How To Build A Sauna (by someone who’s never built a sauna before) - Part 2

So, what does it take to actually build a beautiful Sauna on wheels? Read on:

Who is that cool cucumber? Adrian getting to grips with the trailer.

Picking up from where we left off in Part 1

Step 4: Change the trailer last minute

Remember that bit about Josh being flexible on the design process? Well, a month or so before the build, we thought we’d struck gold when we were gifted a caravan by the awesome team at Kirkstall Valley Farm. Our plan was to build the sauna in it – it was huge and would have let us achieve a big goal of making a sauna that is wheelchair-accessible (we still want to do this in the future). We spent two workdays with a crew of people tearing out the inside with crowbars and sledgehammers in the hot sun. (Keep an eye on our Instagram for more volunteer days – we’re really grateful to the awesome community of people that have thrown themselves into helping us out).

Smashing it up!

Then, a week before starting the build, we changed our minds. Lots of things about the caravan were starting to worry us, and these were building up. For one thing, the trailer that it was built on was really underspecced, only able to take 1.3 tonnes. This might sound like a lot, but when you factor in all the wood that’s going inside there, and then twelve bodies… We had visions of the trailer collapsing with everyone inside. There were also worries about the aesthetics, the logistics of working around the existing frame and quirks of the caravan, and a worry about its height – one crucial aspect of a sauna is trying to get the benches above the height of the stove so you’re in the ‘hot pocket’ and don’t have the dreaded cold feet. With the roof of the caravan low enough that I couldn’t even stand up in there, we decided this was going to be too much of a squeeze.

SO, at the last minute, we decided to pivot away from the caravan (Grand Designs level shenanigans) and right away found the perfect trailer on eBay. It’s a car transporter trailer that these guys were using to tow their racecar around on, and it was in really great nick. It

The new trailer on site at Kirkstall Valley Farm ft. Josh

was a bit of a win, and we felt way more confident about building on there than we had with the caravan. Now to break the news to Josh… Luckily he was OK with rolling with the new direction, reconfiguring the design at the last hour and in time to order materials and start the build on Monday 21^st July.

Step 6: Raise the Walls

The weekend before the build was spent ordering materials while the rain poured down outside and told us to stay in and do our laptop work. We were jazzed to get started on the Monday. The first half-day was a big old battle with the angle-grinder. I have a fun image in my head of Josh crammed under the trailer with sparks stuffing into his beard while he worked his way through a bolt. We took a heavy winch off the front to make space for getting to the stove, and also to lighten the load on the trailer. Then our piles of wood arrived! Tractor Keith at the farm gave us a lift with his trailer to ship it over to the site, where we could now start making.

First we made a base, bolted to the metal trailer, that came up above the wheel arch. This meant that we could fly the floor out above the wheel arch to get some extra space in there, so it’s nice and spacious inside – we wanted to get those nice wide benches that you can sit cross-legged and lie down, and a wide walkway so there’s no tripping over anyone’s legs when you go in.

Next up were the stud walls. We learnt how to use the circular saw, and seeing the walls go up was so exciting, really getting a sense for the scale of the sauna, as well as where the doors and windows would sit. It’s a pretty big sauna. We’re also going to have a smaller 6-person one, so this is our more social and spacious 10-person sauna.

The first stud walls go up

Step 6: Raise the Roof

With the walls up we wrapped the whole thing in weatherproof wrap and got to work on the roof to get it good and watertight. After a bit of debate we went for corrugated metal roofing, which we think will sound lovely inside when it rains. The walls and ceiling are packed with fluffy rockwool, and over the top of that we’re sticking the crème de la crème of sauna insulation, Kingspan Satu-Sauna board.

Your latest indie album cover

One of the nicest thing about this whole thing so far has been the build culture. It feels really OK to learn and make mistakes; the tunes have been dancey and nice; and every day one of us takes it in turn to bring a big lunch for everyone to share. That’s made the whole experience feel really accessible, as someone who’s not been part of such a big build

Sneak peek at the stained glass 😮

before.

And what a build it is! We’ve got a BIG window at the back, above the stove, looking out at lots of trees. And my favourite part? A long, stained-glass window across the top of one wall, another Josh specialty.

That's it for this installment. In Part 3, find out how we… put in the stove, clad the inside with the sexy thermal aspen, built the benches, and literally everything else! Ok, maybe we won't get to discuss everything.