bath. The chimney is brought out so that the walls of the pipe are at a distance of at least 40 cm from the roof rafters.
You can make a metal oven yourself in this way:
- A one and a half meter pipe with a diameter of 500 mm is cut into two parts - 90 and 60 cm. A stove is made from a long section of it, and a tank for heating water from a short one.
- A 200x50 mm hatch is cut out at the base of the long section. A round plate with a thickness of at least 12 mm is welded over it.
- The grate is made of sheet metal and installed in a cut-out ashlar.
- A niche is cut out in the pipe to accommodate the combustion chamber. A door of 250x300 mm is made from a pipe cut.
- A blank for the bunker is welded over the chamber. In its capacity, a part of a pipe with a length of 350 mm with a welded back part is used. The stone bin is equipped with a 300 mm wide door. Half of its capacity is filled with pebbles, and the top is closed with a metal circle.
- A coupling 50 mm wide and 5 mm thick is fixed at the top of the stove. It is made from steel tires.
- The sleeve is welded to the furnace body so that one half of it protrudes above the device. The tank is attached to this part.
- A container for water is being prepared. A circle with a thickness of 8-10 mm is welded to the bottom end of the tank. A hole with a diameter of 150 mm is cut out in advance for the chimney. The lower part of the chimney is welded to the bottom of the water tank to prevent water from flowing into the firebox.
- The top of the water tank is closed with a steel circle. A chimney is welded to its hole. A hole is made at the top of the water tank for its inlet, which is equipped with a lid with a handle.
- After 350 mm from the water tank, a 300 mm wide area is welded.
- A faucet with a valve is welded opposite the water filling hole.
- The furnace door is installed.
How to build a wood-fired sauna - watch the video:
That's all! Agree, science is not difficult, and you already understood how to make a wood-fired sauna. By following the rules, the project and our guidelines, you will be able to enjoy the healing power of your own bathhouse in the near future. Good luck!
