Building a Sauna Bench

No sauna is complete without several traditional elements, including a hot stove, a birch broom, and a sauna bench for a good steam or relaxation after the steam room. Making such a bench for the sauna with your own hands is not difficult; you just need to know a few rules.

Choosing the Material

The material used for the sauna bench is wood. The most common wood used in construction is pine, but it is not suitable for the steam room because pine releases resin when heated. Wood species such as maple and birch are not very resistant to moisture and quickly begin to rot. The best choice for the steam room is oak or linden – a traditional material for sauna finishing, and it is noticeably cheaper than oak. In the washing room or dressing room, the bench can be made of pine.

The general requirements for the qualities of wood intended for the manufacture of benches for the sauna or sauna are as follows:

• Low thermal conductivity, thanks to which the wooden surface will not burn the skin even in good heat;
• Good wood density, as a result of which the wood will not start cracking prematurely from temperature changes;
• Resistance to moisture, thanks to which wooden elements will last a long time.

Wooden blanks should be cleaned and well dried. It is desirable that they do not have knots and severe damage. A homogeneous element in structure is easier to process. It is necessary to thoroughly sand the surfaces of all elements and round all corners.

Choosing the Model

There are many modern options for making a sauna bench. Quality drawings are prepared for them.

For the washing room, fixed or portable benches are suitable. In the dressing room, you can put a simple bench or even a corner sofa. In the steam room, it is customary to install stationary benches in two or three tiers. The acceptable height of each tier is 60-70 cm. If several tiers are constructed, the distance from the top tier to the ceiling should be at least 1.2 m. The top bench is used not only for sitting but also for lying down. Its width should be 80-90 cm, length – 160-180 cm. The lower shelf is sufficient to make a width of 60 cm. In general, the sizes of the benches depend on the parameters of the sauna itself and the number of people using the sauna.

The basis of most benches includes the following elements: a frame made of a bar with a thickness of 50-70 cm, legs made of a thick bar, a seat made of slats arranged with intervals of 1-2 cm. It is desirable to provide grooves and wedges for reliable fastening of elements. Self-tapping screws act as fixators. Below, under the benches and benches, it is necessary to leave a small space to ensure air circulation during drying.

Safety

Despite the variety of options for benches in the sauna, they all must meet several safety requirements.

• Stability and compactness

Whether the sauna bench is made by hand or purchased in a store, it should fit into the space. There should be no protruding corners or other elements that interfere with movement.

At the same time, it is important that the benches are quite wide, and their center of gravity is low. In this case, they will be stable and will not tip over. If the bench is not stable, it must be attached to the floor or walls.

• Absence of metal elements

The bench should not have protruding nails or screws, or they should be recessed and spackled. This also applies to metal washers, corners, and other fastening elements. This is especially true for furniture in the steam room, where metal heats up strongly.

• Absence of chemical treatment

Antiseptic for treating sauna rooms should be intended only for internal work. One of the options: the first layer – colorless primer, and after drying – toned antiseptic.

Any element of the bench, in order to prevent its rotting, should not be treated with antiseptic solutions containing chemical elements. When heated, these liquids will release toxic substances hazardous to health. It is best to refrain from any additional processing of furniture items in the sauna or limit yourself to compositions based on natural oils.