Why Choose A Chinook Prefab Kit?
Saunas are a product that has been rapidly gaining popularity in Canada in recent years. In any new or expanding market, there are mistakes made as manufacturers learn the best way to build and design the product and customers become more acquainted with what works and what doesn’t. Chinook Hot Tubs and Saunas have been building custom saunas for nearly 50 years, and the core design for our prefab units is about 35 years old. During this time, we’ve iterated on what works and discarded what doesn’t, resulting in a product that avoids the common pitfalls with saunas and does exactly what sauna owners want.
Here, we’ll outline some of the common pitfalls and how to avoid them. Even if you decide to buy your sauna from someone else, this is worth reading as it can help you make your choice and avoid things that you may not know are issues.
Barrel Saunas
Barrel saunas are very popular as they are the cheapest way to build an outdoor sauna. They have a few common issues between most manufacturers, though if you are on a limited budget, choosing one wisely can work for a decent sauna experience.
Common Pitfalls
Barrels are generally only watertight when the wood is wet, like when it’s full of liquid. A sauna environment is akin to a kiln for wood, and even with water added to the rocks it is a very dry environment. Once the wood dries out, gaps can open that allow rain in and hot air out.
Many barrel saunas are designed and built with thin material, often only ¾” thick and sometimes even less. They rely on the steel bands for their structure, and most do not have any insulation other than the wood itself. This can result in issues heating during the winter and more easily damaged walls due to the thin wood.
Barrel saunas have two benches facing each other along the side walls. In a sauna, the temperature changes by 12℃-15℃ per foot of elevation, so having only one tier of benches usually means the temperature at the bench is low, in the 40℃ – 50℃ range and is even lower on the floor where your feet will be. A single bench tier also means that the sauna operates at one temperature for everyone in it, even though some people may prefer in the 60℃ – 70℃ range and others may prefer 80℃ – 90℃.
Our Solutions
Our saunas are designed to allow for the expansion and contraction of wood while remaining watertight with a dedicated steel roof. The 2 x 6 wall and ceiling pieces float in rails, allowing wood movement while remaining tight and preventing water or air from getting through. Even our doors are designed to allow movement with easily accessible adjustment knobs.
Chinook uses 2 x 6 tongue and groove cedar for our walls and ceiling, and for outdoor saunas we include instructions on insulating the ceiling even more. The thicker wood provides better insulation, and all our saunas that are purchased for outdoor use also come with a larger heater to ensure the sauna will reach its maximum temperature in a reasonable amount of time, even on the coldest winter days.
Flat walls allow for multiple tiers of benches, with the upper bench putting you right into the hottest part of the sauna to get you sweating more, and faster. The bottom bench acts as a footrest for the top to keep feet away from the cold floor. The bottom bench also allows people who prefer different temperatures of saunas to use it at the same time, as the bottom bench will be about 20℃ cooler than the top bench.
Other Prefabs
There are a few issues common with other prefabricated saunas as well as just the barrel ones, and while there are certainly other brands that sell good quality saunas, these are issues to keep an eye out for.
Common Pitfalls
Full glass walls or large windows do look excellent in a lot of cases, but they have terrible insulation properties, and even double or triple pane windows do not stay properly sealed for long with the huge temperature fluctuations in saunas. These are not suitable for outdoor saunas in harsh Canadian winters and may result in a sauna that takes a huge amount of time to reach maximum temperature, or one that can’t even get to temperature at all.
Many prefabricated saunas come in one large piece. For indoor kits, this can make it impossible to move through doors into the place you want it, and for outdoor kits, this can limit where delivery can occur as you require a large, open driveway and several people and tools for moving the building. For many installations, this isn’t particularily important, but it’s definitely something to consider before buying an expensive sauna.
Some prefabricated saunas come without an interior ceiling, and the ceiling just matches the slope of the roof outside. This results in the heat collecting in the tallest portion of the room, which is not usually where you’re sitting, and can result in a sauna that feels cooler.
Our Solutions
For outdoor saunas we generally recommend placing one smaller window exactly where you want it rather than a huge wall of glass or large window. Our handmade saunas allow for a window to be placed exactly where it gives the best view without needing so much glass that you lose heat. We can do larger windows or even multiple windows, in which case we upgrade the heater even more to accommodate the heat loss.
Our saunas come in pieces, allowing for delivery to more remote locations. The sauna comes as a stack of boards that fit together with minimal tools and fasteners, so one person with a pickup truck can move and assemble these saunas. Even down steep slopes to waterfronts, tight areas inside houses, or just areas with roads that don’t accommodate trailers, our saunas can be installed almost anywhere. Our kits are also designed to be easy to assemble without much construction experience, so can be purchased as a kit and installed yourself as a weekend project if you would prefer.
Our saunas use an interior, flat ceiling to keep the heat evenly distributed and prevent it collecting away from where people are sitting. This also allows for a gap between the top of the ceiling and the bottom of the roof, which can be insulated for extra efficiency.
General Benefits of a Chinook Prefab Sauna
- Our saunas are handmade in our family-owned Ottawa woodshop from all Canadian parts. Our wood, aluminum, roofing, and even our heaters are all sourced from Canadian suppliers.
- While our saunas can be installed permanently in almost any location, they are legally a temporary structure. The modular nature of the sauna allows it to be erected without permits and depending on how you build the pad for the sauna, the entire project can usually be done without any red tape. They can also be disassembled and moved with a standard pickup truck, so that you can keep enjoying the sauna even after a move.
- Chinook prefab saunas are handmade to order by our passionate and creative carpenters. If you prefer our standard sizes on our website, they can be ordered in those configurations, but we are also happy to configure a custom designed kit for your space. We can add windows, move doors, adjust bench sizes and placement, change or remove heaters, and even add built-in change rooms for all our prefab saunas. These custom options would require you to get in touch with us to outline exactly what you want rather than ordering a standard size from our store.
- Universal roof system. Our outdoor kit comes in a variety of sizes and colours, and allows lots of options for roof style to fit your space. All of our saunas are available with all our styles of roof, and our roof kits can even be added to existing Chinook Prefab saunas with minimal modification if you decide to move your sauna outdoors later.
- Chinook Prefab units aren’t the least expensive options for saunas, but they may well be the longest lasting. All our roofing is steel with a 40 year manufacturer’s warranty, our walls are thicker and designed to allow for movement, and we use heater that are simple, but reliable. We use all western red cedar for our standard prefabs (other woods are available upon request), a wood known for its insect and mold resistance. Our goal is to sell a sauna that will last a lifetime, not something you have to buy twice.