Makeshift sauna

[ImaRobot]

I'm heading up to an old friend's cottage for four days and we're thinking of putting up a makeshift sauna by the lake. We plan on using fallen branches for the frame and tarps for the skin. I've attached a photo of one I pulled from Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fileokhodnaya_Banya.jpg

I'm just curious if anyone here has tried to construct a makeshift sauna before. Any advice or anecdotes would be appreciated.

 

[Greyfox]

Here is Eastern Tennessee the last couple of weeks you haven't had to do a thing except walk outstide to experience a sauna.

 

[beau5278]

I've never built one but it looks like it should work ok to me!!

 

[TheVez2]

You might find some more ideas by looking up articles on how to build a sweat lodge.

 

[smokelaw1]

I've done it. Used fallen trees, tarps, blankets and garbage bags. Used large rocks heated in a fire outside, and had a small opening through which those outside could pass water and new rocks to us. Worked fantasticly! Was an amazing night. Also at a friends cottage, up on lake ontario. Interestingly, the largest scar on my body was caused that evening when walking down a hill with said fallen tree, I slipped, and said tree entered my bicep (had a sharp point where it had fallen and broken.) As I was, uh, in an especially pain-tolerant condition at the time, I thought it was a small scratch, nothing to worry about. Didn't really notice for a number of hours the damage I'd done to myself...so be careful!

 

[commanderkeen]

If you like to sauna, but want it to be mobile, why not invest in a tent sauna. They work great and you forgo the hassle of heating rocks at a separate location. If you want to build your own little *smoke* sauna, get some chicken wire and bricks, build a fire pit with the bricks and place 100kg of stones on top encased with chicken-wire, fire the bad boy for a couple of hours leaving a small opening in the tarps to let the smoke escape. Then let the fire die out and bathe away closing the opening as it does.

(If my suggestions seem hardcore, it's cause they are. I am from Finland after-all and a good sauna is a matter of pride around here.)

 

[Commander Quan]

It's gotta be 7.2 degrees C in Canada this time of year. That's enough to make me sweat without a sauna.

 

[ImaRobot]

You might find some more ideas by looking up articles on how to build a sweat lodge.

I've looked a bit at sweat lodges. They're quite interesting and a domed structure would be my preference, though they would be more involved than the quick and dirty set up shown in the linked photo. I'll need to judge energy level and enthusiasm of the others guys to see how much time and energy they are willing to invest into our experiment. I plan on having several "blueprints"/sketches done up to present to my friends.

I've done it. Used fallen trees, tarps, blankets and garbage bags. Used large rocks heated in a fire outside, and had a small opening through which those outside could pass water and new rocks to us. Worked fantasticly! Was an amazing night. Also at a friends cottage, up on lake ontario. Interestingly, the largest scar on my body was caused that evening when walking down a hill with said fallen tree, I slipped, and said tree entered my bicep (had a sharp point where it had fallen and broken.) As I was, uh, in an especially pain-tolerant condition at the time, I thought it was a small scratch, nothing to worry about. Didn't really notice for a number of hours the damage I'd done to myself...so be careful!

Oh man, my plan of building the sauna in the early morning seems like a sound idea, before I enter a state of increased pain tolerance later in the day. To anyone who have safety concerns, we do not plan on using the sauna when we are under the influence of any substances. Our plan is to use the sauna in the mornings.

If you like to sauna, but want it to be mobile, why not invest in a tent sauna. They work great and you forgo the hassle of heating rocks at a separate location. If you want to build your own little *smoke* sauna, get some chicken wire and bricks, build a fire pit with the bricks and place 100kg of stones on top encased with chicken-wire, fire the bad boy for a couple of hours leaving a small opening in the tarps to let the smoke escape. Then let the fire die out and bathe away closing the opening as it does.

(If my suggestions seem hardcore, it's cause they are. I am from Finland after-all and a good sauna is a matter of pride around here.)

I'm looking for a low cost sauna and I don't own a car so I can't see investing in a portable sauna. I like your *smoke* sauna method as it removes the need of moving hot rocks around. My little bit of research into the history of saunas have made it clear that Finns are fanatical about saunas.

Thanks for all the tips guys, I'll document our attempt at a sauna and post back here.

 

[noraajagger]

she looks a little over dressed

 

[plpenn]

Cool

Sorry I couldn't resist! It looks like it would work fairly well and be inexpensive at the same time.

 

[ImaRobot]

The sauna was a complete success. though I forgot my camera at my house, so I have no photos of it. The dock at the cottage is a large outcrop of exposed granite. Their fire pit is constructed on the outcrop so I decided to follow commanderkeen's smoke sauna suggestion and build the sauna around this feature. Unfortunately my friends where quite hungover the morning I was going to build the sauna, so I ended up making it myself. The setup was essentially a lean tube. I made two tripods out of branches and placed the larger one over the fire. The other one I set about 2m away and had a long branch running between the tops of the tripods. My tarp situation wasn't great I had three tarps of different sizes to form the skin. Even though there were open spaces near the ground with some of the tarps it still held the steam and heat quite well, fit five men, and was in a position that where able to jump directly into the lake from the flap door.

All in all, we were really surprised at how well a really ramshackle tarp sauna worked, I may be investing into a couple very large tarps to improve my future saunas.

 

[Rossmeister]

Sounds like a blast, mate!