Reaching out about a sauna?
Here’s what to expect.
Sauna project timeline
Live in the Twin Cities metro?* Trying to decide if a custom-built traditional sauna in your yard, garage, or home is feasible? Here’s what a Jahnke Carpentry home sauna project looks like, from consultation to completion.
1. Site visit
When you contact us, we’ll reply with an offer to set up a free in-person consultation, so you can share your ideas and vision with us, and so we can get a look at the space where you’d like the sauna to be.
We’ll have some questions for you. Everyone’s got their scheme — what’s yours?
Decisions, decisions
Here are some elements to consider in advance of our conversation. Price estimates will depend on your desires and design choices.*
*More information on our FAQ page.
Wood or electric stove?
We highly recommend researching and picking out a stove as your first step. The stove is the heart of your sauna, and other decisions (room layout, materials) may depend on what stove you select. There are several regional dealers in the upper Midwest who can make recommendations of high-quality local and international manufacturers. We can also provide more info and advice if you’re stuck, just ask.
We specialize in traditional wood-fired saunas, and subcontract with a professional installer for wood stoves. If your preference is for an electric heater (or if the space requires it, in a basement for example), we will work with the electrician of your choice. NOTE: Our price estimates do not include cost of stove or stove installation.
What species of wood paneling?
We work with Minnesota- and Wisconsin-based lumber suppliers, with a strong preference for those engaged in regenerative forestry and low-waste milling. Different suppliers have different selections of species on offer, and we can send you their promotional materials to help guide your decision.
We’ve paneled saunas with western red cedar, northern white cedar, and aspen – and there are other species suitable for sauna paneling, including basswood (linden) and Norwegian spruce. Lumber quotes will vary according to quantities and market fluctuations, but in our experience ordering local – even with bespoke requests – is far less expensive than sourcing mass-produced commercial lumber.
Style of flooring?
Depending on the location of your sauna, there are different flooring options. These include open deck flooring, concrete slab with removable duckboards, tile, or raised wood flooring. We recommend a sloped floor with a drain where practicable, but we can build a hot room without a drain that will still hold up with proper maintenance and cleaning.
What kind of lighting?
If electrical work is already part of the structure or installation, different fixtures and styles can be considered, with different price points depending on your electrician. In a free-standing wood-fired backyard sauna, our preference is to forego any electrical hookup. An interior “lantern window” with a rechargeable light is a great way to illuminate an outdoor sauna.
Hearth and heat shield // doors and windows // benches
These and other elements of a sauna hot room can be done a variety of different ways, with different price points. Non-combustibles around the stove can be sheet metal, tile, or stone, for example; the hot room door could be glass or wood, with or without a window, and custom built by us or a sauna accessory retailer in the region. Same goes for vent covers and windows. Towel racks and other optional items we typically leave to you to select and install after our work is done.
There are many ways to construct sauna benches. We are partial to the stout and simple floating bench design developed by Glenn Auerbach, but we can make closed-front and other style benches as well, in any configuration you want.
2. Preliminary estimate and custom design fee
After our visit, we will send you a rough preliminary estimate based on your design and material preferences. If this looks agreeable to you, we will request advance payment of a modest, non-refundable design fee.
If your custom sauna can be based on previous designs we have used without significant alterations, we will charge a much lower fee. For from-scratch custom designs, we typically charge between $1K and $2K to develop a 3D model and generate 2D drawings, depending on the level of sophistication required.
3. Design proposal, lumber quote, and adjusted estimate
Upon pre-payment of the design fee, Ed will begin work on a detailed design and keep you updated on progress as well as circle back periodically with any questions or issues we may encounter. One of the benefits of modeling the entire structure down to the last wall stud is getting very specific stick counts and cutlists for lumber suppliers – who can often then produce the exact quantities needed.
Once we have a model and a lumber quote (this takes about a month), we will generate a detailed spreadsheet estimating labor time and materials costs for the project, and submit this to you, alongside the design, for adjustments and approval. We will also propose a start date for the installation.
Dial in the DIY: How much of a hand in this build do you want to have?
We welcome as much or as little assistance as you want to provide in realizing your sauna dream. It’s relatively simple: the more you leave to us, the more it tends to cost – conversely, contributing more of your own time, energy, and smarts to this collaborative project can help bring costs down.
In past projects this has looked like anything from lumber processing to ordering and procuring (and even salvaging and repurposing) materials, and we are open to other ideas for ways of lightening our workload. DIY and save money!
4. Contract, deposit, and schedule
Now we’re cooking. If the design looks good to you, the price is right, and we can settle on a schedule that fits all our calendars, we will send you a contract to sign, and request a deposit.
The amount of the deposit will depend on a number of factors including location of the worksite (distance from south Minneapolis) and whether materials procurement will be taken on by us or by you. If you are procuring materials, the deposit will be lower (labor only).
5. Procure materials, prepare the site
By this point in the process, we may already have placed the lumber order for your paneling and should have a rough idea when it’ll be ready. If it requires in-person pick-up, we are available to make trips under two hours one-way and deliver the lumber to the worksite ourselves, for our standard administration fee (15% of purchase price) plus gas.
DIY Options: You may choose to deal with the mill yourself and/or pay them for delivery, but this won’t always reduce costs.
You can also pre-order the rest of needed materials. We are happy to provide detailed shopping lists with specific product info. This will allow you to shop around and find reusable materials on the second-hand market, if that’s your thing, and also to avoid the 15% administration fee we assess for materials we procure ourselves.
Site preparation is also something we will discuss with you in the final stages before starting the installation. Many people prefer to do the yard-clearing or interior demolition work themselves to save a day’s worth (or more) of labor costs.
6. Build a sauna!
Once the space and materials we need are ready, we’ll get your custom sauna put together. After all that painstaking preparation, the build itself will feel fast – barring unforeseen difficulties, an installation typically takes either about three weeks (indoor) or six weeks (outdoor), assuming a two-person crew working five days a week.
Enjoy your new healing space
Remaining labor and materials costs are due upon completion of the sauna. We recommend running the sauna empty one time to allow any work residues to “burn off.” We also recommend clients place the stones on the stove themselves, this can be a special moment. Having your own sauna will be as cozy and calming as you’ve hoped. Great job making it happen!
Jahnke Carpentry 