Overview
This is a Sauna Dekor project. We are a manufacturer first and a turnkey wet-area contractor second: cabins, benching, marble and mosaic are made in our own Istanbul workshop, then installed by our own crews. Founded 1987, 40th year, work delivered in more than 35 countries.
This project is a private sauna inside a villa in Ikoyi, Lagos. The owner is not named; thepage records the district, the property type and the work. The zone listed for the project isa sauna.
Scope of work
A single dry-heat cabin built into a private house, taken as a complete package: thecabin structure and insulated build-up, internal linings and benching, the heater and itscontrol, glazing, lighting, and the ventilation and electrical interfaces with the villa.Everything was manufactured and dry-assembled in our Istanbul workshop, then numbered,shipped and installed.
Why a humid climate changes the specification
Lagos is hot and humid year-round, and that affects a sauna in two ways people rarelyanticipate. First, the cabin is not fighting a cold house — the ambient it starts from isalready warm, so heat-up is quick, but the timber is living in high ambient humidity betweensessions and will move if it is the wrong material or was never properly dried. Second, theair brought into the cabin carries far more moisture than the same volume of air in atemperate climate, so a cabin ventilated straight from outdoors never really becomes a drysauna. Where the house is air-conditioned, we take make-up air from the conditioned sideinstead. Timber selection follows the same logic: kiln-dried, low-resin species, properlyacclimatised, with a build-up that lets both faces of the lining breathe.
Heater and heat load
An electric stone heater is the normal specification for a cabin of this kind, because ittakes water and gives the loyly burst that defines the experience. The general sizing rule isabout a kilowatt of output per cubic metre of cabin volume, plus an allowance for glazing andfor any masonry surface inside the envelope. In a warm climate the base load is lower than inEurope, but the glazing allowance is unchanged — glass loses heat regardless of what is onthe other side of it. Equally important is the electrical supply: heaters above a modestrating need three phase, and in a private villa the available supply and the stability of itare worth confirming before the cabin is sized rather than after. SeeFinnish sauna,sauna andsauna heater types.
Cabin build-up, vapour barrier and floor
The cabin is an insulated box built inside the room: insulation, a continuous foil vapourbarrier with taped laps, a ventilated cavity, then the lining. The vapour barrier protects thevilla’s structure — a cabin lined directly onto a masonry wall drives moisture into thebuilding every time it runs. The floor is laid to fall to a point that can be cleaned anddried, benches are built to lift out, and every fixing that could reach the surface isconcealed so no hot metal meets skin. In a tropical house, insect and moisture detailing atthe base of the cabin deserves the same attention as the heat detailing at the top.
What we solved on site
Delivering a cabin to West Africa means the on-site window has to be short and the packagehas to be complete. The whole cabin was assembled dry in Istanbul, checked, dismantled,numbered and crated with its fixings, seals and a spares allowance in the same shipment — sothat nothing on site depended on a component that would take weeks to replace. Ventilationwas the other decision: rather than pull humid outdoor air into the cabin, supply was takenfrom the conditioned interior, which keeps the timber stable and the sauna genuinely dry.Our Africa page covers how we work in the region,and sauna ventilation explains the airpath in more detail.
