Hi all.

I live on a really old farm in Switzerland (The house is over 200 years
old). My girlfriend and I want to build a sauna/banya/sweat lodge type
hting on the land. We thought this looked great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtqf_VJcHE

- Does anyone have a guess what they used for the exterior of the
structure? It rains a lot in switzerland, so it should really be water
resistant.

- what about the floor? I'm guessing the thing they built has a dirt
floor. I'd kinda like to be able to splash water around without worrying
about mud. I guess wood on the ground would rot...

Do any of you have any links/ebooks/suggestions/ideas regarding building
your own outdoor sauna?

On Mar 11, 5:39 am, gas wrote:
Hi all.

I live on a really old farm in Switzerland (The house is over 200 years
old). My girlfriend and I want to build a sauna/banya/sweat lodge type
hting on the land. We thought this looked great:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAtqf_VJcHE

- Does anyone have a guess what they used for the exterior of the
structure? It rains a lot in switzerland, so it should really be water
resistant.

It's ferrocement - wire mesh covered with a cement mortar, then
finished with what appears to be stucco.

- what about the floor? I'm guessing the thing they built has a dirt
floor. I'd kinda like to be able to splash water around without worrying
about mud. I guess wood on the ground would rot...

This video shows a pretty simple way to do it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fT2_g7rTyPQ

Do any of you have any links/ebooks/suggestions/ideas regarding building
your own outdoor sauna?

There are a number of videos on YouTube, and do a Google. You'll find
lots of information.

R

Looks like they mixed cement and pigment into making the floor.

There are structures made by stacking rounds of wood and mortaring
them together that may work for you, also look into cob construction.
There is no good reason to build anything with wood in direct contact
with the ground.

On Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:44:49 -0700, RicodJour wrote:

There are a number of videos on YouTube, and do a Google. You'll find
lots of information.

R

Thanks for the useful information. I did start with a google search
(that's how I came up with the link I posted), but came up with too many
unrelated, unspecific, or commercial results. But now I have some other
terms I can put in my search.

The ferrocement seems like a good idea, but I have to talk to the family
about whether or not they mind doing something so permanent.

G.