On 19 Nov 2005 23:07:30 -0800, "tor" wrote:

I am about to rent two ajacent apartments in the building and remove a
wall. This leaves me with a extra kitchen that I desire to make into a
dedicated occasional sauna. (perhaps fired up 2-3 times a month)
(dedicated meaning not used for anything else)

1) What would standard building codes say to this?

Not getting a permit can cost a lot more than the project if the local
governing body finds out you don't have one.

2) If I ignored the building inspector (which I plan on), what damage
could happen? (perhaps I could keep it less humid?)

Have a look at this site, it explains a lot about saunas and
steambaths. http://www.saunafin.com/. According to that site the
humididty shouldn't be a problem if what your are building is an
actual sauna. I'm not selling these but we've installed a couple of
their kits and they are nice.

3) Can I heat it with a 1500 watt space heater, or two of them on
separate circuits? (That seems a bit weak to me.)

It'll depend on size of the sauna and how long you want it to take to
heat up to around 180 degrees f. The smallest heater listed on the
above site 4.6KW. The largest sauna recommended for a 5KW heater is
only 5'x5'. If you are putting the sauna in what was once a kitchen,
you may have a 220 range plug somewhere that could be used for a
larger heater.

Mike O.