FAQs – Aalto Saunas

Ordering and Lead Times

It starts with a conversation. Get in touch through the enquiry form or give us a ring and we will talk through what you are after, where it is going and what your site can take. From there we send a written quote, and a 50% deposit secures your build slot in the workshop. Once the deposit is in we issue drawings, including your base drawing, and confirm the specification and heater choice before anything gets cut.

50% deposit to book your slot in the build calendar, and the remaining 50% before delivery. The dates are set out clearly in writing at quote stage so there are no surprises.

Faster than most people expect. For a standard model we can usually go from deposit to delivery in as little as two weeks, depending on where the build calendar is and what specification you have chosen. Bespoke work takes longer because of the design stage. Lead times move with the season, so the figure we give you at quote is the one we hold ourselves to.

Yes, and we would rather you did. You are welcome to come and see a build in progress at the workshop. If you would just like to try one first, book a session at any of The Hot Box locations. We run eight sites across Ireland and the same thinking that goes into those rooms goes into every Aalto build. No other sauna maker in the country can let you sit in their work before you order.

Cost and Value

Our saunas start at around €10,000. Bespoke builds are quoted individually, because the price follows the design. That figure covers the sauna itself, built and installed. It does not cover groundworks, the electrical supply to the sauna, or delivery, which we quote per job once we know the site and the access. You get a full written quote with everything itemised, and nothing appears on it later that was not on it at the start.

Because it is a building, not a kit. A barrel sauna is a single layer of timber. Quick to make, quick to heat, quick to lose that heat, and it tends to look tired within a few winters. Ours are built like a small house: external cladding, a waterproof wrap, a stud frame with 100mm of insulation, a vapour barrier and internal cladding. You feel it in the heat quality, in how long the room holds temperature, and you see it in how the
thing looks ten years in.

Included: design consultation, all timber and joinery, insulation, the heater and stones, benching, lighting, installation and commissioning by our own crew.

Not included: groundworks or the base, the electrical supply to the sauna, delivery (quoted per job), planning applications where they are needed, and craneage on difficult sites. Everything outside the price is flagged on your quote before you commit.

Not at present. The staged payment schedule means the full amount is not due upfront, but we do not offer finance.

Design and Customisation

Within reason, yes. Length, bench arrangement, window position, glazing and cladding are all things we regularly adjust. The limits come from structure and transport. There is a point where a change stops being a tweak and becomes a bespoke design, and we will tell you honestly which side of that line you are on.

That is a lot of what we do. Bespoke work starts with a proper design conversation about how you will use it, who is in it, and what the site and the view will take. There is a design fee for bespoke work, quoted upfront before anything starts, and drawings follow once your deposit is in. It takes longer and costs more than a standard model, and it is worth it when the site or the brief is unusual.

Yes to all three, and they are worth thinking about early. A changing space in particular changes how much you use the sauna in an Irish winter. We supply small plug and play plunge units off the shelf, and we can build larger custom plunges to suit the site. A plumbed shower or a bigger plunge needs water and drainage designed in at groundworks stage, so raise it at quote rather than after the base has gone down.

Site, Access and Groundworks

A level slab. That is the only base we build onto, and it needs to be flat, square and sized to the model. We provide a base drawing with dimensions once your deposit is in, and your builder or groundworker sets it out from that. Getting the slab right is the single most important thing that happens before we arrive, and it is worth spending the extra hour on it.

No. The base is down to you and your groundworker or builder, working to our drawing. We will talk them through it and we will check photos before delivery day so there are no surprises when the truck arrives.

A clear route for a hiab, which can reach up to 12 metres from where it parks to where the sauna sits. Firm ground, no soft verges, and nothing overhead in the way. Send us photos or a short video of the approach early. A two minute walk through on your phone tells us more than any description, and it means we find the problem at quote stage rather than on the day.

Usually, yes. Where a hiab cannot reach, we build the sauna to be assembled in sections on site and carried in by hand. It adds time and cost, which we quote per job once we have seen the access. We have put saunas into back gardens, laneways and hillsides that looked impossible on paper, so send the photos and we will tell you straight whether it is doable.

For an electric heater, yes. You need a dedicated circuit run to the sauna position and terminated there before we deliver, sized to your heater. The sauna arrives with a plug ready for your own electrician to
connect into. If you would rather not organise that yourself, we can provide an electrician at your cost. For a wood fired build you only need power if you want lighting.

Typical requirements for the heaters we fit:

Heater output	Room volume	Fuse (400V 3-phase)	Connection cable
6.8 kW	6 to 10 m³	3 × 10 A	5 × 1.5 mm²
9.0 kW	8 to 14 m³	3 × 16 A	5 × 2.5 mm²

As a rule of thumb, a sauna needs roughly 1 kW of heater output per cubic metre of room. Your electrician should work to the figures in your heater’s own manual, which we supply with the quote.

Delivery and Installation

Fully built, in one piece wherever access allows. It travels on a truck and is lifted onto your prepared slab by hiab. On the day it is usually a few hours from arrival to a sauna sitting level on its base, because most of the work has already happened in the workshop.

Yes. Our own crew delivers and sets it up: levelling, sealing, connecting the flue on wood fired models and commissioning the heater. Your electrician makes the final electrical connection into the plug. We will not leave until you have had a full run through of how everything works.

Delivery is quoted per job. It depends on where you are, what the access is like and whether anything unusual is needed to get the sauna onto the base, so we price it properly rather than guessing at an average. The figure is on your quote before you commit to anything.

We deliver across Ireland as standard. Anywhere else is on request. Overseas deliveries need more planning around transport and site access, so get in touch early with the location and we will price it properly.

In most cases, no. Under Irish exempted development rules a garden structure can usually go up without permission provided it sits to the rear of the house, the total floor area of garden structures stays within 30 sq m (raised from 25 sq m in July 2026), it is under 4 metres high with a pitched or slated roof or 3 metres with any other roof, enough private open space is left for the house, and it is not lived in. Protected structures, architectural conservation areas and some estates have their own rules. We can tell you what we have seen, but the only answer that counts comes from your local authority planning office, so give them a call before you commit.

Heating: Wood-Fired vs Electric

It comes down to how you want to use it. Wood fired gives you the softer, rounder heat, the smell and the ritual, but it wants twenty minutes of your attention before you get in and a supply of dry logs. Electric you switch on and step into. If you are using it on a Sunday afternoon, go wood. If it is a Tuesday at seven after work, go electric. Plenty of our customers choose electric and never regret the convenience.

It depends on the size of the room and the heat source. A small electric room comes up quickly, a large wood fired one takes longer, and the outside temperature makes a difference to both. We will give you a realistic figure for the build you are actually buying rather than a headline number that only holds in July.

For an electric sauna, take the heater output in kW and multiply by your unit rate. A 9 kW heater at a typical Irish rate of around 36c a unit works out at roughly €3.20 an hour at full draw, and less than that in practice because the heater cycles off once the room is up to temperature. A wood fired session costs whatever an armful of kiln dried hardwood costs you. Electricity rates move, so treat that figure as indicative rather than a promise.

Harvia as standard. They are Finnish, they are built to last, parts are easy to get in Ireland and the warranty support is good. If you want to go further, we fit Iki heaters as an upgrade, and if you have a preference of your own or want to go up in output, we can usually specify it.

Wood fired saunas need an insulated twin wall flue, which we supply and fit, with the correct clearances to combustibles and a rain cap. Where the sauna sits close to a boundary or a building we look at flue height and position at design stage. Every wood fired build gets a guard around the stove as standard.

Passively, and properly, which matters more than most people realise. There is a low inlet near the heater and a high outlet on the opposite side, so air moves across the room rather than sitting still. Good ventilation is the difference between heat that feels clean and heat that feels heavy, and it is also what keeps the timber dry between sessions. No fans, nothing to fail.

Build, Materials and Sustainability

From the outside in: external cladding, a waterproof wrap, a stud frame with 100mm of insulation, a vapour barrier, and internal cladding. It is a proper insulated envelope, which is why it heats quickly, holds temperature once it is there, and does not rot from the inside out. That build up is the whole difference between a sauna you use for twenty years and a kit you replace in five.

Nothing goes on the inside. No preservatives, no varnish, nothing that could off gas at 90 degrees. The internal cladding is left bare so it stays cool to the touch and stays that way. Externally we protect the timber without chemical treatment, and you can let it silver naturally or oil it to hold the original colour.

All of our timber is certified. We buy from established suppliers and we keep waste down in the workshop by designing to standard lengths and using offcuts for benching and trim rather than skipping them.

It is designed for it. Wind driven rain, salt air and constant damp are exactly what our detailing is built around, and we have saunas running on exposed coastal sites at Killiney, Carlingford and Rosses Point. Those rooms take more weather in a winter than a garden sauna takes in five years, and they are holding up fine.

Sometimes, and it depends entirely on the load the structure can carry. A sauna is heavy, and heavier again once there are people and water in it. We would need a structural engineer to sign off on the existing structure before we would agree to it.

Longevity, Warranty and Aftercare

Decades, if you look after it. This is a building, and the same things that make a house last make a sauna last: keep water out, let air move, and deal with small things before they become big ones. The heater is the part with the shortest life, and it is also the part that is straightforward to replace.

Five years on the structure, with labour covered for the first two years and parts only after that. Twelve months on cladding, benching and workmanship. Nine months on glass and accessories. The heater carries its manufacturer’s own warranty, which we register for you. Everything runs from the date of delivery and installation. Fair wear on external timber, meaning silvering and small movement cracks, is normal and is not a defect.

You ring us. We are a small team, we know every sauna we have built, and we would rather fix a problem than argue about it. Most issues we can diagnose over the phone or from a photo. When we cannot, we come out.

We do not run a formal service contract. In practice the maintenance is light and most of it you can do yourself, and we are at the end of the phone if something needs looking at.

Yes, and people do. Most models can be lifted and moved the same way they were delivered, though you will need hiab access at both ends and a new slab at the far end. We can quote for the move.

Care and Maintenance

There is very little to it. Sit on a towel, air it out after use, and wipe the benches down with warm water and a little mild soap every so often. Never seal or varnish the internal timber. If the benches darken over the years, a light sand takes them back to new.

Only if you want to. If you like the original colour, oil it every couple of years. If you are happy for it to silver naturally, you can leave it alone entirely. Silvering is a change in appearance, not a loss of protection.

Restack and replace the stones every twelve to twenty four months, depending on how hard you use it. Stones break down with heat cycling and stop holding heat properly, and new ones are cheap. Wood fired stoves need the ash cleared regularly and the flue swept once a year.

The structure is fine in frost. If you have a plumbed shower or a plunge, that is the part to protect. Drain it down over a cold snap and you will have no trouble.

Using Your Sauna

Ours run comfortably to 90 to 100 degrees. Most people find their rhythm at 10 to 15 minutes in, then a cool down, repeated two or three times. There is no prize for staying longer. Get out when you want to get out, and drink water.

Sauna use is generally safe for healthy adults. If you are pregnant, have a heart condition, have low or high blood pressure, or you are on medication, have a word with your GP first. Do not use it after drinking, and do not leave children in unsupervised.

Commercial and Hospitality

We do. Hotels, retreats, gyms, wellness clubs and outdoor operators. Commercial builds run to a higher spec on ventilation, durability and finish, because a room used forty times a week is a different proposition to one used twice. We will talk through throughput, timetabling and maintenance as part of the design, because those decisions change the build.

More than anyone else building saunas in Ireland. Aalto grew out of The Hot Box, which has been running public saunas since 2021 and now operates eight locations with well over a million sessions behind it. Everything we have learned about what breaks, what people actually want and what makes a room work under real use goes straight into what we build. Most sauna builders have never had to run one on a wet Tuesday in February. We do it every week.

Get in touch and we will tell you what we can help with. We have made most of the mistakes already, from booking systems and staffing to session structure and maintenance schedules, and we are happy to save you making them yourself.

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