Sauna on the yard

[Mauri Motti]

Here are some photos of the sauna building we finished this summer. It has an outdoor patio with a small kitchen area and the indoor facilities are a dressing room, toilet, shower and sauna. I'd still like to make furniture for in the wash/ shower room but I'll have to wait till the workshop is done as we at the moment don't really have the sufficient space for working on it. That'll be next spring. I am though making a bench for in the dressing room as one can see in the photo's. Purpose for the bench besides dressing and hiding shoes and some towels is that it also covers the thermal heating plumbing on the wall behind it which obviously need accessibility when needed. The bench in progress is made of Hemlock so are the benches in the sauna. The benches in the sauna are 4 cm thick 19 cm wide boards and are finished in paraffin oil. So will be the bench in the dressing room. The stairs in sauna I'll have to change. Luckily I din't screw or glue anything in place, it's holding up by it's joinery. I made them for beauty reasons but the spacing in it's width is uncomfortable. I'll have to do some math... oh boy.. Often in sauna's there are some kind of a step stool used but I wanted something different. The wall in the dressing room and toilet is made of steel brushed Black Alder tong and groove boards and have no finish on them (and will stay as is). The wood on the walls in the shower (besides tiles) and sauna rooms are brushed Black Alder and Aspen boards with a two coat paraffin oil finish. The ceiling throughout the indoor building is brushed Black Alder with two coats of black stain. Even though it is a relatively big sauna I found it difficult to take photos and do the space justice. You'll get an impression anyway.

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Sauna next to the house. ( Picture taken from the workshop's roof in progress)

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Sauna building detail.

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Entrance door to sauna. In front is the dressing room with a trough view to the shower room. Door to the right is the toilet.

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Bench in progress in the dressing room. Middle section will be open with a shelf. The left and right sections of the bench will have hinged doors.

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Shower room with lot's of crap laying around. Plus a old bench I made last year which we used in the dressing room before.

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Shower room, or room for washing like we call it.

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The hot room or.. the room where it all happens.. Sauna or whatever you'd like to call it.

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From another view point.

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Stairs detail. It has been in use for a few months now but it really needs work.

Thanks for looking!

Mauri

 

[RC]

The left side of the sauna 'seat' is interesting to say the least. What do you use it for?

It seems a bit short for lying down of do you have some sort of a sloping backrest to lift the persons head onto the back bench (that is higher)?

 

[Tinker]

I like your trim tools shown in the 5th pic down. :
What do you use for rough work? [poke]

Oh! BTW, a really great job. The BOSS keeps telling me we should have something like that in our back yard.
Tinker

 

[woodguy7]

That is stunning,i love the whole property & yard.  Is it your own House ?

 

[Mauri Motti]

The left side of the sauna 'seat' is interesting to say the least. What do you use it for?

It seems a bit short for lying down of do you have some sort of a sloping backrest to lift the persons head onto the back bench (that is higher)?

The löylyhuone (sauna's "hot room") is about 3 by 3 meters and thus the benches are about 3 meters long. I am 190 cm and can easily lay down on either bench.
Because we made the room so big we decided to add the bench on the left in the picture in between the other bench and it's foot rest. If it's hot in sauna or for kids this is a great way to sit a few degree cooler though I rarely use it. (well... that's an excuse but I think it makes the room look better.) There's no backrest.

Mauri

 

[Mauri Motti]

I like your trim tools shown in the 5th pic down. :
What do you use for rough work? [poke]

Oh! BTW, a really great job. The BOSS keeps telling me we should have something like that in our back yard.
Tinker

They are a splitting maul, a forrest axe and a froe.
(All Gränsfors Bruks)

Thanks for your comments on the job... And remember The Boss is always right!

 

[Mauri Motti]

That is stunning,i love the whole property & yard.  Is it your own House ?

It is our own property and house. Thanks for your comment!

Edit: We live in the house as from last July. We had a full renovation for 1 year and three months before moving in. With full renovation I mean insulation, isolation, heating, electrical wiring, roofing, doors, windows, etc. The logs is the only thing still standing. And still there is work to do but... ahh, that'll come.
I started a tread about it back then thinking I would monthly update it but I never did. Maybe one day I'll find the time and energy to finally update it with pics.

 

[kfitzsimons]

Sauna is great, but I'd like to see the work on the house. All the details I can see on your house are very nice. Window trim, roof, siding on the house - all are just beautiful. I particularly like Scan / Nordic / Swiss architecture.

 

[tiralie]

Sauna is great, but I'd like to see the work on the house. All the details I can see on your house are very nice. Window trim, roof, siding on the house - all are just beautiful. I particularly like Scan / Nordic / Swiss architecture.

Agreed! That house looks stunning, particularly considering where you started...
Tim

 

[woodguy7]

And those colours !  Really suit the property.  Pics of the house would be good  [big grin]

 

[Mauri Motti]

Yeah yeah, they'll come but I do have one and a half year worth of pics and have to grab the bits and pieces from here and there to be able to give an interesting overview. Here's something to hopefully keep you satisfied  [smile]. Pictures taken from the backside of the house. In the most recent pic in the left side you can see a part of the workshop's (in progress) roof.

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Before

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During

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After

Regards, Mauri

 

[jmbfestool]

All very nice! Very different aswell.

The last pictures looks like you completely replaced the top section  but yet you have the windows in the exact same place again apart from one on ground level.  I take it you where happy where they where position originally?!

JMB

 

[Tinker]

I like your trim tools shown in the 5th pic down. :
What do you use for rough work? [poke]

Oh! BTW, a really great job. The BOSS keeps telling me we should have something like that in our back yard.
Tinker

They are a splitting maul, a forrest axe and a froe.
(All Gränsfors Bruks)

Thanks for your comments on the job... And remember The Boss is always right!

I was pulling your leg about the tools being trim tools.  In actual real life, when i was first starting in my mason contracting business, i was working on a development where the carpenters were all Swedes.  They were very fast workers, but some of their speed was more related to what they were not doing.  One day, i was working at the top of a chimney when i felt my scaffolding starting to shake.  I looked down and realised the carpenters were tearing off some of the cross bracing to use fr some of their own work.  There was a minor explosion, but being that the smallest of the carpenters was probably twice my size, and they outnumbered me by several of the giants.  i decided the smart thing to do was to dismantel my scaffolding, load it on my truck and make a stratigic retreat.  Later in the day, i returned with a truckload of brand new steel frames.

Swiping scaffolding was not the only short cut.  the lead man did all of the door and window installations. I don't remember what he used for screw drivers and hammers, but his trimming (planing) tool was a hatchet.  He could trim a door to fit quicker than I have ever seen anybody using planes, hand or power.  He was not only quick, he could actually do a smooth job on the edge of a door. 

Years later, i was starting to get calls from people who had bought houses in the development.  i had removed myself from association with the development after working on only 5 or 6 houses. But i did stay in mason biz for another thirty years.  Several of my new customers had done a lot of interior remodeling.  several of them still had some of the original doors in their houses and i told them about the Swedish carpenter using a hatchet to trim their doors.  They did not believe me until i found doors that had not been replaced.  One had to look very close to determine the actual use of a hatchet instead of a hand plane.

BTW, If the Boss is ever wrong, the rule is "Check with THE BOSS."
Tinker

 

[Mauri Motti]

@ JMB,

You're right, the whole top of the house has been redone. Back in the old days those parts were not isolated at all. They were so called "summer spaces" and bedrooms were on the ground floor. Now we have bedrooms upstairs as well as a bathroom. Note also the new upper section in the right hand side of the photo in my previous post. It was completely redone from the ground up, with a second floor level added. We thought the windows were all in the right places to begin with. We have though made them slightly bigger as they used to be before a renovation that was done in the 50's. In the new part we placed seven large windows, each 180 cm in height.

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@ Tinker,

Back in the days people here were also very skilled with axes. I have a friend who lives in a mansion build in the 1780's that was build and owned by a sawmill owner. The log house has (the original) sawn ceiling boards but a hand hewn log structure. When I asked my friend why wouldn't they have used the mill for those too he smiled to me and said: by hand it was done much faster then if they would have used the river powered mill.

 

[rdesigns]

Beautiful work and design--thanks for showing.

Your "after" picture that shows the ladder system for access to the rooftop--is such a ladder system required by code, or building laws in Finland?

 

[Tinker]

Mauri,
The finished house looks great.  It looks like fine workmanship and design.  I do have one question about your framing.  Here in Connecticut, we call it "Balloon Frame." Strictly forbidden.  There are no fire breaks between floors.  Is this acceptable in Finland?  Did you install fire breaks after the picture was taken?

About the water driven mill:  When I was 4 until 8 and then from 14 to 21, i lived within 1/2 mile of a water driven saw mill.  The "water wheel" drove a system of belts that ran several pieces of machinery.  I remember the belts running all around under the ceiling beams with gearing to other belts that dropped down directly to the various machines on the floor of the mill, the main one being the large saw.  I don't recall what other machines were being driven, I just remember the quiet and belts slapping over my head. I believe it was the last saw mill in the USA, or atleast in New England.

From age of 8 until 14, we lived about five miles from a water driven stone grinding flour mill.  I never got the chance to watch the grinding of the grain, i was more interested in the growing end of the grain.  I sure did love to take care of the final products as my aunt would make great bread, biscuits, cakes, "flap jacks" and etc.  That was the best part.
Tinker

 

[Plank]

Thanks for  sharing Mauri. Impressive, renewing with  such good taste, the style really fits spot on for the old bulding.

Mauri,
The finished house looks great.  It looks like fine workmanship and design.  I do have one question about your framing.  Here in Connecticut, we call it "Balloon Frame." Strictly forbidden.  There are no fire breaks between floors.  Is this acceptable in Finland?  Did you install fire breaks after the picture was taken?

About the water driven mill:  When I was 4 until 8 and then from 14 to 21, i lived within 1/2 mile of a water driven saw mill.  The "water wheel" drove a system of belts that ran several pieces of machinery.  I remember the belts running all around under the ceiling beams with gearing to other belts that dropped down directly to the various machines on the floor of the mill, the main one being the large saw.  I don't recall what other machines were being driven, I just remember the quiet and belts slapping over my head. I believe it was the last saw mill in the USA, or atleast in New England.
From age of 8 until 14, we lived about five miles from a water driven stone grinding flour mill.  I never got the chance to watch the grinding of the grain, i was more interested in the growing end of the grain.  I sure did love to take care of the final products as my aunt would make great bread, biscuits, cakes, "flap jacks" and etc.  That was the best part.
Tinker

The code here is focused on fire sections and square area, and type of use. For instance if you have a residential house that is all a giant living space with exepetions of Hvac room and garage (fire load, the amount of flammable energy stored in a fire section), then you don't need fire breaks until you exceed your certain fire section area. It was a while since I browsed through the national reqiurement (RakMk) in school, but this I have a faint recolleticon of.  [unsure]

 

[Kristian]

Great work Mauri and 1+ on all the positive comments on your beautiful house!  [big grin]

 

[Mauri Motti]

Thanks for the nice comments.

Regarding the fire issues, the floor that you see in the picture is a temporary floor. The final floor was a plaster cast that holds the thermal heating pipes inside.
In the ceiling (on the first floor) under the floor there is sound isolation stuffing that is slowing a possible fire down.... How does one call this ? Guess you know what I mean.

 

[Tinker]

Mauri,
The problem I see is not the floor construction, but the studding going from ground floor all the way up past the the second floor without any stops.  It is like a chimney from bottom to top.  I do like the job you have done, but am concerned about the type of framing. 
Tinker