"Turkish Hammam Planning Guide: Rooms, Stone, Heat, Programme"

Sauna Dekor Spa Solutions engineering team, Istanbul · project and press enquiries: Alican Aykaç, Managing Partner

Updated: 7 November 2026

Up to 3 rooms in sequence: a changing room, a warm room and the hot room. Hotels usually build all 3; villas often combine the first 2 and keep 1 hot room. The hot room holds the heated platform and the basins. Plan the route so bathers leave the hot room towards a shower and rest, not back through the changing room.

Sized to the people who use it at once, usually 2 to 6 in a villa. The platform, basins and benches set the area; a dome or vault needs more height than a flat ceiling, typically about 2.8–3 m inside for a dome (typical practice value). A modern hammam with a sloped ceiling works with less height and fits many villa basements.

The heated platform, the göbek taşı, sits at the centre with 1 or 2 bathers' lying length; basins sit along the walls. In our projects the basin top is typically 85–90 cm high, the bowl 45–60 cm across, with at least 1.20 m between 2 basins and 2 basins for a 6-person hammam. Sizes and plumbing are set out in our guide to the Turkish bath basin.

The platform has its own heating and thermostat.

Its surface is held at 40–45 °C.

6 layers from the slab up: structure, screed with falls, membrane, heating layer, bedding and stone. The membrane covers floor, walls, benches and ceiling without a break and is flood-tested before stone is laid. The step-by-step sequence is in our guide on how to build a hammam.

The ceiling slopes or vaults so condensate runs down the walls; a flat ceiling drips. Heating comes from 3 sources working together: the platform heating, hot water at the basins and, in many projects, a steam generator for humidity. Each has its own control. The rooms and their history are explained in what is a Turkish bath.

The hot room air is held at 40–50 °C by a wall sensor away from any steam outlet.

3–8 weeks in a home and up to 12 weeks on large projects. Most of the time goes into curing: screed, membrane test, bedding and grout each need their days. Order the stone early; a marble block carved for a basin or platform has a lead time of its own. For villas in the Gulf, our page on the villa hammam shows typical programmes.

1. Drawings: rooms, sizes, platform, basins, services.
2. Services and screed with falls; drain fixed.
3. Membrane on all surfaces; flood test recorded.
4. Heating layer laid and tested.
5. Stone: platform, benches, walls, basins; grout.
6. Steam generator, controls and first heat-up.

The hammams we build, from classic domed rooms to modern ones, are on our Turkish bath page.

Sauna Dekor Spa Solutions is a sauna, steam room, hammam and pool manufacturer since 1987: 40 years of manufacturing in Istanbul (İkitelli OSB), a team of 19, TS EN ISO 9001:2015, and 5,000+ projects in 41+ countries, including 577+ hotel and resort projects, with 732 documented references in 32 countries and territories. Our warranty is 24 months on workmanship and manufacturing, 24 months manufacturer's warranty on electrical and mechanical equipment, and 5 years on structure and waterproofing. Our full range is on our products page.