DIY Sauna Cost Breakdown + Lessons Learned
This DIY sauna project was one that I took on with a buddy last winter in hopes of creating a sauna to enjoy for years to come. We designed it & built it over the course of a few months and have been using it for a while now. Throughout the winter we love sharing it with friends and have come to love it even more than expected.
Thinking of building your own DIY sauna? Here is a rough breakdown of the approximate material costs and links to some of the products we used. For reference, we are in the Meridian, Idaho area.
Lumber: $1500
Cedar (Floor decking + interior): $2,300
Roofing + Underlayment: $585
Glass: $185
Vapor Barrier (interior): $100
Paint + Caulk: $250
Hardware + Electrical Supplies: $950
Other: $112
Material Total: $7323
Hired Labor: $3,000
Total cost (not including my labor): $10,323 approx
Lessons + Suggestions:
-A quality heater is worth it. I bought a heater from a brand that I knew had a good reputation because I had used them many times in the past. I’ve seen many people who buy more obscure brands complaining about heater coils going bad prematurely and other problems.
-Lumber costs vary greatly: Shop around, even outside of your town. It may be worth the drive. I found that the cedar I wanted cost up to triple the cost from local sources, so I bought a load from a place in Oregon when I was on a trip to the area.
-You don’t have to use cedar inside. It is great, but in Finland and other areas they commonly use spruce, pine, and other types of wood. Cedar is wonderfully aromatic and resistant to rot and bugs but it can be very expensive. Whatever you decide to use should not be full of sap, through knots, or have greatly varying density because of how it impacts thermal conductivity.
-It’s not cheap to DIY a well-built sauna. They may look like a simple shed-type building, but if you are using great materials and building it to last it may cost much more than anticipated. Home depot and other companies have great websites that you can use to spec out your project to get a price estimate before diving in.
-Lighting is nice, but make sure its dim. I ended up shading the LED light on the interior and often we just turn it off and use the ambient light from the moon that comes through the windows. Some people do under bench lighting which looks really cool.
