What You Need to Know About Building an Outdoor Sauna (2026)

Last winter, my husband and I received a Sun Home Luminar 5-Person Sauna to test. I live in gray and rainy Portland, Oregon, which has a pretty robust sauna culture to combat the February blahs.

Not only was I ecstatic, but almost everyone I knew was too. For the several weeks that I had the Sun Home box in my driveway, I received a constant stream of texts from friends. “Do you have a sauna?” they all asked, hoping to get invited over soon.

Since then, I’ve had several friends build their own backyard saunas, and I realize my experience may have been atypical. Still, I gleaned a few useful learnings that you can take away if you’re looking to install one of your own. If you’re considering dropping several grand on an outdoor sauna, here are a few things you might consider.

Lesson #1: Choose Your Sauna Type

There are several kinds of saunas. Traditional Finnish saunas use a wood stove and stones to heat the interior.

If you’re looking at modern electric-powered saunas, there are two types here. You can either choose an electric sauna, which has a single electric heat source, or an infrared (IR) sauna, which uses light panels to heat the body. If you opt for a sauna with an electric heater, you can also choose a dry or wet model. Pouring water over the heated rocks creates what the Finns call “löyly,” the steam that can help make a hot room more comfortable.

Devotees of one or the other can argue back and forth forever. Traditional wood-burning saunas are more likely to catch on fire. A dry sauna is more sanitary and therefore easier to maintain. The health benefits of a traditional sauna have been more widely studied, and so on.

Most people I know who have chosen to install saunas have opted for an electric wet model. This is the most similar to the public sauna that you might find at a gym. An IR sauna is usually cheaper. However, you might find multiple heat-emitting light panels more uncomfortable than a single heat source, where you can avoid direct contact more easily.

Lesson #2: Choose Your Location Wisely

When it comes to deciding where to install a sauna, there are a few common-sense nonnegotiables. Sun Home details these in its installation manual (which has been revised since I tested the sauna). You need a tile, concrete, carpet, laminated, or wood surface; depending on which sauna you pick from Sun Home, it must be able to support 870 or 1,270 pounds.

You must hire an electrician to modify your 240-volt, 30-amp power supply and use a NEMA L6-30P outlet; converting it yourself will void the warranty. The company now notes that it should also be installed in a dry, weather-protected area, although I have multiple friends who have installed outdoor saunas on graveled areas that are not under cover.

In sum: Although it is marketed as an outdoor sauna, you should treat it as if you're installing an indoor sauna.

Why? Even if you book the included white-glove service, it’s never really white-glove. There can be a significant time gap between when the sauna is delivered and when the third-party service comes to assemble it. In the interim, you need to be able to move hundreds of pounds, which includes fragile electrical parts, to a dry, protected area. And no, if you must ask, it is foolish to assume that the box it’s delivered in will be waterproof, so you must be on hand to move it immediately.

It is worth noting here that my friends who had a local company build and install their sauna did not run into these issues.

January is a really busy time for sauna installers, so my husband decided to try to do it himself. Sun Home told us to budget about three to four hours. It took the entire weekend, because it’s really heavy and involves a lot of manual labor, and the older version of the manual was extremely cryptic. Since then, I have learned that no one who buys an $11,000 sauna expects to install it themselves. Duly noted; always go with the service.

Lesson #3: Materials Make a Difference

This is also a common-sense point, but not one that occurred to me before I picked a sauna to test. Thinner building materials will allow more heat to escape and thus take longer to heat. A sauna that has big glass panels and aluminum walls will take longer to heat than a sauna that has thicker wooden walls and smaller windows.

Again, hiring a professional to install a bigger or more expensive sauna is worth it. When I noted that the sauna took a long time to heat, the technician who came out to examine my handiwork noted that the sauna itself did not seem to have adequate weatherstripping. You can see sunlight around the (glass) door.

Lesson #4: Consider Your Climate

Especially if you have a bigger sauna. If you have a one-person sauna that you just want to sit in for 10 to 15 minutes by yourself, your expectations might be lower than if you wanted a sauna that would be a more social experience. Your expectations should also be tempered if you live in a colder climate.

I found that mine tended to limp up toward 140 degrees Fahrenheit, especially since it was outside and uncovered, and I live in a place where temperatures drop considerably below 40 degrees at night during the winter.

Most at-home saunas have a built-in 60-minute timer cutoff to prevent you from accidentally blowing your entire monthly income on heating bills. However, it can be frustrating to wait 45 to 60 minutes for the sauna to heat up, only to realize it has started to cool again by the time you finally get into your bathing suit. Being able to check the current temperature on the Bluetooth-connected app was very helpful.

Since my experience, I've had several friends build saunas of their own, and I've been shocked by how simple it can be. I was just in one of their saunas (electric, traditional, steam) this weekend. It took 20 minutes to heat up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. It was hot by the time I finished my cup of coffee. I took a schvitz and went on with my day.

Not that anyone chooses to spend thousands of dollars on a sauna unwisely, but some time spent carefully shopping for a sauna can save you a lot of time, money, and possibly backbreaking labor. Here's hoping your install goes a bit more smoothly than mine did. Hire a professional! It's worth it!