I Built a Luxury $20,000 Sauna and Saved Thousands

Saunas have incredible health benefits. From mood enhancement to cardiovascular benefits—they are endless. And I have already built two other saunas before. We built a sauna inside the barn. So , this is a small barn. And we built the smallest sauna we could on a limited budget. We did it, guys. We did it again. She looks simply incredible. Well, we have since moved, and the sauna that I built and love so much is now being enjoyed by the new homeowner. I found the most incredible and cutest sauna I've ever seen. And you know what? It costs $20,000. I don't have that much money lying around . So today we're going to do it ourselves. They drove. Many of you have written to me in private messages that I should build a new sauna for my new house. And if you've been watching this channel long enough, you know that we've built a few of these before. Well, today we're going full steam ahead . This will be the " Cadillac" among saunas. And I'm so excited that it will be in my yard. So, design, here's what I think . We will use 2x6 lumber for the base. I have concrete supports that we will place. My main problem here is making sure we have enough space . Also, don't make it too bulky. The larger the sauna, the more powerful the heater we need, and the more expensive this project will be . So we will try to make it so that three or four people can comfortably fit in it. My dimensions will be: 5 feet by 5 feet and 6.5 feet tall. This will keep all the heat inside. half. Well, I don't know what the budget is. I used to build something for around $2000-$2400. However, before I've even cut a single piece of wood, I already have $1,300 in expenses, just because I had to order a door—I want to show you that—and a heater that only cost a couple hundred bucks. and also lumber for the base; now we've spent 300. So we need you to buy the merch because there's no way I can finance it on my own. And to all of you who bought the merch, thank you very much. I bet you look great in it. And if you want to buy, here is the QR code. It's been 5 minutes since the project started, and I'm already connecting the wrong details. I love Mondays. This one should be there. I love the mounting brackets. I like how these mounts were invented , but I hate installing them because it's such a tedious job. You could build this by simply screwing the side panels together. However, with each new project I try to make everything a little better—whether it's stronger , more reliable, or something else. I think it's a great idea to constantly improve your skills and the things you build get better. Here is our little platform. It's like building a terrace. Building a terrace is like building a shed, and, in fact, like building a house. They all have the same components. Everything here is clear to me. However, I chose a 2x6 board to keep the structure lower. I don't want a big step, because it will stand on blocks. But for extra reinforcement, I will put jumpers in the middle to prevent any sagging that might occur. Oho. I think I'm having a seizure. The deflection that could potentially occur. You need to drink more water. You know what people always say ? This channel constantly writes: "This guy is sitting on a pile of stimulants." Apparently, no stimulants in the body. It's just natural energy, maybe ice baths help. As for the bushes, I was worried that we would have to uproot some of them to make room, but the good thing is that after a little pruning we have enough space. And it's quite cozy here. You seem to be secluded in the middle of... I don't know, it does n't bother me. This is my favorite part of the job so far. I like it. I'll go get some concrete blocks, and we'll start leveling this structure. We are laying the foundation . You need to have a good foundation. If you build a sauna at home, I'm not saying it increases the value of the home, but it definitely increases interest in it if you sell it, of course. Ultimately, what happens is: the buyer is more interested in the house because it has a sauna. So we negotiate a price, I get a little more money from the buyer, and he gets a new sauna. I have another block. Should I put one in the middle? Should I take another one? Do you think we should get another one? Okay, let's take another one. Do you think we need another one? Do you think we need another one? Okay, let's take another one. Here is a jelly bear. Did he come with me from the store? If only we could analyze him and find out how old he is. Do you think it's still edible? I don't know. If I knew it was from my house, I probably would have eaten it anyway. But with a good frame, let's start building the walls. One lesson I learned: deal with the door first. Are you going to look for brand new ones? Are you going to look for used ones? By the way, thrift stores like Rehab for Humanity or Restore are another option. There are many places you can go where people from projects donate and you can buy things cheaply, I have done so many, but this time I ordered an all-glass door. This is incredible. So, we have to make sure they get through everywhere. For the final finish, I need 78 inches of door height, but we have to consider the flooring material we will use and the material on top. So , ultimately, we need to leave enough space. I think 7 foot ceilings would allow us to do pretty much anything we want. Let's get the bars. I love the smell of fresh wood in the middle of the day. Gay! Oh, we're already warmed up. By the way, about the font, it's officially been a month since I built it. It works just phenomenally, and I wanted to give you an update, as promised, on the water purity. I didn't drain the water from this font at all. It's been a month already. There's a leaf there, but the filtration is great...and it's super cold, by the way . And the filter, the black one, I don't know if you can see, it's pretty dirty. You can probably take it off right there. It's time to change the 50- micron filter, they should be replaced about once a month. But in the end, this font turned out phenomenal. Everything in it works perfectly. I saved thousands and thousands of dollars by not buying a ready-made one, but by building it myself. So now that we have a sauna here, you can warm up to 190–200 degrees and then jump into an ice bath at 41 degrees. I'm excited just thinking about it. I'm drooling. That's how crazy I am. I'll try to do it myself. I have a little backup here. I will raise and throw away my support. The support is activated. I like it, Kyle. I really like it. This time I'm trying to do everything safely. I have a bad experience working on a construction site. Oh, the board fell. The walls are growing, looking good, and no longer pose a threat to me or society. So why do you love the sauna so much anyway? Um, honestly, I grew up with them. I was a child. I was six or seven years old. My father, uncles...I am Russian by origin, I was born there, I am still bilingual. My father, uncle, and grandfather would have these crazy bath sessions at night. They sat there for about three hours, doing intervals , heating it up to a crazy temperature, going out, taking a break, drinking tea, coming back, and I loved it ever since. As an adult, I started walking again, and I realized how wonderful you sleep and how good you feel afterwards, so for me it's like a life hack for longevity, to be honest, with a touch of childish sentimentality. Oh, this is so disgusting. By the way, you see here a double rack made of 50x100 timber. This is for such cases. One wall attached to it will have something to cling to. Good day. We are going at a pretty good pace. We have been working for 4 and a half hours. That's lightning fast for a loner like me. Is it from the ladder or what do you think? Exposed. Well, that's it , friends. We have all three walls. Keep in mind, this will be one huge glass viewing door. I need to go get some sheet material, start sheathing this puppy so it can start to stabilize. This is usually my favorite part of construction. You can see a real shower container. The next day. The rain passed a little , and I received, well, not the most pleasant letter for me, but still a letter from "El Presidente" of our housing cooperative, informing me that the sauna should not be visible from the main road, which is over there. How wonderful. Even though I have huge evergreen trees behind me, there are gaps here and there, and depending on the angle you drive up, you can see some of them, not all of them, just bits and pieces. So, to stay within the rules, we need to change something about this. The first thing to do is to prune this bush and remove it from there. This is good practice in case a snake pops out. You take the rustiest shovel, cut the snake in half, and now you have two snakes. Okay, first hurdle overcome. The next hurdle is to move it forward, about three feet . Luckily, I do n't have a lot of material here, so hopefully it won't be too terrible. I think we are in the right position. Let me go take a look outside. I will make sure that the wonderful condominium association team is happy with my decisions here. A little. I can see a little. Oh, that's the best I can do. But here's the part that doesn't make me very happy. We'll have to lower the rear end at least a foot. Who said there's no great news on Tuesday? Let's lower the back , which might even help us, because we still need a sloping roof. So instead of raising this part, we'll just lower that one. We'll also have to modify those walls, of course, to accommodate that. I simply adore condominiums. So I understand why they exist . I had bad neighbors who would just leave all their junk in front of the house, wouldn't park in the garage, left all their cars, campers in the driveway, preventing you from backing out . I understand. But some things—it's a bit too much, you know. This is just my personal opinion. Okay, enough whining about it. Let's fix something. The plan is: cut at an angle, then finish the rest with a saber saw. It feels like some kind of crap from "The Karate Kid" or Mr. Miyagi, where a young horse has to learn to build, take apart, and build again to learn everything perfectly. This is how it feels. Okay. OK. Well, I think it's a good compromise. I even like it better that it's a little lower. It's not that high. It became more square or proportional. This might be a good compromise between me and the homeowners' committee. And if they don't like it, they can just do like Bart Simpson— kiss my ass. Kiss the ass. But let me show you where I personally went wrong, something I'm not at all proud of. However, we found a solution. So, no one should let me plan framing work the day after a long weekend. But we recovered. It's Tuesday already. I didn't include the support posts that will hold our door frame in front. Rookie mistake. It should have been placed differently in my head. But, as I said, I have a solution. We'll use a double beam of 2 by 6 boards to help distribute all the weight when the roof comes up. Here's what I found—these double beam brackets that will hang them, distribute the weight, and hold these two sides together. We'll probably have to add another rack inside to compensate for the thickness , but we should be able to manage. Sometimes we face problems. We are not proud of them. They happen. If you don't face challenges, you do n't build anything. And if you do, you are a top-level professional. But we found a solution, and that's the most important thing. Okay, I think we're ready to build our door frame. As for building a door frame, everything is very simple. The only thing that might surprise you is that when assembling, you need to stack the material you are working with. Such a rack , when laid on its side, is three and a half inches wide. But when you add them together, it only comes out to be three, so you have to add half an inch. And it's very easy to do: take any material that's half an inch thick. I've seen old-school craftsmen use pieces of drywall; inserted here, it shrinks—it's just a placeholder. Throw it in, make sure it's level, grab a nailer—by the way, I finally went out to my work trailer and got my tools, it makes the job go much faster and easier now—and then just pile it all up like it owes you money. We went to install this door frame. Three and a half inches on the approach. We measure the exact distance, as below. It should have been 61 inches. But by the time you tighten the screws to secure this hardware on both sides, a quarter of an inch will come off on each side. So we have an extra inch left. We didn't fit into this opening at all, which would have been very problematic when installing the glass door. It is almost impossible to fix this. So if you're going to do something, do it right now. 61 money. Here's what I think about the cladding. To make my life easier, I'll just nail it down and then start cutting off everything extra with a saber saw. This is much easier than trying to fit all the measurements. That way we can handle it quickly and be satisfied. Want to save your back from carrying sheets of plywood—go to Amazon and grab this plywood holder. He will save you. I've used it for drywall, plywood, any 4x8 sheets. Works great. Class. That's how it was intended. I really thought I was going to faint. I thought the ladder would push me back or push me forward. Hey, Kyle, can we put on some cool dramatic music while I do this? So, this thing is still a little visible from the street. I'm going to paint it black, a matte black, modern, like that $20,000 Swedish sauna I found. But before painting, I need to hide the natural color of the wood from view from the road. So I'm going to use this black plastic sheeting for masking. So that, uh , "El Presidente" from our OSB doesn't start writing another angry letter. I need two more sheets of OSB, I need to go to the store, but in order not to lose momentum, I still have some boards left for the roof. Uh, I checked all the diagrams on the internet. Given the level of snowfall, a 16- inch step between them should be enough for us. So what I'm going to do is : I'm going to throw in as many of them as I can. I don't want to make a big deal out of it, because in the photo of the Swedish sauna that I saw, everything looked pretty concise and neat. But we sometimes have snow in the winter . Uh, and I want to make sure it drains away from the structure, not runs under it. But I will install them. The roof will be sloped. We will fasten them with nails crosswise. And then, uh, I'll get some rafter braces so these guys can withstand a real storm. So, you can do it neatly with the hemming of the cornice. Or just attach it here and circle it. This is another way to do it. Okay, we're working late the second day. Installed all the roof rafters. Secure the anchor or storm ties so they don't go anywhere. Now we need to start building the roof overhang with an 8-inch hem. I do n't think I need too much. I do n't want the performance to be too big. I want it to look thinner and neater. I'll throw this in there, and then we'll start sheathing the roof with plywood, because it's raining again today, and I want to protect the structure from the weather as much as possible. I hate doing certain projects alone. Mostly because you can break your back. But okay, that'll do. If there is a will, there will be a way. I'm glad he's not too cool. Maybe I need to adjust the depth a little. This is shameful. You are in the splash zone. Get over there. Not bad . I still have gunpowder in my powder flasks. How many nails do you think you hammered in from above? 73. Not even close . I do n't think so. Okay. Well, I know about those , because I didn't see where it ended. Here I have one, two, three. Wait, forget it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Yeah, I missed eight times, which is not bad considering I probably nailed 50. See, the odds aren't that bad. Let's start waterproofing this thing. I chose roofing felt mostly because I didn't want to use synthetic material. He is expensive . It costs 100 bucks per roll. They don't have small rolls. So for an area like 40 square feet , that's too much. So I took it. And we also have a dropper to get around corners. Drippers work on the principle of water drainage. So when we lay down Tyvec or roofing felt, we lay it down so that the water drains over it. Let's start from the bottom, then up, so that the effect is cascading. And for the side drippers, we place them on top of the hydrobarrier so that the wind doesn't lift it and bring moisture inside. And on the back side there is a dripper at the bottom so that water can drain from the roofing felt. That's the theory. Simplify everything. It's not clear at all. I can't wait to start bringing some light things in here , not this heavy crap. I do n't know. I accidentally cut it with a knife. This is a fiasco. Everything is in vain. Now we'll start attaching the dropper, and it will look nice. Typically, you want to install the face board before the roofing material because it will already be in place and you can put the dripper on top. But we don't have the necessary materials right now . So we're going to use this little spacer bar to easily slide the board in later when we're done and ready. Honestly, I'm already full of things to do. Oh, and one more thing about drainage and drainage: when you put them on, slide them under the bottom , moving with the slope. This means that this part comes from below, so water will flow from above, fall onto the dripper, and come off the roof. Avoid excessive moisture damage. A person cannot endure everything at once. Just breathe. There is no need to panic. Just breathe. Okay, let's throw some tiles on this miracle. So, laying tiles is not too different from laying flooring in a house, especially laminate. You take a whole part, three quarters, and one quarter . And it's very similar to this process. So, here it is . You put it on top. Leave about a quarter inch of overhang for water drainage. And we will hammer in four nails. This is unfortunate. Oh, my compressor is off. That's why I do n't have enough power. OK. When the first row is ready, lay the next one. There is a convenient line there that you don't need to cross. This is your 3/4 share. And then a cut piece, well, I don't know, a third or a quarter. And now we can continue this pattern all the way to the top. This will create a displacement. As you can see, they are arranged so that water flows from each tile from this part to the other. These seams cannot match. You don't want these joints to be in line. Also make sure your nails are hidden. You will avoid problems. OK. What is going on here anyway ? I think the last two times I did roofing work, it was 40 degrees. We were doing an abandoned house, the entire roof on that 1,200-foot property. I do n't like this game anymore . YouTube is no longer fun. I just want to sit in the office, do what I'm told, and not tear down roofs. I want this to be over already. And then we built the previous sauna. It was the most ridiculous hammering technique you've ever seen. All this happened in the summer. And you know what? I don't recommend it. I would rather have weather like this . It's cold, no rain, no snow, just cold. Roofs are a nightmare in the summer. Just complete horror. I need, I need another pack. So, usually on a traditional roof, you just throw them over the ridge and then cover them on top. However, since we don't have a ridge, we have to take a shingle, turn it over , cut it in half, and nail it in . They will be open. But we have to apply a good amount of, say, silicone, even though it's actually asphalt glue that roofs are repaired with, to hide all those nail holes and avoid problems in the future. I'm 90% sure that this is the logical way, I've done it before and there were no problems. But if you're a roofer and you know I'm doing it wrong, let me know in the…