Glass-fronted home sauna lit in violet LED with tiered benches and a wood-clad heater guard

[ Project ]

St George's Hill Villa, Surrey (London) — Private Sauna

London · United Kingdom

Get a quote for a similar project See All Projects

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

A private sauna built into a villa at St George's Hill, Surrey, near London — heater choice, ventilation without an external wall, and cabin build-up.

Sauna

[ 4 photos ]

From the project

Compact glass-front sauna cabin glowing pink beside a tiled floor in a private villa — Sauna

Sauna interior with a starlit ceiling, backlit backrest and stone-filled heater behind a timber guard — Sauna

Close-up of lava stones filling the electric sauna heater inside a private villa cabin — Sauna

[ The build ]

Overview

Sauna Dekor is a sauna, hammam and spa manufacturer and turnkey contractor. We have built thermal areas since 1987, we are in our 40th year, and our joinery, marble and cabin work is produced in our own workshop in İkitelli, Istanbul before it ships. Projects have been delivered in 41+ countries.

This project is a private sauna in a villa at St George’s Hill, the residential estate in Surrey outside London. The owner is not named; the page describes the location at estate level, the property type and the work.

Scope of work

The zone recorded for this project is a sauna — a single dry-heat cabin built into an existing house rather than a full thermal suite. Cabins of this kind are the most common private commission we take in the UK, and they are also the most frequently got wrong,because a sauna looks like joinery and is actually a small piece of building services. Our package covered the cabin, its heater and controls, the internal linings and benching, the glazing, lighting, and the ventilation and electrical interfaces with the house.

Heater class and sizing

For a private cabin we normally specify an electric stone heater rather than an infrared emitter, unless the client specifically wants the lower-temperature infrared experience. A stone heater takes water, which is what most people mean when they say sauna. The general sizing rule is roughly one kilowatt of output per cubic metre of cabin volume, with an addition for every square metre of glazing and for any surface that is masonry rather than insulated timber — a glass-fronted cabin against an external wall can need considerably morethan its volume alone suggests. The other half of the calculation is the house: a heater ofany size needs a dedicated circuit and, above a certain rating, a three-phase supply, and ina UK retrofit that is the constraint that most often sets the cabin size. Oursauna heater types page sets out the classes; infrared saunacovers the alternative.

Ventilation without an external wall

Most retrofit cabins in British houses sit in a basement, a garage conversion or a spare room, with no external wall available. That is workable, but only with a proper air path:supply low, near or under the heater, and extract low on the opposite side, ducted to somewhere that can accept warm moist air rather than vented into the room next door. Without it the cabin stratifies — scalding at head height, cold at the ankles — and the timber never dries between sessions. An adjustable extract is worth having in a private cabin, because a household that uses the sauna with plenty of water needs a different setting from one that runs it dry. More on this atsauna ventilation.

Cabin build-up and materials

The cabin is built as an insulated box inside the room: insulation, a continuous foil vapour barrier with taped laps, a ventilated cavity, then the lining. The vapour barrier decides whether the surrounding structure survives; a cabin lined straight onto masonry pushesmoisture into the fabric of the house every time it runs. Linings and benching are kiln-dried,low-resin timber with concealed fixings, and bench tops lift out for cleaning. Over a timber floor, load and heater clearances are checked before anything is ordered. Seeluxury home sauna andsauna.

What we solved on site

The controlling dimension was head height. In a converted room the cabin ceiling sits below the existing one and the insulated floor build-up raises the deck, so the useful internal height is what is left after both. Because the heat a bather feels is in the top third of thecabin, that height had to be protected first — bench levels, heater position and the glazed front were worked back from it. The cabin was dry-assembled in our Istanbul workshop, numbered and shipped, so installation took days rather than weeks. Seeprivate spa.

Frequently asked questions

Can a sauna be installed in a house with no external wall?

Yes. It needs a ducted air path — supply low near the heater, extract low on the opposite side, taken somewhere that can accept warm moist air. Without that path the cabin stratifies and the timber never dries between sessions.

What electrical supply does a home sauna need?

A dedicated circuit sized for the heater, and above a certain rating a three-phase supply. In UK retrofits the available supply is often what sets the maximum practical cabin size, so it should be checked before the cabin is designed.

Why does a sauna need a vapour barrier?

Because the cabin is a moisture source inside the house. A continuous foil barrier with taped laps behind the lining keeps that moisture out of the surrounding structure; a cabin lined straight onto masonry pushes water into the building fabric.

How long does installation take in an occupied house?

Days rather than weeks, because the cabin is made and dry-assembled in our Istanbul workshop, then dismantled, numbered and shipped. On-site work is assembly, connection and commissioning rather than fabrication.

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.

See how we design and build a Finnish sauna.