I'm Building a Sauna from Pallets

My winter project is a sauna made "mostly" from pallets and pallet wood.

This is the basic idea I started from:


Here is a video about where it's at so far:

Cool idea. Cool design.

Any time you are working with pallets, a Pallet Buster is a wonderful tool to have. I am sure you already know about heat treated pallets vs chemically  treated ones.

I do not trust the joinery- if that's what the videographer calls his screws- in this structure. Regardless of  the cover overhead, this structure will be subject to wind and thermal stress. The miter cuts on the pallet edges could be a strong joint, but not without glue. Without glue, the screws will cause cavitation as the wind moves the structure and as it shrinks and expands due to the heat/moisture. The weight of the insulation will only make this issue worse, as the unglued miters will bear that entire weight in addition to their own weight. Without full overhead cover, snow load becomes a further stress. You are in New England, correct?

With the joints arranged like that, a failure in the joint will cause the panel, and the panels above, to fall inward and down. Nasty surprise if you are in there.

Using construction grade doug fir 2x4's to frame out the build first, and then using the pallets to fill the spaces in the polygon won't add a lot of cost but will add a lot of safety and durability.

I'd really like to see pictures of your finished product!

Happy Building!

Hi Larry, I would love a sauna, and spend hours dreaming about how to build one.  I also have built many things out of pallets.  

Here are my concerns- beyond the fact that my skills might not stand up to the task😊.

A sauna is an enclosed space, and when it is heated it increases off gassing of all materials included.  And the off gassed molecules are trapped in the space, where you cannot avoid breathing them.  

You don’t know what kind of wood the pallets are made of. You don’t know what compounds they have been exposed to. You don’t know if they have been treated with something, or had something spilled upon them. In the video, the man uses USB. You don’t know what is in the glue that holds the OSB together. The vapor barrier he put up looks like it is one kind of plastic or another. You don’t know what will be offgassing from that material. If you use any kind of glue, that also may toxify your air.

In the sauna, I dream of and the two saunas at health clubs that I regularly visit, the whole thing is made only of wood, and it is sanded and unfinished.

If you are not aware of the effects of offgassing molecules on human and environmental health, you could search micro plastics and VOCs.

I think a sauna is one place where the effort or expense of using pristine materials as well worth it.

Hi,

There is close to zero chance the gasses from the clean, kiln dried pallet material I used, can make its way into the interior bubble. The vapor barrier does all of the heavy lifting, It's essentially, super heavy metal foil.  That said one can never be 100% certain of zero off-gassing.

The cedar in my sauna is in fact clean, kiln dried and unfinished (smells great).

For what's it's worth I can almost guarantee, that if you peeled up the wood in the saunas that you mentioned, you too would find a vapor barrier. It's a building code requirement. Otherwise the structure the sauna is inside would be subject to escaping moisture and eventually rot.

Finally, when a sauna is correctly built, the vents...by design,  will circulate outside air in and heated sauna air out.

By the way, here is the latest on my sauna:


Hope that helps.

Greetings from Finland, the birthplace of saunas ❤️.
I like your design. The round form will make moist air circulate nicely. A dry sauna is pretty dull!
Often I see saunas that are just mass-produced cubicles and there the floor can be cold and the top searing hot and you are left trying to wiggle yourself to the optimal middle. The round form looks like it will circulate the steam nicely. Great idea!

I have a much duller sauna. It is the wethouse on my farm that has no electricity. It is my laundry room, drying room for mushrooms and veggies.. and a sauna! It has too many functiond to be pretty 😄

I have some 5 acres of forest, and it grows more per year than I use. So wood heated stove with 120 pounds of stones and a wood-heated 20 gallon insulated water pot. Not beautiful, but utilitarian.

Congrats! Send us pics when it is ready!

Larry Fletcher wrote:Hi,

There is close to zero chance the gasses from the clean, kiln dried pallet material I used, can make its way into the interior bubble. The vapor barrier does all of the heavy lifting, It's essentially, super heavy metal foil.  That said one can never be 100% certain of zero off-gassing.

The cedar in my sauna is in fact clean, kiln dried and unfinished (smells great).

For what's it's worth I can almost guarantee, that if you peeled up the wood in the saunas that you mentioned, you too would find a vapor barrier. It's a building code requirement. Otherwise the structure the sauna is inside would be subject to escaping moisture and eventually rot.

Finally, when a sauna is correctly built, the vents...by design,  will circulate outside air in and heated sauna air out.

By the way, here is the latest on my sauna:

Hope that helps.

Hi Larry,

You build your sauna, I’ll build mine!😊

We all assess exposures risks, reliability of industry standards and regulatory agencies differently.

hope that helps

I am heating the sauna and the 20 gallon cauldron.
First, I will do laundry.
The roof is full of drying celery.
And then I will bathe ❤️

Fantastic!

Thanks for the video Larry. Beautiful sauna.

Karina, you definitely utilized your space well! I've wondered what it looked like. Thanks for sharing it! I like how yours looks as well.