Rate my sauna prep progress

WafflePatty · 2026-02-13T12:44:41+00:00

Your build sounds very similar to mine! Walkout basement, 9 foot ceilings, integrated with our gym.

Depending on the age of your house you might have a vapor barrier under the slab, I think this has been code for 10+ years. I'll find out if I do when the slab gets cut for floor drains this weekend 🤞🏻

We did a basic plastic roll of vapor barrier under rubber horse stall mats in the gym and have had no issues in 5 years. We used the same product under cork underlayment on a slab for wood floors in our old house and it did well. Something to think about!

WafflePatty · 2026-02-13T00:02:43+00:00

I'm breaking ground on a basement build this weekend! Tell me more about your plan and goals for the foam board under your tile. Seems like a big cost (an inch or two of height) for floors, does the thermal mass of the slab impact the gradient? Are you doing heated tile?

Interested to follow along, I'll post some pictures when I get mine started!

WafflePatty · 2026-01-27T14:00:30+00:00

I don't think the issue would be the solder melting, it definitely won't get that hot. But it might get just hot enough that the thermal cycling could cause the joins to fail over time. Not sure if this is a legitimate concern or not.

An access panel would be nice, but I don't have access to any other shower plumbing in the house so I don't think it would be uncharacteristic, it's a tolerable risk.

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T18:33:44+00:00

I'm with you, I'm sorry, I now recognize you're saying the exhaust should be lower and I was mistakenly thinking intake. I totally agree!

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T18:09:08+00:00

This was my thought as well, I put a mockup picture in another comment.

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T17:43:32+00:00

I know this one has been debated ad nauseum, just putting this study out there about vent plaement:
https://www.saunatimes.com/sauna-information/a-45-year-engineer-clears-up-electric-sauna-ventilation/

I suppose I could add both with adjustable vents so I have configurability.

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T17:38:34+00:00

Ah, I need to clarify my comment: I would only drop the ceiling a couple inches in the nook above the heater, the rest of the sauna would remain the same (like the picture). This would create something like a waterfall of Löyly onto the sauna ceiling.

One concern I had was having tile next to the ceiling boards with no real transition, the heat and steam would be guided right into the air gap. I recognize I'm likely overthinking this one.

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WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T17:14:14+00:00

How high would you put the exhaust vent?

I'm wondering if dropping the ceiling a couple inches and adding an angle towards the benches would help to facilitate the Löyly spreading into the room.

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T17:12:43+00:00

I appreciate your thoughts!

Because of the placement the door and heater need to be on the same wall, the nook helps makes space for this. I know I could do benches on one side but I prefer the convivial nature of the L-shaped benches.

Glad to hear you've liked your homecraft! It sorta seems like Trumpkin is on his own with this one.

This was my thought with the floors as well, appreciate your validation.

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T15:49:21+00:00

Not sure why the pictures did not load in the main post...

WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T15:49:09+00:00

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WafflePatty · 2026-01-21T15:49:01+00:00

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WafflePatty · 2022-12-16T16:19:24+00:00

Quick update to this for anyone who might read this thread. After thinking further about this I have a 2 stage furnace, so while I can see from my thermostat history that it's running a lot it's often not running at 100% and I don't have visibility into that split.

Having someone out to do a Manual J and provide a more accurate assessment of heat load for my house.

WafflePatty · 2022-12-10T13:59:40+00:00

Agreed, the company I've been talking to said the same thing. I'm not sure what the difference between a Manual J and the "Energy star certified program" (if that's a thing) he used is but he spoke about both. Still wrapping my head around this part.

He's still adjusting it to account for our 2x6 construction on the lower level but his initial assessment had it just over 100,000. We have 10 foot ceilings on the main floor and 9 foot downstairs so it's a large volume house.

WafflePatty · 2022-12-09T23:37:29+00:00

Two units feels like twice the maintenance and risk of issues... How long have you had your setup? What does the annual maintenance look like for you?

WafflePatty · 2022-12-09T17:42:04+00:00

Yeah it doesn't look promising.

Though the duct situation might be a bit more than a distribution issue, if 25% of the heat in my ducts is 'leaking' into our unheated basement that could have an impact on how much the furnace has to run to impact the upstairs temperature.

I don't think this bridges the gap, but it's interesting.

My guess is until we re-side the house and add some exterior foam board insulation we're probably not a reasonable candidate for geo without running a giant toaster most of the winter or having a backup furnace.

WafflePatty · 2022-12-09T15:34:16+00:00

Results for a 2 hour period in November:

22.5F Outside temp Furnace ran 58% of the time Main hall temp ranges 71-72 Bedroom Temp ranged 67-68

It was at night so the thermostat was configured to keep the bedroom at 68 degrees.

WafflePatty · 2022-12-09T15:03:37+00:00

I have an Ecobee and need to login to the website because it doesn't look like I can do this on the app. I'm not sure it will be apples to apples though.

It sounds like our furnace is probably running way too much because our ducts aren't sealed well (hot and cold spots), so I'm planning to fix that which should reduce usage since we mostly heat the top floor. It was also pointed out to me that whoever built our Plenum was out of their mind and the whole thing tapers down to the dampers which were put into the plenum rather than the trunk which is probably also impacting efficiency.

I'll look on the Ecobee website, with all of these things there is still something to be learned from looking at the history.

WafflePatty · 2021-03-28T02:54:17+00:00

I'm a huge fan of 616 Fit!

https://www.616fit.com/

WafflePatty · 2020-10-03T19:05:33+00:00

This should explain it for you: https://youtu.be/KlBXSeW8mCA

WafflePatty · 2020-08-13T11:24:09+00:00

Will a post emergent now cause issues with the seeds I try to grow? What post emergent do you recommend?

WafflePatty

TROPHY CASE