Sauna in the apartment: how to equip and coordinate

Recommendation points

• Sauna types
• Shower cabin-sauna
• Sauna barrel
• Separate sauna room
• Types of rooms suitable for sauna equipment
• Legal issues solved when equipping a sauna in an apartment

In order to relax in the bathhouse after a working day, it is not at all necessary to leave your home. A bath, or rather a sauna, can be easily equipped in your own apartment. How to do this and what will be needed for this is described in this article..

The bathhouse is not only a place for relaxation, but also a means for recovery. Conditionally, you can divide the baths into Russian and Finnish. A Russian bath is a room with a temperature of 70–90 ° C and a humidity of 90%; a Finnish bath, or sauna, implies a temperature of 90–120 ° C and a humidity of about 20%. In apartment buildings with not the most powerful ventilation system, high humidity in the room can become an insurmountable obstacle to equipping a Russian bath. But a sauna with low humidity is a quite possible option for city apartments..

Sauna types

It is quite understandable that the article will focus not on large bath complexes, but on small saunas designed for one or two, maximum four people. There are the following options for saunas that can be equipped in residential apartment buildings.

Shower cabin-sauna

In hardware stores, there are ready-made shower cabins in which you can not only take a shower, but also take a steam bath. Such cabins are designed, as a rule, for one or two seated people. The vaping process itself can be organized in three ways: traditional heating – it is then that the temperature reaches 120 ° C, infrared heating – the corresponding elements do not heat the air, its temperature in such saunas rarely exceeds 60 ° C, but directly the person inside and the steam generator – according to in fact, it turns out the simplest version of a steam bath – a hamam. To install such a cabin, you just need to connect it to communications and that’s it. The price for shower cabins-saunas ranges from 50,000 rubles. for a single room with a steam generator up to 200,000 rubles. for a two- or three-seater version with a combined vaping method.

Pros: practically do not require any alteration of premises and are ready for use immediately after purchase.

Cons: rather high price and small internal volume, limiting the number of soaring.

Sauna barrel

A separate type of saunas. It is a closed container of small volume, designed for one person. Installed in any convenient place and plugs into an outlet. The person is placed inside, is, as a rule, in a sitting position, the head remains outside. Such a sauna looks like a barrel, which is why it is called that. Sauna barrel price – from 20,000 rubles.

Pros: absolutely not demanding on the characteristics of the premises in which it is installed, and therefore, you can equip such a sauna wherever you want, right down to living rooms, a low price.

Cons: only fits one person.

Separate sauna room

Option of equipping a steam room in an existing or specially separated room. The classic, well-known option. The capacity and type of sauna in this case will depend only on the capabilities of the room and what is laid down when it is equipped. It makes no sense to describe work on the arrangement of a sauna of this type, since their content depends, first of all, on what you want to achieve in the end. In any case, these will be works on providing waterproofing, thermal insulation, finishing and equipping the stove-heater. It is impossible to estimate the cost of all work on the organization of such a sauna, since it is unique in each case. You can roughly calculate the cost of the main work on equipping a steam room:

• reflective layer – aluminum foil or foil insulation – 40 rubles / m²;
• insulation – a layer of 100 mm mineral wool – 150 rubles / m²;
• linden clapboard decoration – 600 rubles / m²;
• stove-heater – 15,000 rubles.

Thus, a steam room for three people, with an area of ​​3 m², with a ceiling height of 2.5 m will cost approximately 30,000 rubles.

Pros: the most flexible option, since it allows you to equip a sauna for as many people as you need.

Cons: requires room refurbishment.

So, to equip a sauna in a city apartment, you can use any of the listed options. However, before buying / arranging a sauna, you still need to decide where it will be located..

Types of rooms suitable for sauna equipment

First, let’s define the requirements for the premises in which it is planned to equip a sauna:

1. Ventilation. Despite the relatively low humidity in Finnish saunas, the amount of moisture still significantly exceeds the natural level in the apartment. Water poured onto the stove and natural vapors of the human body when opening the door goes out and condenses on colder surfaces – walls, windows, etc. It is clear that there is nothing good in this. Therefore, for the room in which the steam room is equipped, enhanced ventilation is necessary. When deciding where the sauna will be, in the proposed room, you should check the draft in the ventilation duct. If it is insufficient, then you will have to do forced ventilation..
2. Waterproofing. High humidity inside the steam room is not a big problem in the presence of good exhaust ventilation, however, when equipping a sauna, you should still take care of additional waterproofing of the walls, ceiling and floor in the room with the sauna.
3. Fire fighting training. Since a sauna is a room with a high internal temperature, the risk of fire is very high. So that there are no problems with the fire inspection, and in order to protect your house from fire, you should properly prepare the room. The necessary work includes: processing of wooden elements with impregnations that prevent fire, equipping the room with fire detectors and conducting an emergency fire extinguishing system into the steam room – a special tube with holes along the entire length that runs along the perimeter of the steam room and is connected to the water supply.
4. Electric power consumption. It is unlikely that in a city apartment there will be an opportunity to equip a wood-burning stove. Most likely, you will have an electric oven. When calculating the power of the heating elements, the following point should be taken into account – for a sufficiently fast, about 1-2 hours, heating the steam room to the desired temperature, you need about 1 kW of energy per 1 m². Thus, even a small 3 m2 steam room² will require about 3 kW of electricity. To provide such power, you will have to lay a separate branch of electrical wiring with a cross section of at least 2.5 mm² from the meter, and the presence of grounding will be required.

The requirements have been decided. What premises in a residential apartment building, in principle, can satisfy these requirements?

1. Toilet, bathroom.

Pros: conveniently located communications – water and sewerage, existing ventilation, convenient location directly in the sanitary zone of the apartment, low cost of re-equipment.

Cons: initially small volume of the converted premises, redevelopment is required during the arrangement and, as a rule, the transfer of communications.

2. Balcony or loggia.

Pros: there is no need to allocate part of the existing premises, expansion of living space due to unused areas, additional insulation of living rooms due to an insulated balcony / loggia.

Cons: a large amount of work on the refurbishment and insulation of the premises, as well as the connection of communications, respectively, the high price, the small area of ​​the balconies or loggias limits the capacity of the finished sauna.

3. Attic. In apartment buildings with an attic, it is possible to allocate part of it for the personal needs of residents. At the same time, it becomes possible to equip such a part of the sauna.

Pros: living space is not used, it is possible to allocate such an area that is needed for a full-fledged sauna, and not as much as there is.

Cons: you will have to equip not only a steam room, but also a shower, in fact, make a full-fledged bath. To do this, it will be necessary to bring all communications, which is not always possible.

4. Basement. Similar to the attic, in the basement of the building there may be a common room, after the allocation of a part of which for individual needs it will be possible to equip a sauna.

Pros: Everything listed for loft spaces.

Cons: the existing rules do not allow equipping a full-fledged bath in the basements of residential buildings, therefore, you will have to limit yourself only to the steam room.

When highlighting the positive and negative qualities of certain options, the legal component of the issue was not taken into account at all. But in some cases it will be decisive not only when choosing a room or type of sauna, but in general when deciding whether to be a sauna or not. In the next chapter, we will tell you what needs to be done so that the sauna equipment does not create problems with the law..

Legal issues solved when equipping a sauna in an apartment

In most cases, for the equipment of a sauna, you will have to do two types of work that require appropriate approvals: re-equipment and redevelopment.

Re-equipment of premises is the implementation of measures in individual rooms of a building (structure) when its functional purpose changes, without violating the bearing capacity of capital structures and providing for one of the following types of work (or their complex):

No.	Activities (work)	Performed by:
1	Replacement of technological, engineering and plumbing equipment (for a new functional purpose of the premises)		project
2	Installation of toilets, bathrooms, kitchens		project
3	Rearrangement of heating (heating), plumbing and gas appliances (excluding the transfer of radiators to glazed loggias, balconies)		project
4	Installing household electric stoves instead of gas stoves or kitchen fireplaces		project
five	Replacement and (or) installation of additional engineering equipment, which increases energy and water consumption, with the replacement of existing ones or the laying of additional supply networks (excluding the installation of heated floors from common building water supply and heating systems)		project
6	Dismantling of engineering equipment and (or) supply networks, provided that the existing risers of cold, hot water supply and sewerage are preserved	sketch

Redevelopment of the premises – changing its configuration, while maintaining the functional purpose of the object, requiring changes to the technical passport of the premises and providing for one of the following types of construction work (or their complex):

No.	Activities (work)	Performed by:
1	Dismantling (complete, partial) of non-load-bearing partitions (excluding interroom partitions)	sketch
2	Arrangement of openings in non-load-bearing partitions (excluding inter-apartment)	sketch
3	Arrangement of openings in load-bearing walls and inter-apartment partitions (when combining rooms horizontally)		project
4	Arrangement of openings in ceilings (when combining rooms vertically)		project
five	Internal stairs	sketch
6	Sealing doorways in partitions and load-bearing walls	sketch
7	Arrangement of partitions without increasing floor loads		project
8	Installation of partitions (with increasing loads) and load-bearing walls		project
nine	Replacement (installation of additional) engineering equipment (not involving re-equipment throughout the building)	sketch
ten	Modification of floor construction (with increasing loads)		project

In any case, any work involving refurbishment or redevelopment requires prior approval and permission. To obtain permission for redevelopment or re-equipment, the following documents will be required:

• floor plan with explication;
• copy of personal account;
• extract from the house book;
• a copy of the title documents for the apartment, if the apartment is owned, or a copy of the lease agreement;
• project or sketch (see tables) of redevelopment or refurbishment.

Now it becomes clear that the least problems will be created by a barrel sauna or a sauna shower cabin installed in place of an old shower cabin. In this case, no alterations are required. All that needs to be done is to lay the electrical wire supplying the heating element – this, in principle, is a re-equipment, however, as practice shows, the lack of permission for it rarely becomes a problem. In addition, the room is used for the same purpose as before, and without the installation of additional partitions, so there is no need to coordinate the installation of saunas of this type.

Consider other options:

1. Shower cabin-sauna, installed instead of a bath or in a place that was not originally intended for it. In the first case, it is better to obtain permission, since replacing plumbing equipment with a non-identical one is a re-equipment, which means that it requires approval. In the second case, if it is necessary to lay new communications or transfer old ones, permission will also be required. You can cheat, leaving the communications in place, and connect the sauna cabin with flexible connections and drain hoses of the required length. Such works cannot be considered laying communications, and, therefore, do not require approvals..
2. Separate sauna room on the balcony. It is clear that it is possible to install a shower-sauna on the balcony, however, for this, the balcony will first need to be specially converted into a separate room. The question is not very simple from a legal point of view. There is also a refurbishment and redevelopment. In addition, firefighters are very reluctant to give permission even for the glazing of the balcony, not to mention its conversion for other functions. However, as practice shows, nothing is impossible, and saunas appear on the balconies that have a completely legal permission..
3. Separate sauna room in the attic. The first question that needs to be solved is the allocation of a part of the attic for personal needs. There are two options: lease and ownership. Since the attic of the house belongs to the homeowners, their consent must be obtained. In the first case, a positive decision of 2/3 of all owners is required, in the second case – a unanimous one. The decision of the owners is drawn up in a separate document at the general meeting and attached to the ones listed above to obtain consent for the equipment of the sauna.
4. Separate sauna room in the basement. As already mentioned, it is not allowed to equip full saunas in the basement and basement floors of residential buildings. If you have a shed allocated in the basement, then no one will forbid you to equip a steam room in it and bathe in it, if, of course, there is an appropriate electrical supply. However, you can only wash after the steam room at home. If there is no dedicated room, then when registering one, you will have to indicate its purpose. By pointing out a shed or ancillary room, and by making a sauna, you run the risk of running into the discontent of neighbors. By specifying a sauna, you will not receive the appropriate permits. Therefore, the equipment of a sauna in the basement of a residential apartment building is the most difficult option from a legal point of view..

In any case, no matter how difficult the path to obtaining a legal permit for a sauna in a residential apartment building, the result is worth it.