Recommendation points
A private sauna is a real dream, but not everyone dares to arrange it in an apartment, and even fewer people know how to do it right. In the article, we will talk about the requirements that a sauna room should have, as well as the details of its conversion and decoration..
Security and approvals
Before starting construction work, you need to make sure that the building itself meets the necessary conditions, has reserves of strength and reliability, which will allow you to safely implement such an atypical solution for the utility sector. In particular, this applies to:
- water supply and drainage systems;
- ventilation system;
- electrical network;
- fire safety indicators of walls and floors, their localizing ability.
Depending on the form of ownership and the status of the object, the list of approvals can vary greatly. In any case, the following should be notified:
- the owner of the housing stock or cooperative, or the local housing authority;
- regional body of fire supervision;
- representatives of Rospotrebnadzor;
- when planning changes – architectural and construction inspection, ATI.
To heat a sauna in an apartment, you need a lot of electricity. An increase in the installed capacity cannot be avoided, and a justification will still be required to renegotiate the contract with the power supply organization. The last one may be the project of the sauna equipment.
But there is one “but”. Obtaining any act or survey can be associated with a visit of inspectors to the object and endless quibbles about the inadequacy of certain conditions. In order not to get bogged down in working with shell contractors:
- All conditions must be known in advance and 100% met.
- This should be done on their own or by the hands of reliable builders long before the inspectors appear in the apartment..
- The stages of construction should be clearly correlated with the visit of inspectors and acts of hidden work.
The main task is to avoid talking about some kind of additional re-equipment. If all the conditions are met, no one should be interested in who did it and how. The main thing is to comply with the conditions.
Hydro and thermal insulation
Further on the main stages of construction. The completely vacated room is being prepared for further work: the trim is stripped, cracks and seams are sealed, cracks and holes in the walls must be sealed with cement mortar. The room should initially have hot and cold water pipes, sewer drain at the lowest possible point, an electrical panel from a separate input with the required number of security groups should be mounted. The internal communication network of the sauna will be installed later.
Walls, floors and ceilings are first primed and then thickly coated with rubber-based waterproofing coatings. It is allowed to use the compositions only for internal work. The sauna inevitably eats up at least 110 mm from each wall. It is a necessary requirement to achieve such high temperatures with minimal energy consumption – the room must be structurally and ventilated. With the specified minimum indentation, markings are applied on the floor with the obligatory observance of right angles. Using a plumb line, the lines must also be transferred to the ceiling..
Of the total 110 mm of indentation, 60 is taken by a wooden beam. It is nailed to the floor and ceiling with anchor bolts in the manner of guide profiles, placing a sealing tape made of expanded polypropylene under the bars. Vertical beams are installed between the guides, the length of which is 15 mm longer than the required one, while the racks are inserted into a 10-mm notch on the lower guide bar and achieved with a sledgehammer to a strictly vertical position. In the upper part, the rack is fixed with a metal corner. The nuts of the anchor bolts must be retightened. Only after this is the wiring of the electrical, pipeline and other hidden communications carried out.
The space between the beams and the wall (50 mm) is filled with dense (100-120 kg / m3) mineral wool in mats. Cotton of lower density is laid in the areas between the racks – 40-60 kg / m3. After that, the ends of the beams are covered with silicone and all four walls are sealed with polyamide film of grade 6.6. It is also recommended to glue the joints and edges of the film.
Recommendation:before opening the “sleeve” of the film, use it to saturate the wood first with an antiseptic and then with a fire retardant.
Sauna door
The door block is installed in the wall opening (with platbands outward) immediately after the installation of the main frame. The sauna door can only be opened in the direction of the exit. If the door block is installed in advance, during cladding there will be no problems with tight and aesthetic junction of the slopes.
A few words about what the door should be. Hollow LDF canvases are not suitable, only two options are possible. The first is a door made from solid hardwood or exotic species. A factory cut-in of the fittings and the presence of a sealing baffle along the entire perimeter of the junction are required. Such a door is not affordable for everyone, besides, not all design solutions for natural wood are suitable for the interior of an apartment, where other doors look different.
An alternative to wood is a glass door. Made of special tempered glass, it is completely safe, perfectly localizes the room, is not afraid of moisture and high temperatures, moreover, it is inexpensive and well suited for most interior styles.
Interior decoration
On top of the film, horizontal strips of 20×40 mm are stuffed onto the walls with a step of 60–80 cm. The same strips are attached to the ceiling on hangers-knitting needles, leaving a gap of 30–40 mm for laying the heat insulator. The spokes are threaded through the bar and support it through a wide washer. From below, another row is attached to the strips with self-tapping screws, then the strips of the lower row are covered with silicone, the polyamide film is nailed with a stapler, the edges of which are carefully trimmed and glued to the film on the wall.
The sauna is finished with a wooden lining, profiled under the groove-tenon connection. First, the walls, starting from the corner closest to the door, then the ceiling. At the vertical and horizontal corners, the lining is not connected: an indent of 10–20 mm is made, which is then covered with a wooden corner plinth.
Floor solutions
If a floor drain is not needed, it is simply covered with a ladder made of sanded wood planks. Otherwise, it is required to disassemble the sewer riser and cut the crosspiece below the floor level. After that, a strobe is cut in the floor, a 50 mm PVC pipe is placed in it with a slope of 2 cm per meter, drawn to the zero point of the floor. To simplify the task, it is reasonable to make a niche for a siphon.
Please note that you can only cut the groove along the cement screed and concrete cover. In no case should the reinforcement of the interfloor overlap be disturbed, so sometimes you have to raise the floor. To do this, a sill with an internal blind area is laid in the doorway. To raise the floor, it is reasonable to use adjustable lags, with their help it is convenient to set a general slope. Plywood is stuffed on top of the log, waterproofing is applied and tiles are laid.
The method is simple, but partly laborious and costly. On the other hand, insulation can be laid in the space under the floor, which will reduce heat loss..
Is it possible to construct and decorate a sauna in an apartment independently? I’m curious about the process, materials, and potential challenges involved.