Mobile sauna trailer 8 steps with pictures instructables
Mobile Sauna Trailer
After some research it was clear that the basis had to be a trailer which is big enough to carry the sauna. To save some money I made a deal with my neighbor. He was happy to give me his old trailer for free. In return we’ll share the sauna when it’s finished.Mobile Sauna Trailer
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About: Hey there! I've got a DIY blog. It's written in German however. Here I'll post the best DIY's of my blog - such as our mobile sauna. Enjoy! More About Silvia77 »
Don't want to spend over 3,000$ on a new sauna? You want to build your future sauna exactly the way you want? Then, a portable sauna trailer might be what suits your needs best. We did it. And so can you!
Our story begins in winter 2019 when we came up with the idea of having a sauna next to our little lake in the woods. In Germany law is rather strict when it comes to buildings outside a residential area. Therefore our sauna had to be mobile.You can visit the German blog here.
Add Tip Ask Question Comment DownloadStep 1: Getting Started
After some research it was clear that the basis had to be a trailer which is big enough to carry the sauna. To save some money I made a deal with my neighbor. He was happy to give me his old trailer for free. In return we’ll share the sauna when it’s finished.
If you don’t have a neighbor that is as friendly as mine, buying a used trailer is a cheap way to get the basis for your sauna. Keep in mind that the size of the trailer determines how large your sauna will be. To give you an idea: Our trailer’s dimensions on the
- Outside are: (L x W) 311 x 168cm or 66 x 122 inch
- Inside are: (LxWxH) 146 x 289 x 208cm or 57 x 113 x 82 inch
The next question to answer: Is your traile’s maximum weight enough to carry your sauna? To be on the safe side, I recommend a larger trailer with 2 axes which often have a maximum weight of over two tons. If you think your sauna might exceed the maximum weight, it is advisable to make a quick calculation how much your materials weigh.
Add Tip Ask Question Comment DownloadStep 2: What Helped Us With the Planning
To keep the costs low, we cut the wood planks out of a log with an alaskan sawmill.
Here are some questions that helped us with the planning:
How should the room be laid out?
Here is how we did it: The door is located on the back of our trailer. When you enter the room, the Harvia stove will be to your left. The room is fitted with two benches, large enough for two adults to lie comfortably.
- Do you want your sauna to have a window? On the opposite side of the door is a double window I kept from the last renovation of our home. Unfortunately one of the two windows cracked a little bit because it isn’t made for sauna temperatures, but it’s still usable.
- Do you prefer a stove or an electric heater? The three questions to ask yourself are: Do you have electricity where your trailer sauna will operate? Do you prefer the pleasant heat and atmosphere of a wood stove or the quick electric heaters? Do you have firewood available?
- What kind of isolation material do you want to use? You could do it like us and choose a mineral wool. (Glass wool in our case) Or you could use Cork, Hemp or Polyester insulation.
Step 3: Isolation
Since we built the sauna outdoors, we had to cover the roof with a tarp. In the picture (Step 1) you can see the metal frame that already came with the trailer and provided a great foundation for the walls and the roof. Keep in mind that the stove needs a safety distance from the walls because of the heat. It is barely noticeable at this stage, but if you look closely you can see where the double window will be located. We definitely needed that window to enjoy the view on our little lake during the sweating experience.
The wall is built in the following order:
- Wooden interior cladding
- Aluminum "barrier" between interior cladding and insulating material
- Insulation material (in our case glass wool)
- Roofing underlay
- Exterior cladding made of wood
We realized the interior lining with self-sawn boards to get a "rustic outdoor look". The insulation material is normal glass wool. The aluminum layer can be seen in the photo below. It prevents moisture from penetrating the insulation. The reason why roof underlayment is important is that it’s open to diffusion. You can think of it as a jacket that lets moisture out, but doesn't let moisture in. On the outside, the roof underlay is covered with wood for the optimal Finnish sauna look.
Add Tip Ask Question Comment DownloadStep 4: Stove-Setup
When choosing a heating system, we wanted to install a wood stove in our self-built sauna for two reasons. First, we don’t have electricity on our recreational property. Second, we like the atmosphere of a wood stove much more than that of an electric stove. Before we built the mobile sauna, we already had a barrel sauna with a wood stove in our garden. It is quickly fired up and takes about 20 minutes to reach sauna temperatures. If you decide to equip your sauna on wheels with a stove, a lot of thought should be given to safety. This mainly includes sufficient ventilation and proper shielding of the heat, e.g. with metal sheets. The ventilation is extremely important and I frequently make sure that the air intake in the floor is never blocked.
The stove is already burning in the sauna trailer. As you can see in the photo, the stove is surrounded by sheet metal. We bought the metal sheets on Ebay and then bent it ourselves.
Our wood stove is made by the Finnish manufacturer Harvia. Since Harvia is the market leader and we have got a stove from this brand in our barrel sauna, it had to be another Harvia stove. We can only report positive things about the stoves.
Step 5: What Kind of Wood Should You Use for a Sauna Trailer?
We had the luck to be able to saw the wood for our new sauna trailer on our own. The logs came from the surrounding forest, which helped us to reduce the cost of the sauna almost to zero (except the stove, the benches and the door). We were not looking for a special kind of wood and just went with what we had available at our little forest. We went with local spruce, which looks good on the unpainted interior and the painted exterior.
The benches came from an old sauna that the owner removed from his house. It is important not to skimp on the benches since it is the part that the body has a lot of contact with. The optimal wood is African whitewood also known as abachi. It has a low thermal conductivity and does not heat up in the hot sauna environment. Moreover, it’s soft and elastic. The slats are particularly easy to clean. But please be aware that the wood of african heritage is classified as “least concern” on the IUCN Red List.
The freshly cut wood for the interior lining was dried directly in our barrel sauna, which worked really well. Our barrel sauna is not homemade, but comes from a professional carpenter. I have to admit that compared to our new self-built sauna, the workmanship of the old one is on a higher level. For example, in the picture you can see how carefully the sheet metal was folded around the heater. However, it was not our goal to build a perfect sauna. We wanted to build a fancy mobile outdoor sauna with a “time investment” of four weeks and, wherever possible, with parts we got for free.
Add Tip Ask Question Comment DownloadStep 6: The Transport
I built the sauna on the property of my neighbor who provided the trailer. We transported the sauna with his ATV to the destination - our little property with three fishing ponds in the woods. Since then it has given us and our friends wonderful years with the most beautiful sauna experiences. I believe that there is hardly something better you can treat your body with than three sauna rounds with a bath in a frozen lake between each round.
Pulling the trailer sauna by quad-bike was not an easy task. The sauna still has quite a light color since it isn’t painted on the outside yet.
Add Tip Ask Question Comment DownloadStep 7: The Window Installation
According to our plan, the sauna should have a glass front with two windows to have a nice view on our pond and the sunset. The windows were left over from the last renovation of our house and to my surprise, they had the perfect size. We were aware that regular windows that aren’t heat proven, aren’t ideal for a sauna. Unfortunately, one pane cracked after a few sauna sessions. No problem for us, as the window is double-paned and the windows are still intact after a few years.
Add Tip Ask Question Comment DownloadStep 8: The Door
Having a door in a sauna is never wrong. Your two options are either building or buying. We decided to acquire one from the seller that provided us with the benches. Having a high quality door is very important as it’s often swung open and closed. Building one yourself is really hard and definitely not as simple as building the rest of the sauna! You have to work very precise so that the door operates smoothly. To save time, and nerves it’s best to buy one. We bought a sauna door with a window so that we can check if the fire is burning without opening the door (and letting cold air inside). Sauna doors usually have a ball catch mechanism. We have installed one from eBay for about 25$.
Источники:
Источник - https://www.instructables.com/Mobile-Sauna-Trailer/