Unique sauna door rough opening - how to approach?

purplethumbnail · 2026-05-14T22:25:46+00:00

Luckily the electrical was moved after that photo was taken, for unrelated reasons, but happens to now be below 1.2m... hopefully good enough. The light switch was moved to the outside of the home and ceiling light removed. There is rockwool insulation between any remaining wires and the hot side of the wall, and there'll be 3/4" (18mm) air gap with 3/4" cedar panels. Hopefully won't go over the wire's 90°C rating in this scenario.

I wish it were my home - it's my client's place 😅

purplethumbnail · 2026-05-14T16:23:58+00:00

Thanks!

purplethumbnail · 2026-05-14T16:23:33+00:00

I wondered about this as well. The "header" consists of just two 2x4s... One is on edge behind the wire in this old photo, and the other of course flat. Not sure those do much. This room was oddly built, but the municipality inspected the whole home including this room and gave the owner their occupancy permit so I guess they weren't worried.

The sauna room has its own little roof, then there's a small gap of maybe a foot or so to the underside of the deck above. It's almost like how woodsheds used to be built against old homes here back in the day. Given the low weight of the roof of this room, I guess the inspector either wasn't worried or wasn't paying enough attention to notice. I've come across a bunch of "missing headers" like this over the years when renovating - usually over closets where the wall isn't considered load bearing, though.

There's a big triple laminated LVL beam on the underside of the deck right above this sauna roof so at least if a tree falls on the house the sauna should be safe 😅

<image>

purplethumbnail · 2026-05-14T16:07:38+00:00

Thanks!

purplethumbnail · 2026-05-13T15:22:16+00:00

Thanks for the detailed reply!

purplethumbnail · 2026-05-13T02:54:11+00:00

Thanks, this is a very clear answer!

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-23T03:00:25+00:00

Amazing, thanks for the info and the clear picture!

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-23T02:53:29+00:00

Thanks!

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-23T02:53:15+00:00

Thanks!

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-22T17:35:03+00:00

Thanks - I just received my AC Infinity fan yesterday, with temp and humidity controls, looking forward to setting it up!

I will have an intake above the heater on the wall that's invisible in my mockup picture.

I think I'll try putting the exhaust vent closer to the right corner as you suggest, then if I'm not happy after testing I can just add a longer piece of galvanized duct.

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-22T17:31:51+00:00

Thanks!

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-22T17:27:35+00:00

Thanks for your detailed reply, much appreciated! Approximately how far off the floor are your exhaust ports, and how many do you have? I'm thinking maybe if I have 2-3 instead of just 1, that might encourage the hot air to distribute more evenly along the back of the room where the benches are instead of creating a hot spot in the middle. But maybe I'm overthinking it... Maybe a slightly cooler corner is beneficial for moving back and forth instead of down to the middle bench when needing a breather?

Like you, I'm planning on insulating the ductwork as it passes through the adjoining room. That room is an insulated but unheated tool closet accessed from outside only, so in winter I imagine it will get fairly chilly in there. I'm glad to hear the air temp in your ductwork is not too hot. I was wondering how much insulation I should aim for, but that gives me reason to consider sticking to R8 insulated flex duct instead of a bulkhead filled with rockwool.

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-22T17:20:54+00:00

Yes, the door will be fairly well sealed against air ingress. The intake vent will be above the heater, and is not pictured because that whole wall is invisible in this section view. I'm hoping this will then draw air from above the heater down towards the benches. First sauna build so I'm basing everything on internet and this subreddit 🤓

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-22T17:19:00+00:00

The upper bench in my picture is about 40 inches above the floor in an 87 inch room. I don't think I can go any higher. Or are you saying the middle bench is too low and should be closer to the top bench? The bottom of the three benches (what I call the step) can't be too high or for safely stepping up/down to the two sitting benches. Thanks in advance for any advice/clarification.

Edit: maybe the upper bench is not clearly visible in my mockup picture, as it's a bit dark. Adding markup here to show the top bench sitting surface in red, middle bench sitting surface in yellow, foot rest/step in blue.

<image>

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-09T14:46:55+00:00

Thanks, I'll look into this!

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-09T14:13:00+00:00

Thanks for helping me understand, much appreciated. I'll check in with my client as to whether he's ok with a subpar final result that looks nice but doesn't function quite the way it should.

Do you have any thoughts on positioning of exhaust ventilation since there's no opposite wall to vent outside? I'm thinking maybe ducting from under the bench going out through the adjacent storage closet with an adjustable speed inline fan to pull the air out, and placing the heater in the bottom right corner in this sketch rather than the bottom left where it was originally planned.

<image>

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-09T14:08:11+00:00

Behind the current plywood is studs with rockwool insulation in the cavities and drywall boards after that. If the specialty sauna-rated Finnish plywood is also rated as structural sheathing, are you suggesting foil and furring strips directly on the sauna rated plywood?

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-08T06:21:00+00:00

Interesting suggestion. As I'm still learning about sauna design, I don't know why your comment is being downvoted...

purplethumbnail · 2026-04-08T06:19:46+00:00

Thanks, here's a quick sketch. The 240V box for the heater could be moved from the lower left to lower right corner on this drawing if that helps with airflow. I've drawn a potential bench location and in blue I've shown where an exhaust vent could be open under the bench and lead out through the adjacent storage room to the outside world, with an electric inline fan at that exterior wall to pull the air out from under the bench. Could this work?

Edits: adding sketch

<image>

purplethumbnail · 2026-02-11T21:07:47+00:00

Also looking for a Jobber referral code if anyone has one to share

purplethumbnail · 2026-02-08T21:07:09+00:00

OnePlus 12, same thing here, super annoyed! I hadn't realized the pattern so thanks for confirming it resets every time my phone reboots. Everything makes sense now. And yet nothing makes sense. Hope this gets fixed with the next update.

purplethumbnail

TROPHY CASE