The Sauna

A Complete Guide to the Construction, Use, and Benefits of the Finnish Bath

by Rob Roy

Excerpt 2

Many Fine Saunas resulted from the publication of The Sauna back in 1996, including some appearing in the pages of this revised edition. The original edition, as they say in cricket, “had a good innings.” But the time had come to rework the book with lots of new information. And, while we were at it, it seemed a great opportunity to bring out the revised edition in full color.

The first edition was not without its faults, and we have tried to correct those in the current work. The most serious fault—an error of omission really—was that the book concentrated on the building of cordwood masonry saunas, to the exclusion of important information about building a conventional sauna using ordinary stick-framing and insulating techniques. Thanks to Loren Johnson’s excellently documented sauna addition project in chapter 7, this rather glaring omission has been attended to with what is now the most detailed construction chapter in the book

A major organizational change makes the book more user friendly. The new chapter 2 brings all the siting and design information from the original book into one place, with at least as much new additional material and illustrations to make this a much more complete discussion of these important issues.

Appendix 1, Sauna Equipment Manufacturers and Distributors, has been totally updated and includes, for the first time, all the various web sites for these suppliers. Obsolete references have been deleted and new suppliers added. For those readers who would rather purchase a sauna than build it themselves, appendix 1 is particularly valuable in listing suppliers of sauna kits (by definition, all the precut pieces) and prefab saunas (manufactured wooden panels, ready to fasten together). Get information from several sources and compare features and prices.

Finally, every page of the book has been reexamined for this new edition. Corrections have been made and new material has been added where it helps flesh out the commentary. I had no idea when I started this project how long it would take to find and replace all the original black-and-white images with color. Things get well shuffled and scattered in eight years, including my wits.

The book remains an excellent guide for building a cordwood masonry sauna, my favorite kind, while offering the alternative of a conventionally framed building.

I am proud of this “new improved version” and hope that you, dear reader, enjoy it as much as I enjoyed creating it.