Sauna with corner windows onto woodland, a stone-filled heater and pale timber benches

[ Project ]

Lavanda Hotel

Istanbul · Türkiye

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Sauna Dekor Spa Solutions — designing, manufacturing and installing saunas, steam rooms, hammams and pools since 1987, in our own facility in İkitelli OSB, Istanbul.

Sauna built for the Lavanda Hotel at Sile, Istanbul — heater sizing, coastal material selection, ventilation and cabin build-up explained.

Sauna

[ 2 photos ]

From the project

Close view of a sauna slatted backrest and bench beside a window onto pine trees — Sauna

[ The build ]

A Finnish sauna cabin for the Lavanda Hotel on the Black Sea coast

Sauna Dekor has been building saunas, hammams, steam rooms and wet spa areas since 1987 — this is our 40th year. We manufacture in İkitelli, Istanbul and take single-point responsibility for design, production, installation and commissioning. 41+ countries to date.

This page records the sauna built for the Lavanda Hotel at Sile, on the Black Sea coastoutside Istanbul. The zone listed for the project is a sauna.

Scope of work: the Finnish sauna cabin, heater, control and building interfaces

A single dry-heat cabin for a coastal hotel: the insulated cabin build-up, internal liningsand benching, the heater and its control, glazing, lighting, and the ventilation and electricalinterfaces with the building. Manufactured and dry-assembled in our Istanbul workshop, then numbered, delivered and installed.

Sizing a Finnish sauna cabin for hotel use

Even a single cabin in a small hotel has to be specified for commercial duty. It will be on from opening to closing, used by guests who do not know how it works, and cleaned by staff who need to reach every surface. That drives three decisions. The heater is a commercial unit with serviceable elements, sized by the general rule of roughly a kilowatt of output per cubic metreof cabin volume with additions for glazing and for any masonry surface inside the envelope. The control sits outside the cabin, on a timer with a maximum setpoint, so it cannot be left running at full output. And the benching is built in liftable sections, so a damaged bench top is a replacement rather than a rebuild. SeeFinnish sauna andsauna heater types.

Coastal air and Finnish sauna timber choice

A Black Sea coastal site is humid for most of the year and salt-laden air reaches anything ventilated from outside. Two consequences follow. First, timber has to be genuinely kiln-dried and low in resin, and the cabin build-up has to let the back of the lining breathe, or the boards will move with the seasons regardless of how well they were made. Second, exposedmetalwork — fixings, grilles, heater guards, door furniture — is selected for the environment rather than by catalogue default, because on the coast the cheap item is the one that has to be replaced. Where the building is conditioned, make-up air is better taken from inside than froma humid outdoor wall.

Finnish sauna cabin build-up and ventilation

The cabin is an insulated box built inside the room: insulation, a continuous foil vapourbarrier with taped laps, a ventilated cavity, then the internal lining. The vapour barrier is what protects the hotel’s structure — a cabin lined straight onto masonry pushes moisture into the building every time it runs. Air comes in low, near or under the heater, and leaves low onthe opposite side, so it crosses the benches instead of short-circuiting to the ceiling; the extract is ducted into the building’s system rather than dumped into the corridor. More atsauna ventilation.

What we solved on site

The practical problem in a small coastal hotel is that there is no plant room to spare andno obvious duct route. Rather than force an external air path through a wall that faces saltspray, we took supply from the conditioned interior and ran the extract back into the building,which keeps the timber stable and the cabin genuinely dry between sessions. The cabin itself was made and dry-assembled in our Istanbul workshop,then numbered and delivered, so installation took days rather than weeks. See alsohotel and gym sauna andservices.

Frequently asked questions

Does a small hotel sauna still need commercial equipment?

Yes. It runs from opening to closing, is used by guests who do not know how it works and is cleaned daily, so the heater is a serviceable commercial unit, the control is external and setpoint-limited, and benches are built to be replaced in sections.

How does a coastal site change material selection?

Timber has to be properly kiln-dried and low in resin with a ventilated build-up behind the lining, and every piece of exposed metalwork is chosen for salt-laden air rather than by catalogue default.

Should coastal make-up air come from outside?

Usually not. Humid, salt-laden outdoor air keeps the cabin from becoming genuinely dry and shortens the life of the ironmongery; where the building is conditioned, supply is better drawn from inside.

What does the vapour barrier do?

It keeps the moisture a sauna generates out of the surrounding building. The cabin is an insulated box with a continuous foil barrier and taped laps behind a ventilated cavity, rather than a lining fixed straight to masonry.

Sauna Dekor’s own certification is TS EN ISO 9001:2015 quality management, covering sauna and spa product manufacturing and after-sales service. The equipment we install carries CE / EN 60335, TÜV, GS, GREENGUARD Gold, FSC and VDI 6022 certification from its own manufacturers — EOS, Sentiotec and Condair among them.