Sauna Kits

Most home saunas sold today are kits: a cabin that arrives as finished panels and goes together on site. Here is what that actually means, what separates a good kit from a cheap one, and where our own saunas sit.

The term explained

What is a sauna kit?

Sauna kit covers two very different things, and the difference matters before you spend anything.

The first is a build-it-yourself kit: cut timber, insulation, a heater and a door, supplied for you or a joiner to construct a room from scratch. Cheap to buy, slow to build, and the finish is only as good as the person building it.

The second, and what most people now mean, is a modular cabin: a sauna manufactured in a factory, delivered as finished wall, bench and roof sections, and assembled on site in hours rather than days. Every Hekla sauna is this second kind. Nothing is cut or finished at your house.

Two ways ours arrive

Quick-build or built for you?

Indoor

A few hours

Quick-build cabins

Our indoor Traditional models are quick-build: the panels arrive finished and most assemble in a few hours. Our infrared cabins go further and are plug-and-play, running from an ordinary socket with no electrician needed.

Outdoor

Built on site

We do it for you

Garden saunas are not a self-assembly job. Our own trained team builds every outdoor sauna on site, including the roof, waterproof membrane and shingles. You prepare the base, we do the rest.

What to check in any sauna kit

The timber

Look for thermally modified, resin-free wood. Untreated softwood moves with every heat cycle and resinous timber weeps and smells when hot.

The heater

A named heater brand you can get parts and support for, sized to the cabin. A kit priced without a heater is not the bargain it looks.

The certification

ETL listing or CE marking, tested by an accredited independent laboratory. This is a hot electrical appliance in your home.

Who assembles it

Check whether assembly is included, and what is not. Electrical connection almost never is, and always needs a qualified electrician.

Our cabins are lined in thermally modified aspen, heated by Harvia, and are ETL listed and CE marked.

Sauna kit FAQs

Our indoor Traditional models are quick-build and most assemble in a few hours, and our infrared cabins are plug-and-play. Outdoor saunas are different: they are built on site by our own trained team, because the roof, waterproof membrane and shingles are not a self-assembly job. In every case the electrical connection must be completed by a qualified electrician.

The cabin arrives as finished panels with benches, backrests and the door. Your heater and control panel are chosen separately in the Recommended configuration on each model page, so you get the output and controls that suit the cabin rather than a one-size heater. Our buying guide walks through those options.

For a traditional sauna, yes. A 6 to 9 kW heater has to be wired in and certified by a qualified electrician. Our infrared cabins run at around 2.4 kW from an ordinary domestic socket, so there is no electrical work to arrange at all.

A low headline price usually means untreated softwood, no heater included, or no certification. The timber is the part you cannot upgrade later: wood that absorbs moisture will warp, split and open gaps at the joints after a few seasons of heating and cooling. Spend on the cabin and the heater, and be sceptical of anything that omits either.

A modular indoor cabin like ours goes together in a few hours. A traditional build-it-yourself kit, where a room is constructed from cut timber, is a job of days for a competent joiner. Our outdoor saunas are built in a single visit by our team once your base is ready.

A flat, level, solid and permanent base, prepared before build day. A concrete slab is ideal, and reinforced paving over a solid sub-base also works. Grass, gravel and soft ground are not suitable. You also need one metre of clear space on all sides for assembly.

See one built

A finished cabin tells you more than a parts list. Step inside one at a showroom and you will know immediately what level of build you are buying.

Find your nearest showroom

Quick-build Hekla saunas

Hekla Traditional 160 sauna, Scandi finish
Traditional 160 Sauna 2-3 Person W161 × D120 × H200 cm
Finish: Scandi
Hekla Infrared 130 sauna with warm amber lighting
Infrared 130 Sauna 2 Person W130 × D115 × H200 cm
Finish: Black
Hekla Traditional 210 sauna, Scandi finish
Traditional 210 Sauna 3-4 Person W211 × D160 × H200 cm
Finish: Scandi
Hekla Infrared 100 sauna with warm amber lighting
Infrared 100 Sauna 1 Person W100 × D125 × H200 cm
Finish: Black