How a Commercial Sauna Installation Works
By Jonathan Chadwick - Founder of Arctic Wellness
TL;DR (Summary)
- A custom sauna takes around 10 weeks from first call to handover. A prebuilt takes 5 to 6 weeks. Most of that time is spent off-site.
- A prebuilt needs 2 to 3 days on site. Otherwise, time on your site is usually 4 to 5 days for a straightforward build, and 7 to 15 days for a large or complex one when it comes to a custom sauna built from the ground up.
- Outdoor builds only need the work area blocked off. Indoor builds need one area sectioned off.
- We organise everything & we mean everything: the crane, the electrician, ventilation and coordination with your team. You don't manage a single trade.
- If you have contractors or architects already on a new build or renovation, we plan and coordinate with them.
- Before we leave, we show your staff how to run the sauna and heater.
What happens before anything gets built?
On a commercial build you deal with me directly. I visit every site myself to look at the space, the electrics and the ventilation before anything is designed.
The first questions are about how your business runs. When are you busiest? When is it quiet? Where do guests or members walk? Is there an off-season? The answers decide when and how we build.
From there we do the design and drawings, order materials and plan the install. This stage takes a few weeks, and none of it happens at your site. On a standalone build, we act as main contractor ourselves, with our own team of sauna builders and carpenters, and I'm on site for every job.
Adding a sauna during a new build or renovation
If you're building new premises, or your business is going through a wider renovation, I'd always say that's the best time to add a sauna. We draw up the sauna plans and work directly with your architect and main contractor, so the sauna is planned into the project from day one.
Power, ventilation and the room itself can all be planned around it while the work is already happening. That saves time and rework later.
Custom or prebuilt for a commercial space?
Prebuilt saunas are for outdoor spaces. Indoors, we build a custom sauna from the ground up, and we build custom saunas outdoors too.
A prebuilt sauna is built at our Dublin facility and arrives finished. We crane-lift it off the truck into position, connect it and hand it over. It's the quickest way to add a sauna outdoors with the least disruption. A prebuilt install usually takes 2 to 3 days on site, or a little longer if we need to prepare a base first.
A custom sauna is designed around your space and built in place, so there's far more room to customise it. It takes longer on site, and it can go almost anywhere.
Either way, every sauna can be wood-fired or electric.
How do you install a sauna without disrupting your business?
If you're building new premises, or your business is going through a wider renovation, I'd always say that's the best time to add a sauna. We draw up the sauna plans and work directly with your architect and main contractor, so the sauna is planned into the project from day one.
Power, ventilation and the room itself can all be planned around it while the work is already happening. That saves time and rework later.
Any work on site is planned around your trading, and we organise all of it.
Outdoor builds cause very little disruption. We block off the area we're working in, and the rest of your grounds stay open as normal.
Indoors, we section off the part of the building we're working in and keep it closed until we're finished.
On crane lift day, we book the crane and handle the lift. The only thing we ask of you is to block off the area if it's somewhere with a lot of foot traffic, for health and safety.
The off-season is always the easiest time to build, but you don't have to wait for it. Where there's no way to avoid some disruption, I speed the job up. I bring in extra people and work through it in the shortest time we can, because the goal is keeping your business running.
Throughout the job you deal with one team. We coordinate with your staff and any contractors on site, so nobody on your side ends up managing trades.